The February 2025 California Bar Exam Statistics are out! And I completed my Summer 2025 teaching (though I still have to grade).

First off, congratulations to everyone who passed. Including the very large (historically speaking) percentage of foreign-educated takers who passed. I am glad you received good news under what must have been beyond stressful circumstances .

Second, I encourage you to check my earlier posts on the February 2025:

• Foreign Attorneys, LL.M.s, and What We’ll Learn About the February 2025 CA Bar Exam When Stats Come Out, May 16, 2025.
• California’s February 2025 Bar Exam: Will the October 2020 Exam Be a Guide for Foreign Taker Pass Rates Once Statistics Are Released?, June 4, 2025.

February 2025 Statistics

If you visit the State Bar of California website, you’ll see the Statistics. As usual, I am focused on the two categories of “foreign” takers: those who are not required to complete additional US legal education (“foreign attorneys”) and those who are required (“foreign law grads”). The usual caveat that there is a lot of nuance to this that I won’t get into (e.g., a U.S. citizen with a bar license and/or law degree abroad is “foreign” here; someone who already qualifies as a foreign attorney can still take an LL.M. degree in the U.S. to prepare, etc.).

To make it easier:

• foreign attorneys had a 51.5% overall pass rate. And foreign law grads had a 41.2% overall pass rate.
• first-time foreign attorneys had a 48.1% pass rate. And first-time foreign law grads had a 39.5% pass rate.
• repeater foreign attorneys had a 53.7% pass rate. And repeater foreign law grads had a 41.7% pass rate.

So while it was a very good year by recent standards for both groups, it was an especially great year for repeaters. Keep that in mind as you continue to read.

February 2025 in Context and Why I Looked at October 2020.

Once California shared the overall pass rate for all takers, I immediately felt confident we’d be looking in the October 2020 ballpark for foreign takers. And when the stats were released, I quickly plugged them into an Excel sheet I use to track both categories.

I have October 2020 in red (the “COVID” exam) and February 2025 (the “technical difficulties” exam) in blue.

What sticks out to you?

February 2025 pass rates are even higher than October 2020 across all six categories (first-time, repeat, and overall foreign attorneys; first-time, repeat, and overall foreign law grads). About 10% higher overall, with larger gaps for first-time takers than repeaters.

And when you look at both those exams with every other exam from February 2020 through July 2024, it is clear to me that there are two categories: (i) the February 2025/October 2020 exams and (ii) every other exam.

Tough Questions to Ponder

And now, the tough part.

This is by no means an attempt to cheapen or discount either set of passers. I do not think you should have an asterisk next to your name for taking it in a more “advantageous” year for passing. Most important to me? February 2025 was not “your fault.” California is handling the fallout. As they should. But there are other points that I think cut in your favor too.

That said, how February 2025 played out is important to acknowledge. I find it tough to think of a scenario where pass rates would have looked more like October 2020 than every other iteration had things “been normal.”

As I hinted to in an earlier piece, I think this is where we have to think through the gatekeeping and quality control theories, functions, and criticisms of bar exams.

If one wants to generally assume that ~15-30% of foreign takers are qualified to become licensed (with the caveat of the problems with that!), how do we look at the 39-54% pass rate numbers this time?

Are a lot of “unqualified” people (not just foreign takers, but all takers and yes, it’s in quotes because of the problematic nature) now practicing law in California? Or, might we consider that other factors were at play in keeping otherwise fine people outside the practice of law?

Has California checked on the October 2020 group? How have their disciplinary records fared against February 2020 & February 2021, as well as July 2021 takers? I know of at least one law professor who researches and writes about this topic (at least for Florida), and so I’d be curious to learn whether California is paying attention.

With the February 2025 group now added, California has another chance to look at a cohort as they compare to their near peers. Will February 2025 attorneys have similar careers to February 2024 and February 2026, as well as July 2024 and July 2025 passers?

If they are similar, what does that say about the function and purpose of the bar exam? If they are different, than did California create a much bigger problem in the medium to long term to solve a short term headache?

And how about the 309 foreign repeaters who passed out of the 746 repeaters who took the exam? For example, if someone failed the February 2023 and July 2024 bar exams but passed the February 2025 exam? Will California look to that subset as they look at the careers of licensed attorneys? Only 550 first-time foreign takers sat, so the repeater number is the larger one. Repeat pass rates doubled or more from almost any exam other than the October 2020 one in the recent past. What to make of that?

The July 2025 exam is coming up next week. Smart money would say that barring another issue, rates are more likely to look like all the other exams than like October 2020/February 2025. How do we think about that? A blog for another time!

Concluding Thoughts. For Now.

I predicted rates would be higher once we knew the overall pass rate. This much higher? No. Hopefully July 2025 takers didn’t get a false sense of confidence if they just saw those numbers. Bar exam pass rates are more nuanced than this blog gets into, but California is not a 50-50 shot of passing for foreign takers.

I don’t think February 2025 passers should have an asterisk to their licenses. That said, I imagine the State Bar of California, academics, and others may have an interest in digging through what happens over the coming years. I think it will shed light (in a good way or bad way!) on how we think about bar exams and the differences between passing a bar exam and practicing law.

Good luck to all the July 2025 takers!