The pandemic forced them to finish up law school online and delayed the bar exam in many states for months, but COVID-19 didn’t hurt the Class of 2020’s performance on the all-important attorney licensing test.

The first-time pass rate for graduates of American Bar Association-accredited law schools who took the bar in 2020 was nearly 83%, according figures released by the ABA on April 23. That’s up from the 80% first-time pass rate earned by the J.D. class of 2019.