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

The Tennessee Life and Accident & Health license takes two separate exams, and they are not equally hard. NAIC compiled data for 2025 puts the first-time pass rate at 71% for the Life exam and 64% for the Accident and Health exam. Most first-time candidates pass, a large minority does not, and the Accident and Health exam is the harder of the two.

Neither exam is hard because one idea is difficult. Each is a timed sitting of 77 items (68 scored and 9 unscored) in 105 minutes, the score is scaled rather than a simple percentage, and Tennessee law is tested on top of general insurance knowledge. With focused preparation, most candidates pass. Without it, the numbers below apply to you.

The figures come from the NAIC compiled pass-rate workbook for 2025. They count first-time candidates taking the exam in English, in a test center or online combined.

Exam (2025)	First-time candidates	Passed	Pass rate
Life Producer	6,728	4,787	71%
Accident and Health Producer	4,273	2,749	64%

The Life candidates were 4,150 in-person and 2,578 remote; the Accident and Health candidates were 2,740 in-person and 1,533 remote. Only the 2025 figures are used on this page. The workbook does not publish a repeat-taker rate, so no retake pass rate is given here.

1. Two exams, two bodies of knowledge. There is no combined Life and Accident & Health exam. A candidate who wants both lines sits two separate exams, each delivered and scored on its own, each with 68 scored questions and 9 unscored ones.

2. A scaled score. You need a scaled score of 70 on a 0-100 scale. That is not a raw count and not a percentage of questions answered correctly, so you cannot tally your correct answers during the exam and know where you stand.

3. A Tennessee block inside every exam. Each exam has 50 scored general-knowledge questions and 18 scored Tennessee-specific questions. Fourteen of those 18 cover Tennessee laws and departmental rules common to Life, Accident and Health, and Property and Casualty insurance. The other four are specific to the line: life-only law on the Life exam, accident and health law on the Accident and Health exam.

4. A moving outline. Pearson VUE published a new content outline effective October 7, 2026. For Life and Accident & Health the changes are small: a new military sales practices item and an added annuity suitability rule reference on the Life Tennessee section. Item counts and weights are otherwise unchanged.

The NAIC workbook records outcomes, not reasons, so any explanation is an inference from where the outline puts the points. Three patterns are worth planning around.

Treating Tennessee law as an afterthought. The 18 scored Tennessee questions are a different kind of material from general knowledge: statute sections, departmental rule numbers, licensing, continuing education and unfair practices. National material does not teach them.

Coasting on the half you already know. The Accident and Health general-knowledge section has five outline sections, from types of policies (16 items) and provisions, clauses and riders (15) to social insurance (6), other insurance concepts (5) and field underwriting (8). The Life section is weighted toward types of policies (15) and riders, provisions, options and exclusions (15). A weak section costs real points.

Rebooking too fast. After a first failure the wait is 10 days, and 30 days after each later failure. Use that time to rebuild by outline section instead of repeating the same study. See the retake rules.

Study each exam to its outline weights, give the Tennessee block its own sessions, and test yourself with questions early rather than after you finish the material. Short daily sessions beat one long weekend.

• Plan two tracks. Life and Accident and Health share the Tennessee common block, so learn that once and reuse it. Add the line-specific material on top.
• Use audio for repetition. Definitions, distinctions and rule numbers stick through repeated listening. LanePrep is built for commutes.
• Drill the Tennessee rules by number and topic. The practice sets linked below pair each rule with a scenario, which is how the exam asks.
• Know the format cold. Read how many questions are on each exam and the exam-day walkthrough so nothing about the sitting surprises you.

Start with the free course preview and the free practice question hub. For a plan, see how to pass on the first try.