At the time I took the state exam for my life and health insurance license, I was the licensing director at a large, nationwide agency.  Every week we would enroll new employees in a local insurance school and then register them to take the state insurance exam.  With every group that attempted the exam, I quickly began to notice a trend: around half of the individuals who sat for the exam, failed.

I decided that I would tutor anybody that did not feel comfortable with the material and that needed addition help.  I ended up assisting hundreds of new employees pass their exam and saw the percentage of failed attempts decline.  It was great helping new friends and associates get over that final hurdle, and attain their insurance license.  Then, I was advised by upper management that I must obtain my license as well.

I completed the insurance class and diligently studied every day for two weeks.  This is on top of already having a firm grasp of the information as a result of helping so many others prepare.  As I hit the submit button at the end of my state exam, I had only one thought enter my mind:

I have no idea if I passed this exam

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Trying to find the time in our busy lives to prepare for an insurance license test can be, at best, limited.  Because of this, you will want to be efficient in preparing for your insurance exam.  In addition, if you want to be successful in passing your insurance license test, you will want to avoid these common mistakes:

1. Focusing too much on practice exams

A common temptation students may have is to read the course lessons or manual only once, and then take practice exams over and over.  Practice exams are intended to reinforce the material that is learned within the lessons and manual.  By repeatedly taking exams and ignoring the course material, you miss the connectivity between concepts and their full meaning.  While our courses offer hundreds of exam questions, and while each exam randomizes questions being presented, shuffles the order of questions and possible answers, over time your mind is storing these to memory instead of fully grasping a concept.  Practice exams should always be secondary to the course material. Read More

Preparing for your state insurance exam might feel a bit overwhelming.  For many of us, years have passed since our last exam in college or high school, and as a result, some essential study habits may have been forgotten.  To help you prepare for your state insurance exam, let’s review some basic, yet important study tips.

Remove Distractions

Distractions are one of the biggest obstacles that disrupt the learning process.  How many times have you found yourself reading something online, and before you know it, you are browsing items on amazon.com or flipped back to your Facebook or Twitter page without even remembering how you got there?  This happens to all of us, even while writing this post, it just happens.  For your brain to absorb new ideas, it’s crucial that you avoid multitasking and stay focused on only the task in front of you.  Below are some common distractions that will slow your progress in preparing for your exam:

• TV – Even with it on in the background, the noise is still a disturbance
• Cell phone – Switch your phone to vibrate.  Tell your family & friends your study times and ask that they do not disturb you unless it is absolutely necessary.  This includes texting as well
• Multiple browser windows – Close all other browser windows except for the page in which you are studying.  This will help prevent the temptation to browse other sites
• Instant Messenger – Mute or completely close out your Instant Messenger until after you have finished studying
• Children – Study after your kids leave for school or once they have gone to sleep
• Music – Listening to music while learning is still a form of multi-tasking

In addition to removing external distractions from your study area, you will also want to free yourself from internal distractions.  In order to remain focused on the task at hand, you must prepare yourself mentally and maintain interest in what you are learning.

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The state insurance exam consists of various concepts that educate individuals on the insurance industry and how insurance products work so that they may properly advise clients when selling insurance.  Topics covered on the exam include basic and advanced insurance concepts and principles, an overview of the insurance industry, agent responsibilities, and state insurance laws and regulations.

While each concept is important to understand in order to pass the insurance exam, some concepts will be more heavily questioned on the exam than others.

In preparing for the insurance exam, every state provides an ‘Examination Content Outline’ which lists the number of questions on the exam, the time limit in which the exam must be completed and the insurance concepts and topics tested on during the exam.

The Exam Content Outline also illustrates the percentage, or number of questions, of each section of the exam.  For example, questions about Social Security might only total 2% of the insurance exam, while questions regarding state-specific laws and regulations may total 10% of the exam.  This is significant because it acknowledges the sections of the outline that contain more questions, allowing you to streamline your insurance exam preparation in a more efficient manner.

Let’s review a few exam outlines to see how the process works: Read More