California bar exam pass rate falls to 48%, lowest July mark in five years

Fewer than half of the applicants who took the July 2026 California bar exam passed, the lowest July pass rate in five years, according to results released by the State Bar of California.

Of the 7,942 applicants who sat for the two-day General Bar Exam, 48.3%, or 3,838, passed. That is down from 54.8% in July 2025.

The pass rate on the one-day Attorneys' Exam, for lawyers licensed in good standing in another U.S. jurisdiction for at least four years, rose to 49.4% from 43.4% a year earlier. A total of 216 of the 437 applicants passed, and more people took that exam than in any of the previous five years.

The 4,054 applicants who passed either exam must still meet the State Bar's other admission requirements before they can practice law in California.

First-time takers of the General Bar Exam passed at a rate of 64.7%, 5 percentage points below the July 2025 rate of 69.7%. Repeat takers passed at 14.1%. That figure is up from 12.4% in July 2025 but is the second-lowest rate for repeat takers in five years.

Repeat takers made up 32.3% of applicants, up from 26.1% in July 2025.

Pass rates for repeat takers fell as the number of attempts rose: 19.3% for second-time takers, 17.9% for third-time takers and 7.7% for those on their fourth attempt or later.

California's average scaled score on the Multistate Bar Examination was 1377, the state's lowest in five years. The national average fell to 1407 from 1424 in July 2025. Pass rates in Florida, New York and Texas also declined from a year earlier.

Graduates of ABA-accredited California law schools posted the highest first-time pass rate, at 78.1%, followed by graduates of out-of-state ABA-accredited schools at 70.6%. First-time takers from California-accredited schools passed at 31.1%. First-time takers from unaccredited California schools passed at 45.8% with scoring adjustments and 41.7% without. The figures by school type are preliminary and subject to confirmation by the law schools.

Forty-seven applicants were eligible for scoring adjustments based on their performance in the November 2024 special session, and six passed as a result. Without the adjustments, the overall pass rate would have been 48.2%.

The State Bar will post the list of passing applicants on its website at 8 a.m. Monday, Nov. 2.