Passing your Texas insurance license exam is a pivotal part of becoming a licensed insurance agent in the state of Texas.

In this guide, we’ll break down the general information that you need to know in order to pass your exam, outline the differences between each examination line, and offer tips on both: how to prepare for your Texas insurance licensing exam, and on what to do after you pass.

Texas Insurance Exam Basics

General Information

The State of Texas uses Pearson VUE to administer its insurance agent licensing. This means that you can register and book all of your licensing examinations through the Pearson VUE website. Your test can be carried out online or in person.

Each major insurance line examination is made up of bullet-point questions and includes both general and state-specific material.

The general questions test your federal insurance product and agent knowledge, whereas the state-specific questions test you on the Texas insurance regulations and laws that you will need to know in order to operate as an insurance agent.

Note: You are only allowed one online attempt per exam. All other exam attempts (limitless) will have to be taken in person at a Pearson VUE testing center.

Score Explanation

Insurance licensing exams are not scored in the most obvious manner.

Each licensing examination has multiple versions (known as forms), which are made up of different questions. This means that your exam can be easier or more difficult than someone else’s, even if you’re being tested on the same line, on the same day.

A statistical procedure known as equating is used to ensure that any differences in form difficulty are accounted for so that no one faces an unfair advantage or disadvantage.

Following this, a second procedure known as scaling is used to translate this method into a numerical figure, which is then reported to all candidates.

As a result, the score you will see after your exam is not actually a reflection of the number of answers you got correct, nor is it a reflection of your final percentage score. It’s merely a number that is meant to show how well or poorly you’ve done relative to what you needed to do in order to pass.

Cost

Your Texas insurance license exam cost will depend on the type and number of examinations that you take:

Examination	Cost	Time Allowed
General Lines – Life, Accident & Health	$43	150 Minutes
General Lines – Property & Casualty	$43	150 Minutes
Life Agent	$33	120 Minutes

Note: You should focus on one exam at a time. This will likely increase the amount of time and effort you can allocate to each examination and should allow you to feel more prepared when you sit your exam.

Texas Life and Health Insurance Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by Pearson VUE.

We recommend using it as a checklist when working through your pre-license education course. This way, you’ll be absolutely sure that you haven’t missed any topic that you will be tested on later.

Life General Knowledge Content Outline

100 scorable questions, plus 10 pretest questions.

I. Types of Policies

A. Traditional whole life products
B. Interest/market-sensitive/adjustable life products
C. Term life
D. Annuities
E. Combination plans and variations

II. Policy Riders, Provisions, Options, and Exclusions

A. Policy riders
B. Policy provisions and options
C. Policy exclusions

III. Completing the Application, Underwriting, and Delivering the Policies

A. Completing the application
B. Underwriting
C. Delivering the policy
D. Contract law

IV. Retirement, and Other Insurance Concepts

A. Third-party ownership
B. Viatical settlements
C. Life settlements
D. Group life insurance
E. Retirement plans
F. Life insurance needs analysis/suitability
G. Social Security benefits
H. Tax treatment of insurance premiums, proceeds, and dividends

V. Types of Polices

A. Disability income
B. Accidental death and dismemberment
C. Medical expense insurance
D. Medicare supplement policies
E. Group insurance
F. Individual/Group Long Term Care (LTC)
G. Other policies

VI. Policy Provisions, Clauses, and Riders

A. Mandatory and optional provisions
B. Other provisions and clauses
C. Riders
D. Rights of renewability

VII. Social Insurance

A. Medicare (Parts A, B, C, D)
B. Medicaid
C. Social Security benefits

VIII. Other Insurance Concepts

A. Total, partial, recurrent, and residual disability
B. Owner’s rights
C. Dependent children benefits
D. Primary and contingent beneficiaries
E. Modes of premium payments
F. Nonduplication and coordination of benefits
G. Occupational vs. non-occupational
H. Tax treatment of premiums and proceeds of insurance contracts
I. Managed care
J. Workers Compensation
K. Subrogation

IX. Field Underwriting Procedures

A. Completing the application
B. Explaining sources of insurability and HIPAA privacy info
C. Initial premium payment and receipt
D. Submitting application to company for underwriting
E. Policy delivery
F. Explaining policy to clients
G. Replacement
H. Contract law

Life and Health State Specific Content Outline

30 scorable questions, plus 5 pretest questions.

I. Texas Statutes & Rules Relating to Life and Health Insurance

A. Commissioner of insurance
B. Insurance definitions
C. Licensing requirements
D. Marketing practices
E. Agent duties and responsibilities
F. Texas life and health guaranty association

II. Texas Statutes & Rules Relating to Life Insurance Only

A. Marketing and solicitation
B. Policy provisions
C. Individual life and annuity
D. Group life
E. Credit life
F. Replacement
G. Nonforfeiture law

III. Texas Statutes & Rules Relating to Accident and Health Insurance Only

A. Required policy provisions
B. Medicare supplement
C. AIDS testing requirements
D. Long term care
E. Small group health insurance
F. Affordable Care Act

IV. Texas Statutes & Rules Relating to Health Maintenance Organizations

A. Definitions
B. Evidence of coverage
C. Nonrenewal/cancellation
D. Enrollment

Texas Property and Casualty License Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by Pearson VUE.

You should use this outline as a checklist when working through your pre-license education course in order to ensure that you haven’t missed any topic that you will be tested on later.

Property and Casualty General Knowledge Content Outline

100 scorable answers plus 10 pretest questions.

