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

The Maryland Life and Health exam is harder on the Life side than most candidates expect, and noticeably more forgiving on the Accident & Health side. The most recent compiled figures put the first-time pass rate on the Life exam at 50.7% (2025) — about one candidate in two — against 71.3% on the Accident & Health exam and 66.2% on the combined Life and Accident & Health exam.

The material is not exotic. The exam is hard because it is wide, because nearly a third of it is Maryland insurance regulation, and because the questions test fine distinctions in wording. Candidates who prepare in a structured way, with practice questions from the first week, are not in the same position as the average candidate in these numbers.

The Maryland Insurance Administration's exams are delivered by Prometric. The pass rates below come from the NAIC's compiled state pass-rate workbooks, which cover English-language, first-time candidates, in-person and remote testing combined.

Two cautions. First, the 2024 workbook has no separate Combo row for Maryland, while the 2025 workbook does. That may be a change in how the data was reported rather than a change in how many people sat the Combo, so do not read the 2024 and 2025 rows as a like-for-like trend. Second, the workbooks do not publish repeat-taker rates, so there is no official figure for how candidates perform on a second attempt.

Do not conclude from the table that the Combo is easier than the Life exam, or that the Accident & Health exam is easy. The three exams are different populations sitting different outlines.

1. Size and time. The Life exam and the Accident & Health exam each deliver 90 items, 80 scored plus 10 unscored pretest items, in 1 hour 45 minutes. The Combo delivers 140 items, 130 scored plus 10 pretest, in 2 hours 30 minutes. You cannot tell which items are the pretest ones, so every question gets your full attention.

2. One sitting, mixed content. Since the one-part structure took effect, general-knowledge and Maryland-specific content are interleaved in a single outline and a single sitting. There is no separate state section to save for later, and no separate national exam to clear first.

3. Insurance Regulation is the largest block. Section 1.0 carries 30% of the Life exam (24 of 80 scored items), 30% of the Accident & Health exam (24 of 80) and 30% of the Combo (39 of 130). It covers licensing, renewal and address changes, disciplinary actions, fraud, producer duties, unfair trade practices and the Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Corporation. National study material covers little of it.

4. A 70% standard. Maryland states the passing score plainly: you must receive 70% or higher.

The published data says how many candidates fail, not why. The outline, though, shows where the points sit, and the failures follow the weight.

• Treating regulation as common sense. The regulation block asks for the right statute, regulation or agency duty. A candidate who knows what is ethical but not what is required loses marks on a block worth 30%.
• Studying only the line they sell. A Combo candidate faces 16 outline sections. A life agent who skips disability income, medical plans and senior products leaves a large share of the 130 scored items to guesswork.
• Memorising definitions without applying them. Renewability classes, annuity payout options, rider triggers and Medicare parts are tested in short scenarios, not as vocabulary lists.
• Reading too fast. “Which is NOT” and “which BEST describes” wording punishes the first plausible answer.

Maryland lets you choose. You can sit the Combo exam once for $62, or the two single-line exams separately for $62 each ($124 total). The Combo is the cheaper and faster route to both lines of authority, but it is also the longest sitting, with 130 scored questions. If you want only one line, the single-line exam is the shorter test. See the format and passing score guide for the outline weights.

1. Start practice questions in week one. Wrong answers show you which outline section to revisit. The free Maryland practice question hub has a set for every part of the outline.
2. Give regulation its own block of study time. It is the largest section and the one where general knowledge helps least. Try the Maryland Insurance Regulation questions early.
3. Listen for repetition. The audio lessons let you cover the definitions and distinctions during a commute, which frees your desk time for scenarios.
4. Sit one timed run-through. Match the clock for your exam, 105 minutes for a single line or 150 for the Combo, before the real day.

Ready to begin? Preview the Maryland Life & Health course. For the full plan, read how to pass the Maryland Life & Health exam on the first try.