You Failed the P&C Exam. Here's Exactly What Happens Next.
Retake waiting periods, fees and attempt limits for the Property & Casualty licensing exam, state by state — plus the prelicensing certificate expiry that quietly costs repeat candidates their coursework.
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This guide solves the next-step problem for Insurance candidates: it explains what matters, then gives you a direct way to test that knowledge with practice questions instead of guessing what to study next.
First, the Part That Matters Most
You can retake it, in most states within 24 hours, and in most states as many times as you need. Failing the P&C exam is a delay and a fee. It is not a disqualification, it does not go on your licence application, and the phrase 'there is no limit to the number of times you may take an examination' appears verbatim in the Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and Georgia candidate handbooks. You are also in ordinary company. Across the 50 jurisdictions reporting to the NAIC for calendar year 2024, 40% of first-time P&C candidates did not pass — 37,785 people. In Michigan more than half didn't. This is a hard exam with a genuinely low pass rate, not a referendum on you. The rest of this article is the mechanics: how long you wait, what it costs, and the one deadline that can quietly cost you your coursework.
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How Long You Have to Wait
Three patterns, and most states use the first. **Next day or 24 hours — the majority.** Illinois, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina and Connecticut all state a 24-hour wait. Mississippi and Missouri say one day. Texas says a candidate who failed can schedule a new exam within one day. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington phrase it as a score-processing constraint — PSI's bulletins use the example of testing unsuccessfully on a Wednesday, calling Thursday, and retesting Friday. **A fixed multi-day wait.** **Georgia** is the significant one: fourteen days after your first and second attempts. That is not a penalty for repeat failure, it applies from the very first miss. **Escalating waits.** **Georgia** again — 60 days after the third attempt and every attempt after that. **Alabama** — 90 days after the second failure, then 180 days after the fourth, with the clock resetting 24 months after your last failure. **New Mexico** — a six-month wait after the fourth unsuccessful attempt. **California** — anyone who has failed an examination ten times is barred from that exam for twelve months from the date of the last failure. **One state we could not verify:** Florida's handbook and DFS page give an attempt cap but no minimum gap between attempts. Do not assume next-day in Florida — check when you rebook.
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What a Retake Costs
**You pay the full exam fee again.** Every candidate bulletin we read charges the standard fee per attempt, with no discounted retake anywhere. North Carolina states it most bluntly: the fee is $45 for each examination attempt. Fees are universally non-refundable and non-transferable. Verified per-attempt fees: | State | Fee per attempt | |---|---:| | Washington | $38 | | Missouri | $40 | | Colorado | $41 test centre / $31 online | | Ohio | $42 | | Florida | $44 | | Pennsylvania | $45 ($55 combined lines) | | North Carolina | $45 | | Texas | $49 | | New York | $49 | | Mississippi | $50 | | South Carolina | $59 | | Georgia | $67 | | New Mexico | $75 | | Illinois | $92 | Illinois at $92 is the outlier, and it changes the calculus there — two failed attempts in Illinois costs more than four in Washington. **California we could not verify.** Neither the Department of Insurance pages nor the PSI bulletin published a base exam fee; the only figure on CDI's own pages is a $43 convenience fee for testing at PSI locations, which is an add-on and not the exam fee. We are not going to print a California number we could not source.
Attempt Limits — Rarer Than You'd Think
Most states set none. The genuine caps we verified: - **Florida** — five attempts per examination type in any twelve-month period. - **South Carolina** — six attempts per twelve months. - **California** — a twelve-month bar after ten failures. - **Colorado and Mississippi** — a soft cap on the online route only: two attempts via online proctoring, after which you must test at a centre. Mississippi adds a 14-day wait between online attempts. And one myth to put down. **No state we checked requires you to repeat prelicensing education after a specific number of failures.** That rule is widely repeated and we could find no source for it. What actually exists is a re-education trigger based on *time*, not failure count — which is the next section, and it is the thing that actually catches people.
The Deadline That Quietly Costs You Your Coursework
Your prelicensing certificate expires, and if it expires before you pass, you retake the course — not the exam. This is the real cost of a long string of failures, and it is far larger than any retake fee. - **Ohio — 180 calendar days** from issuance. The shortest window we found. Roughly six months from finishing your course to passing, or you start over. - **Illinois — one year.** The handbook is explicit that failing to test within a year means retaking the prelicensing course. - **Georgia — one year.** Same language: if the applicant has not passed after one year, the applicant will have to retrain. - **Colorado — one year.** Same. - **New York — no expiry.** The certificate is good for a lifetime. Separately, a **passing** score also has a shelf life. Florida, California, Colorado and South Carolina give you one year to complete the application; New York allows two. Texas requires fingerprints and an application within one year of passing. So passing is not the end of a clock — it starts one. We could not verify certificate expiry for Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi, Pennsylvania or Washington. If you are in one of those and heading for a third attempt, ask your provider before you assume you have time.
Read Your Score Report Before You Book Anything
Almost every state gives failing candidates a diagnostic breakdown, and it is the single most useful artefact you will get out of a failed attempt — far more useful than the score itself. PSI's bulletins for California, Pennsylvania, Washington and Ohio state that the emailed score report includes a diagnostic report indicating strengths and weaknesses. New York's is by examination portion. Pearson VUE's North Carolina handbook is the most granular: failing candidates receive diagnostic reports listing the content-outline areas in which they performed unsatisfactorily. Connecticut gives diagnostic information for each major area. Prometric's New Mexico report shows the correct percentage in each major section. **Two exceptions:** Missouri's handbook offers no diagnostic feedback on failure, and Colorado's describes only a numeric score to failing candidates with no topic breakdown. Where you get one, use it as your study plan. If you were within a few points and weak in one area, you need targeted drilling on that area, not another full pass through the course. If you were far off across the board, you have a coverage problem and a rushed retake will produce the same result at full price.
A Retake Plan That Doesn't Repeat the First Attempt
The instinct after a failure is to book immediately while it is fresh. In a next-day state that is available, and it is usually a mistake — you will pay the fee again to sit the same exam with the same preparation. What actually changes the outcome: **Work from the diagnostic, not from the whole syllabus.** Rank your weak areas and give them the majority of your time. The areas you already passed do not need another pass. **Switch from reading to answering.** Almost everyone who fails a second time studied the same way twice. If your first attempt was course material and notes, your second should be questions under time pressure, because the failure mode on this exam is usually recall speed and distractor discipline, not comprehension. **Set a numeric go/no-go.** Book only when you are clearing 85% on full-length timed sets on three separate days. One good session is variance. Three is evidence. **Check your certificate's expiry date first,** especially in Ohio with its 180-day window. If the certificate is close to expiring, the calendar decides your timeline, not your readiness. Drill the full 450-question P&C bank free at [the P&C practice test](/free-insurance-pc-practice-test), and check what your state requires before you rebook with [the state requirement lookup](/tools/insurance-pc-state-lookup). If you want to know how normal your result is, [P&C pass rates by state](/blog/p-and-c-insurance-exam-pass-rate-by-state) has the first-time figure for every reporting jurisdiction. Sources: Pearson VUE candidate handbooks for Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri and Connecticut; PSI candidate information bulletins for California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Washington; Prometric New Mexico licensing information bulletin; Alabama Department of Insurance limitations on repeat examinations; Florida DFS; NAIC 2024 State Compiled Pass Rates. All retrieved 19 August 2026. Fees and rules change — confirm against your state's current bulletin before you book.
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