Coal tar soft pitch (CTSP) used as raw material of preparing needle coke was heat-treated at 460, 480 and 500 °C for different holding time under the pressure of 0 MPa and 0.25 MPa. The changes of group compositions such as toluene solubles (TS), toluene insolubles-quinoline solubles (TI-QS) and quinoline insolubles (QI) were mainly studies during the thermal conversion of the CTSP. The microstructure morphologies of some calcined cokes were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the thermal conversion of the CTSP had the features of consecutive reaction, and the pressure could accelerate the conversion rate of TS and TI-QS and the formation rate of QI. The calcined coke derived from the semi-coke obtained at atmospheric pressure exhibited better and longer streamlined fiber structures than that of the semi-coke obtained at elevated pressure, while the latter possessed more compact carbon structures than the former.