Your state insurance exam is a high-stakes test you need to pass in order to get your producer's license. Although insurance laws and licensing requirements vary by state, one thing is true no matter what state you live in—you must have a license to sell insurance. 

The Test Outline Is Your Friend

If your school hasn't shared an exam outline with you, download one from your test center's website. The outline is helpful for two reasons. First, it lists the exact topics you need to understand to pass the exam. And it also groups those topics by category, such as licensing requirements, general insurance, and property and casualty insurance basics, and shows you what percentage of exam questions pertain to each category. Knowing this lets you focus your time on the categories with the largest percentage of questions. 

Go Old School

A good set of flash cards can be your ace in the hole. Create one for each and every fact and vocabulary-word definition from your class notes, textbooks and/or online course material, as well as any text prep material you purchase. If writing out a huge deck of flash cards seems like a daunting task, it is. But making them as you work through the course makes it easier, and even if you've already finished insurance school, writing out the cards is a great way to study.

In addition to the index cards you'll use to make your flash cards, purchase tabbed index dividers so you can sort your cards by the categories listed on the exam outline. Use index-card file boxes to keep the cards organized. 

Plan Your Time

Choose a target exam date, and then determine how many days you have to study. Designate one time period to review all of your flash cards. You don't have to do the whole deck each time you sit down to study, but do try to get through them all in two or three sittings. Plan enough days to repeat this two or three times, making a mental note of any topics you're struggling with. 

Get Down to Work

Now it's time to start cramming. From here on out, you can work on as many topics as you need to at each setting, depending on how long you've got before your target exam date, but you'll work on just one topic at a time. Quiz yourself on each card in the topic. Now do it again, only this time, put aside flash cards you've mastered as you answer them. Keep working through the cards in this manner, putting aside more cards each time, until you've answered each one correctly. Then move on to the next topic.

Final Countdown

Use the last few days before your exam to run through all the cards to keep a general overview fresh in your mind and identify areas you're still struggling with. Keep aside that cards for which you feel like you've got a mental block, and cram those at the end of each more general study session. Return them to the file as you master them. Once you're out of cards, you're ready to sit for your exam.

For more information on the process, contact property casualty insurance schools.