Bar exam scores, pass rates trend upward
Bar exam scores keep going up: The national mean average for the July 2025 Multistate Bar Exam jumped by more than half a point compared to a year earlier, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
“These results continue the upward trend we’ve seen on July exams starting in 2022,” said Bob Schwartz, NCBE’s managing director of psychometrics, in an August press release. This July’s score of 142.4 is the highest since 2013, excluding the summer and fall 2020 administrations conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the release states.
Though 6% fewer examinees took the test this year compared to last—46,959 vs. 49,844—about 77% of July 2025 examinees were likely first-time test-takers, according to the release.
“Performance by those first-time test takers this year drove the overall increase in the national mean,” Schwartz said.
At the time of this post, 49 states and the District of Columbia had reported their scores—25 of those states and D.C. saw an increase in bar pass rates over last July, 18 saw drops, and six stayed the same. Hawaii and five U.S. territories had not reported their scores to NCBE at press time.
Utah earned the highest overall bar pass rate with 86%, followed by Minnesota with 84%, and Montana and Mississippi, each with 83%, according to statistics compiled by the Madison, Wisconsin-based NCBE.
New York, the jurisdiction testing the most candidates with 9,931 test-takers, experienced a 70% pass rate, up from 69% in 2024.
California, with the second-largest number of candidates at 7,362, had 55% pass rate, up from 54% last year.
That ranks California’s pass rate as the second-lowest, with only Alabama lower at 54%. Others at the bottom end of the list were Connecticut, which had a 58% pass rate; and Nevada and Vermont, each with 62%.
The July administration marked California’s return to using the NCBE-created exam, administered in person. In February, California conducted a disastrous launch of a hybrid proprietary test that resulted in lawsuits and score remediations.
Six states maintained the same pass rate as last year: Minnesota with 84%, Pennsylvania with 77%, Massachusetts with 76%, Texas with 75%, Indiana with 73% and Maryland with 63%.
New Hampshire’s pass rate experienced the biggest drop—12 percentage points—of all the states, falling from 75% last year to 63% currently. Meanwhile, Idaho had the biggest jump—10 percentage points—from 71% last year to 81% this year.
Each jurisdiction sets its own passing score. To be in compliance with the American Bar Association’s Standard 316, law schools need each graduating class to have a bar passage rate of at least 75% within two years of graduation.
In July 2026, NCBE is scheduled to launch the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination, which emphasizes skills new lawyers need rather than memorization. The UBE and its components—the Multistate Essay Examination, the Multistate Performance Test and the Multistate Bar Examination—are expected to sunset in 2028.
Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
