FE-1 pass rates by subject: which of the 8 papers people fail most

In 2025 the FE-1 paper with the lowest pass rate was the Law of Contract: 53% of its sittings across March and October ended in a pass. Then came Property (56%), Company Law (63%), Equity (67%), Criminal Law (69%), Torts and Constitutional Law (74% each) and EU Law (81%). These are our sums of the two sittings’ counts in the Law Society’s Snapshot of the Solicitors’ Profession 2025 (June 2026), which prints March and October separately. A year earlier the order was different: Equity was lowest at 57%, just below Contract at 58%. The Law Society publishes a pass rate for each paper but says there is “no meaningful overall pass rate” for the FE-1, and we found no pass mark in anything it publishes that we read. Independent practice. Not affiliated with the Law Society of Ireland or the LSRA, and nothing here is official.

Candidates: Law Society Snapshot 2025 (1,997 in March, 2,460 in October) and the LSRA’s Pathways to the Professions Report 2025; 2024 from the Law Society’s 2024 submission. Sittings and rates: our sums of the Law Society’s counts.

The FE-1 is “normally held twice a year in Spring and Autumn”, and the Law Society prints each sitting separately. Below are the six sittings these reports cover, March 2023 to October 2025, with the rates as the Law Society prints them. Some papers have moved by as much as 21 points from one sitting to the next, so we suggest looking at single sittings as well as the full-year rates.

Three patterns stand out. Contract is the steady low: between 52% and 58% at every one of the six sittings, and in the bottom two each time (level with another paper at two of them). EU Law is the steady high: between 77% and 84% at every sitting. It or Constitutional Law had the top rate each time (level at 77% in October 2023), though Constitutional Law itself ranged from 68% to 83%. Equity swings: 53% in March 2023, 74% that October, 57% at both 2024 sittings, then 68% and 66% in 2025. Torts did the same in reverse in 2023, from 74% in March to 54% in October (both as printed). The Law Society gives no reasons for these moves, and we do not guess at them.

The Law Society says it directly, in its LSRA submissions: “By virtue of the way candidates sit the examinations in multiple sequences there is no meaningful overall pass rate.” Under the rules in force since 2020, a candidate can sit one paper or several at a sitting, passes carry forward, and there is no limit on attempts. So a figure such as “66% passed” in the Law Society’s total row counts paper sittings, not people. It does not tell you how many candidates passed all eight papers, or how many passed at a first attempt, and we found neither figure in the Law Society’s reports or pages we read.

On average a candidate sat about 2.2 to 2.3 papers at a sitting (from 2.17 to 2.32 across the six sittings shown). So a paper’s pass rate may combine first attempts and repeats, and people sitting one paper with people sitting several; the tables do not separate them. In our view that makes the per-paper rate the more useful comparison.

First, the rules the pairing sits inside. Each subject is passed on its own (Rule 1 of the 2019 regulations). There is no limit on attempts, but all eight must be passed within seven years from 31 December of the year you first pass one (Rule 2). Since 2020 you need to pass only one exam at a sitting to move forward; before that, you had to sit and pass a minimum of three subjects in one sitting before you could proceed. The application fee is €128 per subject, and the Law Society says fees cannot be transferred to another sitting.

Equity has swung more than most papers. In 2024 it was the lowest of the eight, with 57% at both sittings and 492 sittings that did not pass (our sum). In 2025 it rose to 67%, and 420 sittings still did not pass: fewer than Contract (638), Property (624) and Company Law (468), on our sums. In our view, swings like these make one sitting’s rate an uncertain guide to the next.

The published Autumn 2026 timetable scheduled every paper from 10.00am to 1.00pm at the centre, with an additional 30 minutes online, finishing at 1.30pm. Of the syllabus sections we checked, the format is spelled out for EU Law: three hours, “attempt five out of eight questions”. To practise writing Equity answers against the clock, our FE-1 Equity practice test gives you a timed, FE-1 style Equity paper. Each answer is marked point by point against our own rubric (not the Law Society’s), with a model answer, and a three-part sample question is free.