United States
Hong KongWhat to do after you fail
Do not rebook yet. A retake is a fresh $49 registration with no waiting period set in the candidate handbook for this license, so the cost is time rather than money. You got a result, not a diagnosis, so rebuild from a fresh timed paper instead of from memory.
First, the practical facts, because they are better than most people expect.
- Retake fee
- USD 49, a fresh registration
- Waiting period
- None set in the candidate handbook for this license
- Booking
- On demand at a Pearson VUE test center
- What a fail costs you
- The fee, a morning, and momentum
- What it does not cost
- Any eligibility. Nothing is used up
Nothing is burned. The twelve-month clock that matters starts at a pass, so a failed attempt does not start any deadline running against you.
You got a result, not a diagnosis
This is the part that makes rebuilding harder than it should be. The general and Texas portions are scored as one result, and there are no published sub-scores. So you know you were below the cut and you do not know where.
Which means the worst possible way to rebuild is from memory of which questions felt bad. Questions feel bad for reasons that have nothing to do with whether you got them right, and 15 of the questions you sat were unscored pretest items you were never told about. The one you have been turning over all week may not have counted.
Three things go wrong, and they need different fixes
| Symptom | Diagnosis | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| You ran out of time | Pace | Timed blocks, every session, from now on |
| You finished and scored badly across the board | Content | Rebuild by section weight, general first |
| You were confident and still wrong | Material | Check its date against 1 September 2026 |
| You were fine on general and lost on Texas | Statute | One concentrated block, sorted by who owes the duty |
The third row is the one people never consider and it is the most fixable. The content outline changed on 1 September 2026. If you prepared from something written for the previous one, you did not fail because you are bad at this. You studied a paper Texas no longer sets, and you will not repeat that mistake.
The odds on attempt two
We would love to give you a number here and we cannot.
TDI publishes a first-time pass rate, which was 57.7% of 26,427 candidates in fiscal year 2025. It does not publish a retake pass rate, and it does not follow individual candidates through second attempts. So the share of people who eventually get licensed is certainly higher than 57.7%, and by exactly how much is the most important unpublished number on this site.
What can be said is structural. You have now seen the real paper, its pace, and its house style, which is information the first-time population did not have. Retake candidates are not a random draw from the same pool.
How long to wait
Three weeks is our answer for most people, and it is ours rather than anybody's rule. The candidate handbook sets no waiting period for this license, so the constraint is entirely about whether anything has changed since the attempt that failed.
- Less than a week is too soon unless your diagnosis was purely pace, in which case a week of timed blocks genuinely can fix it
- Three weeks suits a content rebuild, which is roughly the general portion by weight plus a Texas block plus two timed papers
- More than about six weeks and you are relearning, because what you did retain from the first attempt starts leaking
One thing not to do
Do not buy a second complete course. The instinct after a fail is that the problem was the product, and occasionally it is, but a second course means meeting the same 13 outline sections in a different voice and spending your rebuild time on presentation rather than on practice.
If your material was current and reasonably complete, what you are short of is question volume and timed papers, and that is a much smaller purchase. If it was written for the old outline, replace it, and that is the one case where starting again is right.
The concession, and it is a real one for a page like this: we sell a course, and a candidate who has just failed is the reader most likely to buy one. The honest advice is still that most people who fail do not need a new course, and that a fresh timed paper tells you more about what to do next than any vendor can.
Common questions
How soon can you retake the Texas insurance exam?
The candidate handbook sets no waiting period for this license, and a retake is a fresh examination registration at the same $49 fee, bookable on demand. So the limit is practical rather than regulatory: wait until something has actually changed in your preparation.
How much does it cost to retake the Texas insurance exam?
USD 49, the same as the first attempt, because a retake is a new registration rather than a discounted second try. Nothing else is used up by failing, and the twelve-month application window only starts running once you pass.
Will I be told which sections I failed?
No. The 100 general and 30 Texas questions are scored as one result and there are no published sub-scores. That is why the first thing to do after failing is sit a fresh timed paper and score the two portions separately yourself.
How long should I wait before retaking?
About three weeks for a content rebuild, which covers the general portion by weight, a Texas block and two timed papers. A week is enough if the problem was purely pace. Past six weeks you start relearning what the first attempt left you with.
Are retake pass rates higher?
Almost certainly, and TDI does not publish them. The report gives first-time candidates and first-attempt rates only, without following people through second attempts, so the eventual share of candidates who get licensed is higher than 57.7% by an unpublished amount.