Graduates from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento achieved the highest pass rate in all of California on the February bar exam.
According to the law school, nearly 65% of first-time test takers who graduated from Oak Park School of Law passed the exam, and 46% of repeat test takers also passed. In contrast, statewide data show that about 55% of first-time test-takers from ABA-accredited schools in California passed, while 41% of repeat test-takers passed. Only 34% of all applicants in California passed the February bar exam.
“(McGeorge graduates) embrace a ‘Pass Attitude’ that McGeorge has supportively woven into the bar support curriculum,” Lindsay Harrington, director of bar support and assistant professor of law at McGeorge, wrote in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. “This is what, in my opinion, sets them apart from other bar candidates.”
Last February’s results mark the fourth consecutive year that McGeorge graduates have scored the first or second highest pass rate on the February bar exam for new applicants across the state. The law school’s accelerated honors program also maintained the record of a 100% pass rate for new applicants.
Harrington pointed to McGeorge’s Bar Exam Advantage Training program and Dean’s Incentive program as contributors to McGeorge’s pass rate.
For example, the Bar Exam Advantage Training program pairs graduates with a bar support professor who provides individualized feedback on their simulated written practice exams and one-on-one conferences to build confidence and exam skills, with an emphasis on mindset and wellness. Harrington said.
Michael Schwartz, dean of the law school, added that about 40% of McGeorge students are the first in their families to attend college, let alone law school.
The students’ “intelligence, determination and willingness to work hard” contributed to their success, he said.
The California State Bar has faced questions in recent months about the future of the exam. In May, the State Bar planned to consider a proposal to hire test prep company Kaplan North America to develop its own bar exam, potentially saving $4.2 million annually for a State Bar division facing insolvency you have to deal with.
The move was interpreted as a rejection of the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ new Next Gen Bar Exam, which 18 states have already committed to using once it is released in July 2026. However, the California State Bar has since suspended the hiring proposal. Kaplan, the deans of thirteen California-accredited law schools, called the plan “hasty, risky and poorly planned” and asked the organization to postpone it.
