Failed the Pennsylvania Life & Health Exam? Retake Rules, Waiting Periods and Fees (2026)

If you fail the Pennsylvania Life, Accident and Health exam, you can try again. Retakes are unlimited, and they can be scheduled for the next day. Each attempt costs the exam fee of $55 for the combined exam (Series 16-03), or $45 for either single-line exam, Life (16-01) or Accident and Health (16-02).

There is no cap on attempts and no mandatory cooling-off period, so the only brake is your own judgment. The fee is charged every time, and an unprepared second attempt a day later is usually just a second fee.

The exam fee is the visible cost. The less visible one is momentum. The material is freshest in the days after a sitting, which argues for a short, focused gap rather than a long one. It does not argue for the next morning unless you know exactly what went wrong.

Published pass rates are for first-time candidates only. Repeat-taker rates are not published for Pennsylvania, so there is no official number telling you how retakers do. Treat a retake as a fresh exam that you need to be ready for, not as a free practice run.

Passing is not the last step. You then apply for your resident producer license: the application fee is $55, with an online service fee of about $12.50, and you must be fingerprinted through IdentoGO. The fingerprint fee is paid at the center and the Insurance Department does not publish the amount, so check it when you book. Adding another line of authority later costs $25.

1. Work from your result, not your impression. Use whatever breakdown your score report gives you and spend your next sessions on the weakest areas, weighted by how much the outline gives them. Insurance Regulation is 21% of the exam, for example.
2. Switch from reading to questions. Many second-attempt failures come from knowing the words and missing the application. Do timed sets of questions and review every wrong answer.
3. Tighten the Pennsylvania law. State law is woven through the exam rather than isolated, so drill licensing, replacement, policy provisions and mandated benefits as scenarios.
4. Rehearse the clock. 170 minutes for 150 scored questions plus 5-10 unscored ones is long. Practise in one sitting at least once.
5. Book when the weak areas move. Rebook when your practice scores improve, not simply because the next day is available.

A short note on timing: do not let the ease of the next-day option push you into rebooking before you have changed anything about how you study. One extra week spent on questions often beats a second identical attempt.

Our first-try plan works as a retake plan too. You can try the course preview free, and the free practice question sets are a quick way to find the sections that need work. To see what you were up against, read how hard the exam is.