What is on the Texas Insurance Exam?

What is on the Texas Property and Casualty exam?

The 100 general questions split almost evenly between property and casualty. Property: homeowners forms HO-2 through HO-8, dwelling forms, commercial property and businessowners policies, flood, inland marine, valuation methods, coinsurance, proximate cause, policy provisions and contract law. Casualty: commercial general liability, personal and business auto, workers compensation, crime, surety and fidelity bonds, professional liability including E&O and cyber, umbrella, negligence and damages. Again, standard national content.

The 30 Texas law questions:

• Rules common to property and casualty (18 questions): the Commissioner's powers, license types including surplus lines, adjuster and managing general agent, appointments, continuing education, unfair trade practices, controlled business, rating and underwriting practices.
• Property and casualty-specific rules (12): the Texas FAIR Plan, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, homeowners cancellation and nonrenewal rules, minimum auto liability limits, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, personal injury protection, the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association, rideshare coverage, workers compensation benefits, the guaranty association.

Why most people who fail the Texas exam fail on the Texas section

Look at the repeater numbers again. On every Texas exam, second and third attempts pass at a rate 20 points below first attempts. Texas lets you rebook a failed exam the next day, and many candidates do, without changing what they study. They studied for the 100 general questions, did reasonably well on them, and lost the exam on the 30 they never opened a book for.

Here is the arithmetic. Assume passing takes about 98 of 130 correct, roughly 75 percent. A candidate who scores 85 of 100 on general knowledge, a strong result, and 12 of 30 on Texas law lands at 97. That is a fail on a harder form and a scrape on an easier one. The same candidate at 85 general and 24 Texas lands at 109, a comfortable pass. Twelve extra correct answers, all from a section with a published question list.

On the Life Agent exam the effect is larger: Texas law is 30 of 80 scored questions, 38 percent of the score, which is why the exam most people assume is the easy one has the lowest first-time pass rate in the state.

Check your own Texas law gap

The audit below lists the Texas topics on your exam with their approximate weight in questions. Tick the ones you could explain to a client right now, without looking anything up, and see where your Texas section lands.

How to prepare for the Texas insurance exam

Because Texas requires no course, plenty of candidates try to pass on a national textbook and a free question bank. The pass rates above are what that produces. The candidates who pass first time do three things.

1. They study from the Pearson VUE content outline, not a generic textbook. The outline is the blueprint. Every topic weight above is a question count, and the Texas law section lists the specific statutes questions are drawn from.
2. They take full-length, timed practice exams. 145 questions in 150 minutes is a pace, and pace is a skill. Topic quizzes do not build it.
3. They book when practice scores are consistently above 80 percent, not 70. A scaled passing score means 70 on practice leaves no room for a harder form or a bad morning.

A course built around the Texas outline does all three for you, and in a no-requirement state the math favors it: a failed attempt costs another exam fee, another appointment, and two to four more weeks before you can earn commission. Aceable Insurance's Texas Life and Health course follows the outline section by section with a dedicated Texas law module covering every topic in the audit above, plus full timed practice exams. The Texas Property and Casualty course does the same for TWIA, the FAIR Plan, Texas auto rules and the rest of the state section. Both are built to be studied on a phone in the gaps of a workday.

How long to plan for

Fastest: two to three weeks of daily study, for candidates with an agency waiting or insurance experience already. Typical: four to six weeks around a job. The course content itself is about 20 hours; the rest is practice and review. Our three-week study plan lays out the compressed version day by day, our guide to Texas licensing timelines covers what happens after you pass, and our Texas cost breakdown shows where prep sits against exam, fingerprint and application fees.

What can slow down the licensing process in Texas?

• Retesting the next day: Texas allows it, and repeaters pass at under 40 percent. A week of Texas law review beats an immediate rebook. Our guide to Texas exam retakes covers what to change.
• Being turned away at check-in: you need two signed IDs, the primary government-issued with a photo, matching your registration exactly. Pearson VUE does not honor grace periods on expired licenses. Denied admission forfeits the fee.
• Missing the one-year window: a complete license application must be filed within 12 months of passing or the exam must be retaken.
• Fingerprints out of order: TDI cannot process your application until your DPS and FBI results are on file. Book IdentoGO the week of your exam.
• Booking before an accommodation is approved: ESL time-and-a-half and ADA accommodations require Pearson VUE approval before you reserve a seat.

After you pass: fingerprints through IdentoGO, application through Sircon or NIPR with the fingerprint receipt attached, TDI review, then carrier appointment. TDI's agent licensing page has the application details. If you are still weighing which line to pursue, our comparison of Texas license types is the place to decide.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the Texas insurance exam?

130 scored questions on both the Life, Accident and Health and the Property and Casualty exams: 100 general knowledge and 30 Texas law, plus 15 unscored pretest questions for 145 on screen. Life Agent is 80 scored; Personal Lines is 100 scored.

What score do you need to pass?

A scaled score of 70 on every Texas producer exam. It is not exactly 70 percent correct because scores are equated across forms. Aim for 80 percent or better on timed practice before booking.

Is the Texas insurance exam hard?

About four in ten first-time candidates fail, and most of the gap sits in the 30 Texas law questions that national study materials do not cover. Candidates who study the Texas outline specifically pass at much higher rates than the state average.

Can you take the Texas insurance exam without a course?

Yes. Texas requires no pre-licensing education for agent licenses. Most first-time passers complete structured prep anyway, because the exam is the entire qualifying requirement and a failed attempt costs weeks.

Can you skip the Texas exam?

In three cases. Chartered Life Underwriters can apply for Life, Accident and Health without testing, and Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters can do the same for Property and Casualty. Licensed non-residents from reciprocal states apply without an exam. New Texas residents who held the same license elsewhere within the previous 90 days can transfer without retesting. Texas also offers a 180-day temporary license through a sponsoring company, but you must still pass the exam within those 180 days.

The exam is built from a published outline, and so is the prep. Aceable Insurance's Texas courses cover the 100 general questions and the 30 Texas questions with equal weight, so the section that decides most outcomes is the one you walk in knowing.