The New York insurance exam: passing score, length and time

The pass mark is 70%, and the state says so

The candidate bulletin that the Department of Financial Services publishes with PSI, the company that delivers the exams, puts it in one line: "You must get 70% correct to pass the examination." It is the same for all five series. Nobody has to guess at it, which is not true of many licensing exams.

How long each exam is

What that means per question

Divide the time by the questions and the three shorter exams give you 72 seconds a question. The two longer ones give you 60. That is the one real difference in pace between them: the combined and property and casualty exams are not just longer, they are faster.

The questions that do not count

The bulletin also says each exam carries 5 to 10 extra experimental questions that are not scored, with no fixed number. You cannot tell them apart from the rest. Two consequences follow. A question that looks oddly worded or outside the outline may simply not count, so do not let it rattle you. And there is no way to skip them, so treat every question as if it matters.

What 70% asks of you

On a 100-question exam, 70% leaves room for 30 misses. That sounds generous until you remember the outline gives some topics a large share of the paper. Weak spots in a heavily weighted topic eat that margin quickly, which is why practice that follows the outline's weights is worth more than practice that treats every topic the same.

Before the exam

New York requires approved prelicensing education before you sit. A practice exam is not that course and does not count toward it.