Is the Arizona Life & Health Exam Hard? Pass Rates and Difficulty (2026)

The Arizona Life, Accident and Health or Sickness producer exam is a real test, but a passable one. In the most recent NAIC compiled data, 60.3% of first-time candidates passed the combined exam in 2025. That figure comes from a national compilation of pass rates, not from the Arizona regulator, so treat it as a guide rather than a promise.

What makes the exam demanding is its size. The combined exam has 150 items and a 2.5-hour limit, and the passing score is 70% correct. It covers life insurance, health insurance, annuities and tax in one sitting, so there is no weak half you can afford to ignore.

NAIC compiles pass rates for English-language, first-time candidates, with in-person and remote testing combined. For Arizona, the compiled figures are:

Read these numbers with care. Candidate volume fell sharply between the two years, by roughly 45% to 55% depending on the exam, while pass rates rose or held. The data does not tell us whether that reflects a real change in who sits the exam, the change of testing vendor, or a difference in how each year was reported. Do not read the 2024-to-2025 movement as the exam getting easier or harder. The safe reading is simply that between 48.6% and 60.3% of first-time candidates passed, depending on the exam and the year.

The compiled workbooks do not publish repeat-taker pass rates, so there is no reliable number for how retakers perform.

1. Length and breadth. The combined exam runs 150 items across 13 content sections. The biggest are Life, Accident and Health Insurance Basics (17%), Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders (15%), and Medical Plans (11%). Types of Life Insurance Policies carries 9%, Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy Provisions 8%, and Annuities and General Insurance Concepts 7% each.

2. A high passing mark. Seventy percent correct leaves limited room for guessing on a block you skipped. A weak showing on one large section can cost the whole attempt.

3. Precise terminology. Questions turn on distinctions such as peril versus hazard, a valued contract versus an indemnity contract, or the order in which a settlement or payout option pays out. If you recognise the words but not the differences, the answer options will all look plausible.

4. State-law content is small but cited closely. Insurance Regulation is 4% and Federal Laws and Regulations 3%. The outline cites specific Arizona Revised Statutes and Arizona Administrative Code rules, so that small block rewards candidates who actually read the outline instead of relying on generic national material.

The published data does not break failures down by background, so what follows is based on how the exam is built rather than on a statistic. Candidates tend to lose marks in a few predictable ways:

• Studying only the side they already know. A life-sales background does not carry over to Medicare enrollment periods, COBRA or disability income definitions, and the reverse is also true.
• Reading without practising. Calculation-style questions, such as the needs approach, the exclusion ratio or a premium-mode comparison, need to be worked on paper.
• Treating the small blocks as optional. Regulation and federal law add up to a modest share, but they are the easiest marks to secure once you have read the cited sections.
• Rushing the stem. NOT questions and BEST-answer questions punish speed.

Arizona lets you take the Life exam (100 items, 2 hours) and the Accident and Health or Sickness exam (100 items, 2 hours) separately, or the combined exam (150 items, 2.5 hours). The fee is $50 for each single-line exam and $59 for the combined exam, so the combined exam is the cheaper way to obtain both lines. The 2025 NAIC pass rates were 55.1% for Life, 57.8% for Accident and Health or Sickness, and 60.3% for the combined exam. Candidate groups differ, so do not conclude that one exam is easier than another.

Use the outline weights to decide where your hours go. Spend the most time on the 17% and 15% blocks, then work down. Then practise by topic: our free sets cover General Insurance Concepts, Life, Accident and Health Basics, Policy Provisions and the rest of the outline. Listen to the audio lessons on the road, and use the questions to find the sections where you guess.

When you are scoring comfortably above 70% on mixed sets, book the exam. Our guide to passing on the first try covers a study schedule, and the retake rules explain what happens if an attempt does not go your way. You can preview the course before you buy.