Notary exam results keep falling, prompting calls to change legal training

Poland’s notary exam is becoming an increasingly difficult barrier to entry. The pass rate has dropped from 56% in 2023 to 43% in 2024, and then to just under 34% in 2025.

The gap is stark compared with other legal professions. Around 80% of candidates pass the attorney and legal adviser exams, with even higher rates among trainees. In 2025, 37% of notary trainees who had completed their apprenticeship immediately before the exam passed, while the rate among candidates qualifying through other routes stood at 22%.

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The pass rate for the notary exam is undoubtedly lower than the results achieved by candidates in other legal professional exams.

Iwona Kujawa, director of the Justice Ministry’s Department of Legal Professions, said the results showed that some candidates had a low level of preparation for independent notarial work. An optional colloquium organized by the notarial profession produced an even weaker result this year, with an average pass rate of 22%. No one passed in the Gdańsk Notarial Chamber.

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Unfortunately, this proves that some candidates are poorly prepared to work independently as notaries.

The ministry says it is discussing the problem with the National Notarial Council and working on amendments to the regulation governing notary apprenticeships. Any changes would certainly involve the optional colloquium, while a fundamental redesign of the apprenticeship model would require amendments to the Notarial Law.

Notaries also support changes, but stress that the exam’s difficulty reflects the responsibilities of the profession. Magdalena Arendt, deputy president of the National Notarial Council, said notaries handle important transactions, including property sales, inheritance certifications and wills. She said more candidates might pass if the apprenticeship were reorganized. Notaries identify the lack of effective progress checks as a central weakness: attendance is generally enough to complete the apprenticeship, while training councils cannot impose tests whose failure would remove a trainee from the register.

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This is a very difficult exam, but its level of difficulty is justified.