United States
Hong KongWhy Texas publishes no percentage pass mark
Because a percentage of questions correct would not mean the same thing on two different forms of the exam. TDI sets the passing score and Pearson reports it as a scaled score, so no percentage exists to publish. The 70% quoted across the internet is not TDI's figure and is not sourced to anyone.
Search for the pass mark on this exam and you will be given a number. Usually 70 percent, stated flatly, often with no source attached and occasionally with a made-up question count beside it. It is not the Department's figure. Here is what is actually published, and why the missing percentage is a design decision rather than an oversight.
What TDI and Pearson actually publish
| Question | Published answer |
|---|---|
| Who sets the passing score? | The Texas Department of Insurance |
| How is the result reported? | As a scaled score |
| What percentage of questions must be correct? | Not published |
| What is the scaled passing score? | Not published |
| What is the mean scaled score? | 69.75, FY2025 |
| Standard deviation of scaled scores | 14.51, FY2025 |
| First-time pass rate | 57.7%, from 26,427 candidates |
Read that table twice. The Department publishes a great deal about how candidates performed and nothing at all about the threshold they were measured against. That is not an accident and it is not secrecy.
Why a percentage would be the wrong thing to publish
You do not sit the same paper as the candidate next to you. Forms are assembled from the same content outline, to the same published section counts, from a much larger question bank. Two forms built to identical specifications are still not identical in difficulty, because questions are not interchangeable objects.
Suppose one form happens to be marginally harder than another. If the standard were "70 percent of questions correct", the candidate who drew the harder form would need more skill to reach the same threshold than the candidate who drew the easier one. Same license, same standard on paper, different bar in practice. Over 26,427 candidates a year, that is a lot of people passed or failed by draw.
Equating is the statistical work that measures how much harder one form was, using performance on questions common to both. Scaling then converts each form's raw scores onto a single reporting scale, so that a given scaled score represents the same standard whichever form produced it. On a harder form, slightly fewer correct answers reach it. On an easier one, slightly more.
There is no fixed number of questions you must answer correctly. It moves with the form. A published percentage would therefore be wrong for every form except the one it happened to be calculated from, which is why no serious testing program publishes one.
Where the 70% figure came from
We cannot prove its origin and we are not going to pretend to. What we can say is what it is not: it is not in TDI's licensing pages, it is not in the FY2025 examination report, and it is not in Pearson's candidate handbook.
Our best reading is that it is the ordinary passing standard from other kinds of testing, borrowed because a page about an exam looks incomplete without a pass mark and because one prep site copies another. Once a number is on twenty sites it stops needing a source, which is a description of most of the internet and all of this particular corner of it.
Our own cross-check, and what it is worth
TDI publishes enough to bracket the standard even though it does not state it. A mean scaled score of 69.75, a standard deviation of 14.51, and 57.7 percent of first-time candidates passing.
Put those together. If the cut sat at a scaled 70, the mean candidate would land essentially on it and slightly more than half the field would clear it, which is close to what the published pass rate shows. If the cut sat at sixty, roughly three quarters of the field would clear it, and the published pass rate flatly contradicts that.
| If the cut were | Share who would clear it | Consistent with 57.7% passing? |
|---|---|---|
| A scaled 70 | Slightly over half | Yes |
| A scaled sixty | Roughly three quarters | No |
| Much above 70 | Well under half | No |
It is a cross-check against published statistics, on a scale, and it is not a percentage of questions. TDI has not confirmed it and we are not presenting it as a threshold to aim at. Treat it as evidence that the standard is demanding, and nothing more.
A scaled 70 is not 70 percent
This is the confusion that makes the internet's figure look plausible, and it is worth separating carefully. A scaled score is a position on a reporting scale. It is not a share of questions and the two happening to be near the same number is a coincidence of scale design.
Someone who scores a scaled 70 has not necessarily answered 70 percent of the 130 scored questions correctly. They may have answered more or fewer, depending on the form. Confusing the two is what turns an unknown standard into a confident-sounding percentage.
What to do with a standard you cannot see
Aim comfortably above where the evidence puts it, on papers of your own, and stop looking for the exact figure. Our readiness target is 78 percent against our own mock papers, and it sits deliberately above the plausible standard so that a bad draw still leaves headroom. It is our target, it is not a pass mark, and we label it that way everywhere it appears.
The concession this page owes you: a candidate would genuinely be better served by a published cut, and the argument for scaling is about fairness across forms rather than about candidate convenience. Nobody outside the Department can tell you how many of the 130 you need. Anyone who does is guessing at a number that moves.
Common questions
What percentage do you need to pass the Texas insurance exam?
No percentage is published. TDI sets the passing score and Pearson reports results on a scaled score, so there is no fixed share of questions that has to be correct. The figure circulating online is not sourced to the Department.
Is the pass mark really 70%?
That number is not TDI's. It does not appear in TDI's licensing pages, its FY2025 examination report or Pearson's candidate handbook. Our own cross-check suggests the standard sits near a scaled 70, which is a position on a scale rather than a percentage of questions.
Why does Texas not publish a pass percentage?
Because candidates sit different forms of the exam, and a fixed percentage would set a harder bar on a harder form. Scaling puts every form on one reporting scale so the same scaled score means the same standard, which makes a published percentage meaningless.
How do you know the cut is near a scaled 70?
We do not know it. TDI publishes a mean scaled score of 69.75, a standard deviation of 14.51 and a first-time pass rate of 57.7 percent, and a cut near 70 is the only value consistent with all three. That inference is ours, not the Department's.
How many questions do you need right?
There is no fixed number, and it varies with the difficulty of the form you sit. That is the practical consequence of scaling, and it is why no honest source can convert the standard into a count out of 130.
What should you aim for instead?
A target of your own, set well above the plausible standard. Ours is 78 percent against our own mock papers, chosen so that a candidate who reaches it clears a harder form with room to spare. It is our figure and never presented as a pass mark.