North Carolina Life & Health Exam Day: What to Expect at Pearson VUE (2026)

Your North Carolina Life, Accident & Health exams are delivered by Pearson VUE. Each exam gives you 1 hour 15 minutes for 55 scored questions plus up to five unscored pretest questions, and the passing standard is a scaled score of 70 on a 0-100 scale. The Life and the Accident & Health exams are separate, with a $45 fee for each attempt.

This guide covers what to do before the appointment, how to approach the exam itself, and what to do with the result. For anything about the room, identification or procedures, the NCDOI candidate guide and your Pearson VUE confirmation are the final word; read both.

You have two exams to schedule if you want both lines. Decide the order before you book, and leave enough days between the exams to review the second outline. The two share North Carolina law topics such as licensing, unfair trade practices and privacy, so what you learn for one helps the other.

The exam is given in English only. Candidates for whom English is a second language can receive time and a half with a letter; arrange that before the appointment, not on the day.

• Read your confirmation. It lists the time, the place and what you must bring. Follow it exactly.
• Sort out identification. Bring what the confirmation and the candidate guide ask for, and check that your name matches your registration.
• Stop new learning. Do one light review of weak spots and sleep. Cramming the night before rarely helps.
• Plan your travel. Aim to arrive early so check-in does not eat into your focus.

Check-in follows Pearson VUE's procedures. Expect to confirm your identity and to follow the rules for what may and may not be with you. Once the exam starts, the clock runs for the full 75 minutes. Every question counts the same, and unscored pretest items are mixed in with no label.

1. Read each question to the end before looking at the choices.
2. Answer what you know first and come back to what you do not, if the exam lets you.
3. Do not chase a hard question; a strange item may be an unscored pretest item.
4. Use a few fixed time checks rather than glancing at the clock constantly.
5. With the time left, return to the difficult questions and choose the best answer. Do not leave one blank.

The North Carolina law questions reward careful reading: look for words that change the answer, such as who must sign, who is responsible or what a provision allows.

• Arriving rushed. A late or flustered start costs concentration you cannot get back in a 75-minute exam.
• Changing answers without a reason. Change one only if you have found a specific error in your first reading.
• Spending too long on one item. Every scored question is worth the same, so a stubborn question should not cost you three easy ones.
• Forgetting the second exam is separate. If you booked both, reset between them and treat the second as a fresh start.

Your result is a scaled score; you need 70 on a 0-100 scale. It is not a percentage of correct answers. If you did not pass, you can sit that exam again after a 24-hour wait, at $45 per attempt, within the application window the candidate guide describes. Our retake guide covers the details.

If you passed one exam, remember the other is a separate sitting. Passing Life does not pass Accident & Health.

Do a full review of the outline sections in the North Carolina Life & Health course preview, then run the practice sets in the free practice question hub under a timer. For the question counts and section weights, see the format guide.