ND-PC Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

The Pass Rate Reality: What ND-PC Actually Publishes

If you're searching for a hard percentage number for the North Dakota Property & Casualty Insurance Producer Exam, you'll come up short. The North Dakota Insurance & Securities Department, which governs licensing, and PSI Services LLC, which administers the exam, do not release a public pass/fail rate for the Property exam or the Casualty exam. That's a meaningful difference from how some other licensing programs operate, and it means candidates should stop hunting for a magic percentage and instead focus on the concrete scoring mechanics that are published.

What we do know, directly from the PSI candidate bulletin (dated December 27, 2024), is the structure of each exam: 110 scored questions, 5 to 10 additional unscored experimental questions mixed in without identification, 150 minutes to complete the exam, and a required score of 70% - 77 correct scored answers - to pass. That structure applies identically to both the Property exam and the Casualty exam, since North Dakota treats them as two separate $64 tests rather than one combined license exam.

Scoring Mechanics That Determine Who Passes

Because there's no published statistic to lean on, it helps to understand exactly how the scoring works so you can self-assess realistically during practice. Each exam delivers 110 scored multiple-choice questions in a computer-based format, plus a handful of unscored experimental items PSI uses to test future questions - you won't know which ones don't count, so every question deserves full attention.

• Passing threshold: 70%, or 77 correct answers out of 110 scored questions.
• Time allowed: 150 minutes, which averages out to roughly 80 seconds per question if you use the full window.
• Format: Computer-based multiple choice administered through PSI test centers.
• Cost per attempt: $64 for Property, $64 for Casualty - each line is billed separately.

For a full breakdown of exactly how the score converts and what a "safe" study score looks like before test day, see ND-PC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass. Understanding the arithmetic matters because missing 34 questions still results in a pass, which means you don't need perfection - you need consistent command of the highest-weighted domains.

Why Candidates Fail the Property and Casualty Exams

Since North Dakota doesn't require a prelicensing course before sitting for either exam, candidates arrive with wildly different levels of preparation. Some have worked in insurance for years and are simply formalizing a license; others are starting from zero. That gap is probably the single biggest driver of outcome variance on this exam, more than any inherent difficulty in the material itself.

Common failure patterns tend to cluster around a few themes:

• Underestimating the laws and regulations domains. These are the largest single content areas on both exams, and generic P&C knowledge from other states doesn't fully transfer to North Dakota-specific statutes.
• Treating Property and Casualty as one exam. They are scored, scheduled, and paid for separately. Studying for both simultaneously without a clear split often leads to shallow coverage of both.
• Skipping federal law content. Domains 3 and 13 (Federal Laws and Regulations) are smaller in weight but still appear reliably enough to cost you points if ignored entirely.
• Running out of time on scenario questions. Policy-application questions in domains like Homeowners Policy Concepts or Commercial General Liability take longer to reason through than definitional questions.

For a deeper look at how these failure points compare to other licensing exams and what "hard" actually means in this context, read How Hard Is the ND-PC Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

Domain Weight and Where the Risk Concentrates

Pass/fail outcomes on the ND-PC exams are heavily influenced by how well a candidate's study time matches the actual weight of each content area. North Dakota Laws and Regulations Pertinent to Property Insurance (Domain 2) and North Dakota Laws and Regulations Pertinent to Casualty Insurance (Domain 12) each dominate their respective exams - 23.6% of Property and 27.3% of Casualty. That means roughly a quarter of your scored questions on each exam come from a single domain.

Beyond the laws domains, the remaining content splits across policy-specific knowledge: Dwelling Policy Concepts, Homeowners Policy Concepts, Commercial Property Policies, and the Businessowners Policy on the Property side; Personal Automobile Insurance, Commercial Automobile Policy, Commercial General Liability, and Workers' Compensation Laws on the Casualty side. None of these individually carries the weight of the laws domains, but together they make up the bulk of the remaining questions, so they can't be skipped.

For the complete list of all 20 domains with descriptions of what each one tests, see ND-PC Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 20 Content Areas.

Retakes, Score Validity, and What They Signal

One fact that quietly shapes outcomes: North Dakota allows unlimited retakes. There's no cap on attempts, which removes some of the pressure that exists in licensing programs with strict retake limits. That said, unlimited retakes come at a real cost - you pay the $64 fee again for each attempt, and repeated failures push back your timeline to actually work in the field.

Scores also remain valid for one year from the date you pass, which matters because you must complete the fingerprint-based criminal history check and submit your application through NIPR within that window. If you pass Property in January but delay applying until well into the following year, you risk your score expiring before you've completed the rest of the licensing process.

For the full eligibility checklist - age, residency, fingerprinting, and the NIPR application process - see ND-PC Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify. And if you're budgeting for exam fees, retake fees, and the $100 initial license fee together, ND-PC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown lays out every line item.

A Focused Prep Timeline Built Around the Data

Because there's no prelicensing course requirement, how you structure your own study time is the biggest lever you control. The timeline below assumes you're preparing for both exams but sitting for them separately, which is how North Dakota structures the license.

This timeline is deliberately compressed for candidates studying alongside other commitments; it can be stretched across more weeks if needed. For a more detailed week-by-week breakdown with specific study techniques mapped to each domain, see ND-PC Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. If you want a condensed reference to keep handy during final review, the ND-PC Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts is built for that exact purpose.

Property vs. Casualty: Side-by-Side Snapshot

Notice that Casualty's laws and regulations domain carries even more weight than Property's - nearly 3 percentage points higher. That small difference is worth knowing before you decide which exam to schedule first or how to split limited study hours in your final week.

Who This License Actually Serves

Passing both exams isn't an academic exercise - it's the gateway to working as a licensed producer in North Dakota. Independent agencies, captive insurance carriers, and brokerages hiring for personal lines, commercial lines, or workers' compensation-focused roles all require this license as a baseline credential before you can bind coverage or earn commission on policies sold in the state. If you're weighing whether the time and $64-per-exam investment is worthwhile relative to career outcomes, Is the ND-PC Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and ND-PC Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis break down the practical upside in more depth. You can also browse current openings and role expectations in ND-PC Jobs.

Because renewal happens biennially by the last day of your birth month, with 24 continuing-education hours (including 3 ethics hours) and a $25 fee, passing the exam is really just the first checkpoint in an ongoing licensing relationship with the state - not a one-time hurdle.

Why Practice Testing Matters More Than a Published Rate

In the absence of an official pass rate, the most reliable signal of your readiness is your own performance on realistic practice exams. Since PSI's format is computer-based multiple choice with a fixed time limit, the best preparation mimics that environment exactly - full-length, timed, and scored against the same 70% threshold you'll face on test day.

Running full practice exams at our ND-PC practice test platform lets you simulate both the Property and Casualty formats separately, track which of the 20 domains are pulling your score down, and rehearse pacing against the 150-minute clock. Repeating that process on the practice site a few times in your final two weeks is a far more useful predictor of pass likelihood than any published statistic could be, precisely because none exists for this exam.

If you're still early in exploring what this license actually involves before committing study time, start with What Is ND-PC?, ND-PC Meaning, or What Does ND-PC Stand For? - they cover the basics this article assumes you already know.

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