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

The Nevada Life and Health producer exam is hard enough that more than four in ten first-time candidates did not pass it. NAIC's compiled pass rates for first-time candidates put the combined exam at 54.8% in 2024 and 56.1% in 2025.

It is not hard because any single idea is difficult. It is hard because the exam is long (159 items in 3 hours 35 minutes), broad (life insurance, health insurance and Nevada law in one sitting) and graded against a scaled passing score that you cannot count your way to.

Pass rates average everyone who sits the exam, prepared or not, so your own odds depend heavily on how you prepare.

NAIC compiles first-time pass rates for each exam. Nevada's figures:

In 2025, 1,598 first-time candidates sat the combined exam at a test center and 897 passed. The single-line figures combine test-center and online candidates. The shorter single-line Life exam is the one candidates pass least often, a reminder that length is not the only thing that makes an exam hard.

NAIC's workbooks do not report repeat-taker rates, so there is no official Nevada retake figure to quote.

Four things make it harder than a first look at the outline suggests:

1. Three bodies of knowledge in one sitting. The 144 scored items split into Life-General (50), Accident and Health-General (50) and Nevada-specific law (44). A strong half does not make up for a weak one.
2. The clock. 3 hours 35 minutes for 159 items works out to roughly 81 seconds per item, and scenario and calculation items take far longer than recall items.
3. A scaled passing score. The pass mark is a scaled 70 under NAC 683A.270, not a raw percentage. Scaling adjusts for differences in difficulty between exam forms, so there is no fixed number of correct answers to aim for.
4. The Nevada section. Its 44 scored items are fewer than either general-knowledge section, but they are the part you cannot learn from generic insurance material. Rules such as the 10-day free look and the longer 30-day free look on a replacement (NRS 688A.165) earn or lose marks.

The NAIC pass-rate data does not say why candidates fail, so this is what the structure of the exam makes likely, not a statistic:

• Treating the state-law section as an afterthought. Twenty of its 44 items cover statutes common to every line, such as licensing, marketing and unfair trade practices, and the guaranty association.
• Knowing one line well and the other poorly. The two general-knowledge sections carry 50 scored items each, one on life and one on accident and health.
• Planning around a raw percentage. A scaled score gives you no running total to rely on, so a mental pass line in the middle of the exam is a guess.
• Reading about annuities, MEC taxation and benefit calculations instead of working them. These need practice on paper, not a quick read.
• Cramming. Three bodies of knowledge are too much for one weekend.

According to the Nevada Division of Insurance's own licensing page, prelicensing education is not required (see Do you need a pre-licensing course?). That keeps the cost of getting licensed down, but it also means nothing forces you to study before you book. The preparation is entirely up to you.

1. Study to the weights. Split your time roughly in line with 50 / 50 / 44, then adjust for your background. The format guide lists every section and its item count.
2. Practice by topic from the first week. Wrong answers show you what to restudy. Start from the free Nevada practice questions and the topic sets linked in the format guide.
3. Give Nevada law its own block. Chapters 1, 7 and 8 of the course carry the 44 Nevada items (20, 10 and 14).
4. Use audio for repetition. Definitions and distinctions stick through repeated listening, and a commute becomes a study session.
5. Rehearse the clock. Do at least one timed run at about 80 seconds per item before exam day.

The exam is beatable with a plan. LanePrep's Nevada Life & Health course is eight audio-first chapters built to the weights in Pearson VUE's content outline, with practice questions to test yourself. Open the free course preview to see whether the format works for you, then read how to pass on the first try and what the license costs.