Here is the honest answer up front: the California Department of Insurance does not publish an official pass rate for the Life, Accident & Health exam, and the specific percentages floating around the internet are mostly untraceable. Anyone quoting "the pass rate is X%" without a primary source is repeating a number nobody can verify.
That's not a satisfying answer, so this guide covers what actually is verifiable, why third-party pass rates can't be trusted, and what the real question should be — because "what's the pass rate" is usually people asking "will I pass?"
Why there is no official number
Three separate reasons stack on top of each other:
- The CDI doesn't publish first-attempt pass rates. The department publishes licensing statistics — how many licenses are issued — but not exam-level pass/fail breakdowns per sitting.
- PSI administers, the CDI licenses. The exam vendor (PSI) holds the raw pass/fail data, and there is no public report that joins exam sittings to license outcomes.
- Retakes blur everything. A "pass rate" that mixes first attempts with fourth attempts is a different statistic from a first-attempt pass rate — and almost no third-party source tells you which one it's quoting.
So when a test-prep site says "the California Life & Health pass rate is about 50%," ask: measured by whom, in what year, counting what? Almost none of them can answer.
What is actually verifiable
These numbers you can confirm from official sources — and they matter more than any pass rate:
| Fact | Detail | | --- | --- | | Passing score | 60% — 90 of 150 scored questions | | Retake policy | Re-register immediately, no waiting period; you pay the exam fee again (~$98) | | Sitting limit | 10 sittings of the same exam type in any 12-month period (Insurance Code §1682) — the 10th sitting locks you out of that exam type for 12 months | | Result validity | 12 months — you must finish fingerprints and the CDI application inside that window |
The 10-sitting cap deserves a beat: the state built a wall at 10 attempts precisely because repeat sittings are common enough to need one. That tells you something about the real-world pass/fail dynamics without a single published percentage.
Why the third-party numbers can't be trusted
A quick pattern to recognize: sources that cite pass rates almost never cite a primary source, because there isn't one. The numbers circulate in three unreliable forms:
- Round numbers with no origin — "about 50%," "roughly 55%" — repeated from prep-site to prep-site until they feel true.
- Other states' exams — national or other-state pass data labeled loosely as "insurance exam" pass rates.
- Prep companies' own student data — which measures their paying customers, not the exam population, and has an obvious incentive to make the exam look scary and their product look necessary.
Treat any specific percentage — optimistic or pessimistic — with the same skepticism.
The pass rate is the wrong question anyway
Here's the thing a pass rate can't tell you: why people fail. The exam's difficulty isn't the content — thousands of people pass it every year, many with no insurance background. What fails people is the gap between recognizing information and applying it: scenario questions that hand you a situation and four plausible options and ask which rule applies. Read the full breakdown of why capable candidates fail — but the short version is passive reading and cramming, and both are fixable.
A pass rate also can't tell you your odds, because it averages across people who studied for six weeks and people who walked in cold. You're not drawing from that distribution — you're building your own.
How to be on the right side of whatever the rate is
Four behaviors that separate passers from the statistics:
- Answer questions from day one — question-first studying exposes what you don't know while there's time to fix it. Start with any exam domain, free.
- Read explanations on every miss — the mechanism that closes the apply-the-rule gap. Every question on PassSprint carries a 3-part explanation: why the correct option is right, why each wrong option is wrong, and a memory hook.
- Do at least one full timed sitting before test day — 150 questions in 195 minutes is an endurance event, and stamina is trainable.
- Give CA Code & Ethics real hours — it's 20–30% of the exam and pure memorization; it's also the domain procrastinators lose. Drill the California-specific questions →
For the week-by-week version of this, read the study plan guide — most people need 3–6 weeks of consistent studying, roughly 40 to 60 total hours.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate for the California Life & Health exam?
There is no official published figure. The CDI does not release exam-level pass rates, PSI's raw data isn't public, and third-party percentages circulating online are untraceable to any primary source. What's verifiable: the passing score is 60% (90 of 150), retakes are allowed with no waiting period, and the state caps sittings at 10 per 12-month period.
Has the exam gotten harder or easier?
The structure has been stable: 150 scored questions, 195 minutes, 60% to pass. The education requirement changed in 2026 — Assembly Bill 943 repealed the 20-hour-per-line prelicensing requirement, leaving only the 12-hour Ethics & CA Code course — but the exam itself still covers both lines in full. See the requirements guide for the current process.
Do most people pass on the first try?
No reliable first-attempt figure exists. What's well-documented is why first attempts fail when they do: studying to recognize rather than to decide, and running out of time on the health side. Both are preparation problems, not aptitude problems.
What score do I need to pass?
60% — 90 correct answers out of the 150 scored questions. Unscored experimental items (5–10) don't count either way.
If the pass rate doesn't matter, what should I track?
Your own numbers: percent-correct on unseen questions at exam pacing, your weakest domain, and whether you can explain your recent misses out loud. When you're clearing 75–80% on timed mixed sets with no blind domains, you're ready regardless of what the pass rate is. The study plan guide has the full readiness checklist.