How to Pass the Massachusetts Life & Health Exam on the First Try (2026)

Massachusetts does not offer a single Life & Health exam. To hold both lines of authority you sit two separate Pearson VUE exams: the Life Producer exam and the Accident, Health or Sickness Producer exam. Each delivers 80 scored questions (50 general-knowledge items plus 30 Massachusetts-specific items) and 10 unscored pretest questions (5 general-knowledge, 5 state-specific) mixed in without being labeled — 90 items in total per sitting. There is no way to tell a pretest question from a scored one, so the practical move is to answer every item as if it counts.

Passing is a scaled score of 70, not a raw percentage and not a fixed count of correct answers — the scaled score is, in the vendor's own words, neither the number of questions answered correctly nor the percentage of questions answered correctly. Each exam costs $37 per attempt, and the general-knowledge and Massachusetts-specific content are sat together in one sitting and scored together: there is no separate passing mark for the state-law portion.

Both exams are administered by Pearson VUE, in person only, at Pearson test centers; Massachusetts does not offer remote proctoring, and walk-in examinations are not available, so you book a seat in advance. Because the two lines are tested separately, a candidate who wants both has to pass both — there is no combined exam and no discount for sitting them back to back. The handbook does not specify a testing language; candidates who need accommodations such as extra time, a reader or recorder, or a separate room can request them under the ADA on a documented, case-by-case basis.

Massachusetts switched its insurance-licensing exam vendor on July 22, 2026. Before that date, Prometric administered the state's producer exams; Pearson VUE took over on that date, and the current content outlines are explicitly dated effective July 22, 2026. If you come across older material that still names Prometric, or that describes scheduling through Prometric's own system, it was written before the switch and is no longer current — every scheduling and test-center detail on this page describes the Pearson VUE process now in place.

What has not changed is the substance of the exam itself: the same two lines, the same scaled-score-of-70 passing standard, the same $37 fee. The switch changed who runs the test centers and how you book a seat, not what you need to know to pass.

Massachusetts does not currently require a pre-licensing course for Life or Accident, Health or Sickness producers. That is not a blanket exemption written into the statute, and it is worth understanding exactly how it works: M.G.L. c. 175 §162L(3) conditions pre-licensing education on the Commissioner choosing to require it for a given line of authority — the statute lets the Commissioner require it, it does not require it outright. As of today, the Commissioner has not exercised that authority for Life or Accident, Health or Sickness producers, so no pre-licensing course sits between you and either exam.

That is a meaningfully different legal setup from a state that passed a hard pre-licensing-hour law and later took it off the books. Massachusetts never had a flat statutory requirement to remove; the condition in §162L(3) has simply never been triggered for these two lines. Practically, the result is the same either way: you can study however you choose and go straight to booking your Pearson VUE seat. Skipping a mandated course does not mean skipping preparation — see the pass rates below.

The NAIC compiles first-time, English-language pass rates for every state's producer exams. For Massachusetts:

• Life Producer — 2024: 40.55% (7,834 first-time candidates); 2025: 45.39% (8,083 first-time candidates)
• Accident, Health or Sickness Producer — 2024: 55.70% (3,364 first-time candidates); 2025: 56.82% (3,224 first-time candidates)

Quoted together, that is roughly 41-45% on Life and 56-57% on Accident, Health or Sickness. Say it plainly: fewer than half of first-time candidates pass the Life Producer exam. That is a hard exam by any reasonable measure, and almost everyone pursuing a Life & Health license has to clear it. The Accident, Health or Sickness exam is friendlier, with a little over half of first-time candidates passing, but a little-over-half pass rate still means a large minority do not pass on the first try.

Massachusetts does not publish a separate pass rate for repeat candidates, so there is no second-attempt figure to lean on here, and nothing in the public data suggests a retake is easier. Since each exam is $37 per attempt and failing either one delays the whole application, the cheapest strategy is to prepare so the first sitting of each exam is the only one. The full cost breakdown shows exactly what a retake adds to the total.