I. Types of Policies

A. Homeowners
B. Dwelling policies
C. Commercial lines
D. Inland marine
E. National Flood Insurance Program
F. Others

II. Insurance Terms and Related Concepts

A. Insurance
B. Insurable interest
C. Risk
D. Hazard
E. Peril
F. Loss
G. Loss Valuation
H. Proximate cause
I. Deductible
J. Indemnity
K. Limits of liability
L. Coinsurance/Insurance to value
M. Occurrence
N. Cancellation
O. Nonrenewal
P. Vacancy and Inoccupancy
Q. Liability
R. Negligence
S. Binder
T. Endorsements
U. Blanket vs. Specific

III. Policy Provisions and Contract Law

A. Declarations
B. Insuring agreement
C. Conditions
D. Exclusions
E. Definition and duties of the insured
F. Obligations of the insurance company
G. Mortgagee rights
H. Appraisal
I. Subrogation
J. Elements of a contract
K. Warranties, representations, and concealment
L. Sources of underwriting information
M. Fair Credit Reporting Act
N. Privacy Protection (Gramm Leach Bliley)
O. Policy Application
P. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA)
Q. Territory

IV. Types of Policies, Bonds, and Related Terms

A. Commercial general liability
B. Automobile: personal auto and business auto
C. Workers Compensation Insurance, Employers Liability Insurance and Related Issues
D. Crime
E. Bonds
F. Professional liability
G. Umbrella/Excess Liability
H. Businessowners Policy (BOP)

V. Insurance Terms and Related Concepts

A. Risk
B. Hazards
C. Indemnity
D. Insurable interest
E. Loss valuation
F. Negligence
G. Liability
H. Occurrence
I. Binders
J. Warranties
K. Representations
L. Concealment
M. Deposit Premium/Audit
N. Certificate of Insurance
O. Law of Large Numbers
P. Pure vs. Speculative Risk
Q. Endorsements
R. Damages
S. Compliance with provisions of Fair Credit Reporting Act

VI. Policy Provisions

A. Declarations
B. Insuring agreement
C. Conditions
D. Exclusions and Limitations
E. Definition of the insured
F. Duties of the insured after a loss
G. Cancellation and nonrenewal provisions
H. Supplementary of payment protocols
I. Proof of loss
J. Notice of claim
K. Subrogation
L. Loss settlement provisions
M. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA)

Property and State Specific Content Outline

30 scorable answers plus 5 pretest questions.

I. Texas Statutes and Rules Common to Property and Casualty Insurance 

A. Commissioner of insurance
B. Insurance definitions
C. Licensing requirements
D. Marketing practices
E. Agent duties and responsibilities

II. Texas Statutes and Rules Pertinent to Property and Casualty Insurance

A. Property and casualty definitions
B. Surplus lines
C. Approval of rates and forms
D. Homeowners insurance
E. Automobile insurance
F. Workers’ compensation
G. Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association
H. Joint Underwriting Association (JUA)

How to Pass the Texas Insurance Exam

Passing your Texas insurance exam ultimately comes down to your mindset and degree of preparation.

We have composed a few helpful exam tips and tricks that should help you perform as well as you can during your exam day.

Get a Pre-License Course

Even though this is not a requirement in the state of Texas, getting a pre-license course can be incredibly beneficial. These courses can help you get accustomed to the extensive amount of content that you will have to memorize.

We recommend Kaplan’s course because it offers a variety of helpful features, including:

• Online exam simulations
• Live online training
• Printable study guides
• End of chapter reviews

Make Enough Time to Study

Not leaving enough time to prepare is one of the easiest ways to ensure that you do not pass your exam on your first attempt.

Remember, there are zero questions on your exam that are based on common sense or critical thinking. All questions are purely factual, and so will relate to how well you understand and remember the content that you have learned.

We recommend allocating around one to two weeks to prepare for your exam, as this should allow you to go through all of the material at least twice.

Control Test Anxiety

Even though you cannot control whether you get exam anxiety or not, you can take a few steps when preparing to limit its effect on your performance:

• Establish a consistent pretest routine — Acclimate yourself to exam conditions by following a specific routine on each practice exam at home. This should help you feel less anxious during your exam day.
• Get plenty of sleep — Lack of sleep can exacerbate your anxiety and increase your self-doubt. Make sure you are consistently getting a good night’s sleep in the week leading up to your exam.
• Study effectively — This sounds obvious, but make sure you are actually tailoring your studying to the exam that you are taking. Remember, there are no critical thinking or common sense questions involved.
• Arrive early — If you are planning to sit your exam in person, we recommend you arrive at least 30 minutes before it’s due to start in order to get used to your surroundings and have time to check in with your center’s administrator.

Getting Your Texas Insurance License

Your next steps will depend on whether you actually passed your exam, as well as on whether you plan to get licensed for any additional lines.

You can apply for your license up to 12 months after you complete your exam, so if you would like to attempt passing additional insurance line exams before filing your licensing application, you are totally free to do that.

After you have passed your insurance licensing exam, you will need to:

• Complete a fingerprint and background check
• File your licensing application
• Wait for your application to be reviewed

Texas Department of Insurance Contact Information

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 12030
Austin, Texas 78711-2030

Physical Address:
333 Guadalupe
Austin, Texas 78701

Phone: (512) 676 – 6500

Email: License@tdi.texas.gov

Website: https://www.tdi.texas.gov/agent/index.html

License Search: Texas Insurance License Search and Lookup