Tennessee Insurance Exam: Passing Score, Format, and What You Need to Know
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Quick Answer:
- You need a scaled score of 70 to pass any Tennessee insurance exam. It is administered by Pearson VUE, in person or online through OnVUE.
- The major-line exams have 68 scored questions and a 1-hour 45-minute limit. Personal Lines has 100 scored questions and a 2-hour limit.
- Every exam blends national insurance content with a Tennessee-specific portion, and you get your pass or fail result the moment you finish.
The short answer is a scaled score of 70. The details are worth knowing, because Tennessee scores its exams in a way that surprises people, and the state is a strong place to be licensed. Nashville is a national healthcare hub, Memphis anchors a huge logistics economy, and Tennessee's steady in-migration keeps demand for auto, home, life, and health coverage high. Here is exactly how the exam works, line by line.
What Score Do You Need to Pass?
It Is a Scaled Score of 70, Not a Percentage
Tennessee does not grade you on a simple percentage of questions answered correctly. Each exam comes in several versions, called forms, and a process called equating adjusts for small differences in difficulty between them. Your raw score is then converted to a scaled score from 0 to 100, and the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has set 70 as the passing mark.
If you pass, your report simply reads "pass" with no number. If you do not pass, you receive a numeric scaled score plus a diagnostic breakdown by content area, so you know where to focus before you try again.
What About Combined Exam Sessions?
Tennessee lets you take some lines together in a single online session, such as Life with Accident and Health or Property with Casualty. Each line is still its own exam with its own score, so you need to score 70 on each line to earn credit. Passing one and missing the other means you only get credit for the one you passed.
How Is the Tennessee Exam Structured?
Questions and Time by License
- Life: 68 scored questions, 1 hour 45 minutes.
- Accident and Health: 68 scored questions, 1 hour 45 minutes.
- Property: 68 scored questions, 1 hour 45 minutes.
- Casualty: 68 scored questions, 1 hour 45 minutes.
- Personal Lines: 100 scored questions, 2 hours.
Every exam also mixes in unscored pretest questions that do not count toward your score. You cannot tell which ones they are, so answer all of them.
How the National and Tennessee Portions Split
Each major-line exam combines a national, general-knowledge portion of 50 scored questions with a Tennessee-specific portion of 18 scored questions, for 68 scored in total. Personal Lines is larger, with 75 general and 25 Tennessee-specific questions. Both portions live inside one exam and roll up into one scaled score, so you cannot lean on strong general knowledge and ignore Tennessee law.
What's on the Exam? Content by Topic Weight
The content outline is the blueprint Pearson VUE builds each exam from. Here is how the scored general-knowledge questions are weighted for each line.
Life and Accident & Health
The Life general portion of 50 questions breaks down into: types of policies (15), riders, provisions, and options (15), application, underwriting, and delivery (12), and retirement and other concepts (8).
The Accident and Health general portion of 50 questions breaks down into types of policies (16), provisions, clauses, and riders (15), field underwriting (8), social insurance (6), and other concepts (5).
Property and Casualty
The Property general portion of 50 questions breaks down as types of policies 22, insurance terms and concepts 15, and policy provisions and contract law 13.
The Casualty general portion of 50 questions breaks down as types of policies, bonds, and related terms 23, insurance terms and concepts 15, and policy provisions 12.
Personal Lines
The larger Personal Lines general portion of 75 questions breaks down as property and casualty terms and concepts 28, policy provisions and contract law 24, types of casualty policies 13, and types of property policies 10.
The Tennessee-Specific Questions
On each major-line exam, 18 questions cover Tennessee law, and 14 of those come from rules common to all lines: the Commissioner's powers, key definitions, license requirements, suspension and revocation, unfair trade practices, and the guaranty association. The remaining 4 are specific to your line: replacement and annuity suitability rules for Life; Medicare supplement and long-term care rules for Accident and Health; fire and personal-risk rules for Property; and auto financial-responsibility rules for Casualty. These come from the Tennessee Code, Title 56, and they are the questions out-of-state study guides miss.
How Is the Exam Administered?
Where You Can Test
Pearson VUE runs the exam at test centers across Tennessee, including Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Brentwood, Jackson, and Johnson City, or online from home through OnVUE if your device, webcam, and connection pass the system check. It is computer-based and multiple-choice, and the exam fee is $55 for each major line.
What to Bring and Expect
Plan to arrive 30 minutes early with two forms of current signature ID, one of them a government-issued photo ID. You may bring or request a basic non-scientific calculator. Your pass or fail result appears as soon as you finish, and a score report is generated for your records.
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What If You Don't Pass?
A first failure means a 10-day wait before you can retake the exam. After each later attempt, the wait is 30 days, and you must wait 24 hours before booking any retake. If you test online, you are limited to two OnVUE attempts per line, after which you test at a center. Use the diagnostic report to target your weak areas, and our guides on how to study for the Tennessee exam and general study strategies can sharpen your second run.
What Is the Pass Rate?
Tennessee does not publish an official first-time pass rate, so treat any precise Tennessee number you see elsewhere with caution. Nationally, first-time pass rates for insurance exams commonly run around 50 to 60 percent. The Tennessee-specific questions and the clock are where unprepared candidates fall short of 70.
How Do You Prepare for the Tennessee Exam?
Tennessee no longer requires a pre-licensing course, so the exam itself is what stands between you and your license. You are allowed to self-study, but with 68 scored questions and Tennessee law woven throughout, walking in cold is a gamble.
A course mapped to the current content outline covers the national concepts and the Tennessee law in the same proportions the exam tests them. Our Tennessee pre-license course is built for that, our property and casualty exam guide goes deeper on those lines, and our tips for success help even if you are starting with no experience.
After you pass, a fingerprint background check through IdentoGo is required, then you apply through NIPR with the $50 filing fee, waiting 48 hours after the exam to file. You schedule the exam through Pearson VUE, and license rules are set by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.
Your Tennessee license comes down to one number, a scaled 70. Prepare for the real blueprint and you walk in ready for it.
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