Pearson VUE's content outline #122301, effective July 22, 2026, lists exactly how the 80 scored questions on each exam split across content sections. Each line is published as two separately labeled documents — General Knowledge and Massachusetts Specific — even though both are sat together in the same exam. Life Producer, General Knowledge (50 scored):

• Types of Policies: 15 items
• Policy Riders, Provisions, Options, and Exclusions: 15 items
• Completing the Application, Underwriting, and Delivering the Policy: 12 items
• Retirement and Other Insurance Concepts: 8 items

Life Producer, Massachusetts Specific (30 scored):

• Massachusetts Laws and Rules Pertinent to All Lines of Insurance: 15 items
• Massachusetts Laws and Regulations Pertinent to Life Insurance: 15 items

Accident, Health or Sickness Producer, General Knowledge (50 scored):

• Types of Policies: 16 items
• Policy Provisions, Clauses, and Riders: 15 items
• Social Insurance: 6 items
• Other Insurance Concepts: 5 items
• Field Underwriting Procedures: 8 items

Accident, Health or Sickness Producer, Massachusetts Specific (30 scored):

• Massachusetts Laws and Rules Pertinent to All Lines of Insurance: 15 items
• Massachusetts Laws and Regulations Pertinent to Accident, Health or Sickness Insurance Only: 15 items

Read all four lists together and two things stand out. First, Massachusetts law is not a side note on either line: 15 of 80 items on each exam come from the "Laws and Rules Pertinent to All Lines" section alone, before you even count the line-specific Massachusetts section sitting next to it — close to 40% of each exam's scored content tied to Massachusetts statutes and regulations rather than generic policy knowledge. Second, the largest general-knowledge sections deserve outsized attention: Types of Policies and Policy Riders, Provisions, Options and Exclusions each carry 15 items on the Life exam, and Types of Policies carries 16 on the Accident, Health or Sickness exam, with Policy Provisions, Clauses and Riders close behind at 15. A candidate who studies generic national material and treats the two Massachusetts-specific sections as an afterthought is giving away roughly a third of each exam before the test even starts.

The Massachusetts-specific sections are not abstract "know your state" filler — the outline names exact statutes. The section common to both exams, Massachusetts Laws and Rules Pertinent to All Lines of Insurance, covers the licensing process (M.G.L. c. 175 §162G-X), the different license types — producers (§162H,L,M), business entity producers (§162L), nonresident producers (§162N,U), temporary licenses (§162Q), advisers (§177A,B), reinsurance intermediaries (§177M-W), and exemptions (§162J) — license maintenance and renewal (§162M(b-d),177B,177O), address changes (§162M(f)), reporting of actions (§162V), assumed names (§162P), disciplinary actions including cease and desist (c. 176D §7), hearings (§162R, c. 176D §6) and probation, suspension or revocation (§162R,177B, c. 176D §§7,10,30A §13), the Commissioner's powers (§3A, c. 176D §5), company regulation such as certificates of authority (§4,33,151) and policy forms (§2B,192), and the Unfair Trade Practices Act (c. 176D §3) — misrepresentation, false advertising and rebating (§§182-184) among its named practices.

The Life-specific section layers on the Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association Law (§146B), producer responsibilities in solicitation and sales presentations (211 CMR 31.00, 31.07), standard life policy provisions — entire contract, free look, grace period, reinstatement, incontestability and misstatement of age (§132) — nonforfeiture (§144), policy loans (§142), variable life (211 CMR 95), annuities (§144A½) and the Life Settlement Act (§§212-223E). The Accident, Health or Sickness-specific section layers on required and optional policy provisions (§108(3)(a)-(b)), replacement of coverage (§110(N)(3)(a), Reg 42.08/42.11), the Massachusetts individual mandate (c. 111M, 956 CMR 5.00), Mental Health Parity (§47B and related sections), Medicare supplement regulation (211 CMR 71) and Long-Term Care Insurance regulation (211 CMR 65.00). None of it is generic, and all of it is fair game on 15 of the 80 scored questions per exam before you even reach the all-lines section next to it.

