California Property & Casualty Exam Day: What to Expect at PSI (2026)

The California Property and Casualty exam is delivered by PSI under the California Department of Insurance (CDI). You will face 150 scored questions in 195 minutes, with five to ten unscored experimental questions mixed in. The pass mark is 60% raw. This page covers what the published sources confirm. For identification rules, permitted items and the check-in routine, the authority is the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin, and you should read the current version before you book.

You book your sitting through the CDI and PSI process. The fee is a $55 CDI exam fee plus a $43 PSI convenience fee, one fee whether you sit Property, Casualty or the combined exam. The convenience fee is $0 at the CDI Los Angeles site. Confirm current amounts on the CDI fee schedule when you book.

Book when your practice scores are consistently comfortable, not on a date chosen for convenience. There is no waiting period between attempts, but every sitting uses a fee and, on a bad day, a lot of confidence.

The Candidate Information Bulletin sets out the identification you must present and what you may take into the testing room. Rules of this kind are enforced strictly, and a missing document can end your sitting before it starts. Read the identification section well ahead, not the night before, and check that the name on your ID matches the name on your registration exactly.

Do not rely on a forum post or a friend's memory for these details. They can change, and the bulletin is the document the testing centre works from.

The combined exam allows 195 minutes. The CDI chart rounds this to three hours; the bulletin's time chart gives 195. The time includes allowance for the experimental questions, which you cannot identify, so treat every question as scored.

A sensible pacing plan:

• Answer the questions you know first and mark the long scenario questions that need careful reading.
• Check the clock at set points, for example at the end of each quarter of the exam, rather than after every question.
• Leave time at the end for the marked questions, and do not leave an answer blank.
• Read the last line of each question first. "Which of the following is NOT" and "which BEST describes" change what the right answer is.

The combined exam draws from the Property and Casualty License Examination Objectives. Section weights are published for each: personal lines (38% in Property, 35% in Casualty) and commercial coverages (30% in Property, 35% in Casualty) are the largest, with general insurance at 15% in both. California law runs through all of it: cancellation and nonrenewal, the FAIR Plan, CAARP, surplus lines and the unfair claims practices. See the full format and weights.

• Stop learning new material. Do one light pass over the topics you tend to confuse.
• Prepare your identification and your booking confirmation.
• Plan the journey so that you arrive early rather than exactly on time.
• Eat, drink water and sleep. A 195-minute exam rewards stamina.

Passing is the exam step, not the last step. A passed exam is valid for one year, so complete the rest of the process within that window: Live Scan fingerprints ($74), the application through the CDI and Sircon, the license filing fee ($188 for a two-year term), and the 12-hour ethics and California Insurance Code course, which must be finished before the license is issued, not before the exam.

If you do not pass, there is no waiting period and up to 10 attempts per exam type in 12 months are allowed. Read the retake rules and change your preparation before you rebook.

You cannot control the room, but you can control how familiar the questions feel. Try the course preview, work through the sets on the free practice questions hub, and read how hard the exam really is before you choose your date.