This material is conceptual, not visual — you do not need a diagram to understand what separates a decreasing term rider from a waiver of premium, you need a clear explanation you can hear more than once. The LanePrep Massachusetts course is nine audio chapters built directly from the #122301 outlines above, each with its own quiz, organized so the chapters for each exam line up with that exam's item counts.

Week 1 — Life Producer exam (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8)

• Days 1-2: Chapter 1 — Life: Types of Policies (15 items)
• Days 3-4: Chapter 2 — Life: Policy Riders, Provisions, Options and Exclusions (15 items)
• Days 5-6: Chapter 3 — Life: Completing the Application, Underwriting and Delivering the Policy; Retirement and Other Insurance Concepts (20 items)
• Day 7: Chapter 7 — Massachusetts Laws and Rules Pertinent to All Lines (15 items), then Chapter 8 — Massachusetts Laws and Regulations Pertinent to Life Insurance (15 items)

Those five chapters cover all 80 items on the Life Producer exam (15+15+20+15+15).

Week 2 — Accident, Health or Sickness exam (Chapters 4, 5 and 6)

• Days 8-9: Chapter 4 — Accident & Health: Types of Policies (16 items)
• Days 10-11: Chapter 5 — Accident & Health: Policy Provisions, Clauses and Riders; Social Insurance (21 items)
• Days 12-14: Chapter 6 — Accident & Health: Other Insurance Concepts, Field Underwriting Procedures, and Massachusetts Laws and Regulations Pertinent to Accident, Health or Sickness Insurance (28 items, the largest single chapter)

Those three chapters, plus Chapter 7 carried over from Week 1, cover all 80 items on the Accident, Health or Sickness exam (16+21+28+15).

Week 3 — Review and exam day (Chapter 9)

• Days 15-17: Re-drill whichever chapter quizzes flagged the most misses on each line
• Day 18: Chapter 9 — Exam Day: Pearson VUE, Scoring and Strategy, then a timed run through every chapter quiz in one sitting
• Days 19-21: Rest the day before each exam; book the Life Producer exam and the Accident, Health or Sickness exam on separate days if your schedule allows a review day in between

Take the chapter quiz after each listen and write down which questions you missed. Two days later, before starting the next chapter, answer those same questions again. That short loop is where the retention comes from — listening alone feels productive but does not tell you what actually stuck.

Chapters 1 and 9 are free at /ma/l-and-h/preview — full audio and quiz, no signup. Chapter 9 is the one to start with if you already studied elsewhere and just want to check the format before you book either exam.

If you fail either exam, Massachusetts does not publish a mandatory waiting period before you can retest — you reapply and pay another exam fee. The $37 fee is charged again for every attempt, on every exam, with no reduced retake price. Fail both exams once each and you have spent $74 without yet holding a license; fail one of them twice and you have already spent more on that single exam than the other one cost you the first time.

Because each exam is scored as one sitting — general knowledge and Massachusetts-specific content together, no separate pass mark for the state-law portion — there is no way to "bank" a passing state-law score while you work on the general material, or vice versa. A fail on either exam means the whole 90-item sitting is retaken, pretest questions included.

The practical upshot is the same one the pass-rate numbers already point to: with fewer than half of first-time Life Producer candidates passing, a retake is a live possibility, not an edge case, and it is cheapest to prevent rather than pay for. The cost guide works through exactly what one retake adds to the full license budget.

Exam structure and fees from the Pearson VUE / Massachusetts DOI Candidate Handbook #122300 (rev. June 2026). Question counts and content weighting from Pearson VUE content outline #122301 (effective July 22, 2026). Pass rates from the NAIC compiled pass-rate reports for 2024 and 2025. Read October 2026.