NM-PC Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

The Official 2025 NM-PC Pass Rate Numbers

If you're weighing how much preparation the New Mexico Property & Casualty Insurance Producer Exam actually requires, start with the numbers the state and PSI Services LLC have released rather than guesswork found on forums. According to official 2025 results, the combined first-time pass rate for NM-PC sat at 67.7%, while the overall pass rate - including retakes - climbed to 71.0%. That gap tells a clear story: roughly one in three first-time candidates does not clear the bar, but many of those candidates succeed on a subsequent attempt.

These figures apply specifically to Series 18-31, the property and casualty producer exam administered under the New Mexico Office of Superintendent of Insurance. They are not industry-wide averages or numbers borrowed from a different licensing exam - they reflect this exact test, with its 150 scored multiple-choice questions delivered in a 150-minute window, scored against a 70% passing threshold.

Why Remote Proctoring Outperforms Test Centers

One of the more striking details in the 2025 data is the split between testing formats. Candidates who tested via remote proctoring passed at a 72.6% first-time rate, compared to just 54.4% for candidates who sat the exam at a physical PSI test center. That's an 18-point gap between two versions of the exact same 150-question exam. This doesn't necessarily mean remote testing is "easier." It more likely reflects who chooses each format. Candidates who opt for remote proctoring may be more comfortable with self-directed study, more flexible about scheduling their exam for a moment when they feel genuinely ready, and less rushed by travel logistics on exam day. Test center candidates, by contrast, may be locked into a fixed appointment regardless of how prepared they feel.

Where Candidates Actually Lose Points

The pass rate data doesn't break down failures by domain, but the exam blueprint makes clear where the point volume is concentrated - and therefore where a shaky understanding does the most damage to your score. NM-PC covers 13 domains, and the questions are not distributed evenly.

• Domain 4 (Property and Casualty Insurance Basics) - 16.7%: The single largest domain. Weak fundamentals here ripple into every policy-specific domain later in the exam.
• Domain 9 (Commercial Property Policies) - 14.7%: Dense with forms, endorsements, and valuation methods that are easy to confuse under time pressure.
• Domain 6 (Homeowners Policy Concepts) and Domain 7 (Personal Automobile Policy) - 12% each: High-frequency real-world topics that appear in large numbers on the exam.
• Domain 1 (Insurance Regulation) and Domain 10 (Commercial General Liability) - 10% each: Regulatory nuance and CGL structure trip up candidates who skim rather than study in depth.

Together, these five domains account for roughly two-thirds of the entire exam. Candidates who fail often report spending equal time across all 13 domains instead of weighting their review to match the blueprint - a mistake you can avoid by studying the full breakdown in the NM-PC Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 13 Content Areas.

Domain Weighting and Pass Rate Risk

Because the passing score is a flat 70% across 150 scored questions, every question theoretically carries equal weight on your final score. But domains with more questions naturally have more opportunities to either build or erode your margin. A candidate who is shaky on a 2%-weighted domain like Domain 2 (Federal Laws and Regulations) or Domain 13 (Workers' Compensation Laws) has limited room to lose points there. A candidate who is shaky on Domain 4 or Domain 9 has far more room to lose points - and far more risk of falling below 70%.

This is why a domain-weighted study plan outperforms a "study everything equally" approach. For a more detailed breakdown of exactly how difficult each domain feels in practice, see How Hard Is the NM-PC Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

Retake Rules and the Fourth-Failure Penalty

The gap between the 67.7% first-time pass rate and the 71.0% overall pass rate exists because retakes are allowed - but not without structure. Here's what candidates need to know about the mechanics:

The six-month waiting period after a fourth failure is the single biggest reason to treat your first or second attempt seriously rather than treating the exam as something you can simply "wear down" through repeated tries. For a full cost breakdown across multiple attempts, review the NM-PC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

How to Push Your Odds Above the Average

Since no formal prelicensing education is required to sit for NM-PC, candidates arrive with wildly different starting points - some have insurance office experience, others are starting from zero. That variance is likely part of why the first-time pass rate sits at 67.7% rather than higher. A few practical levers consistently separate passing candidates from those who need a retake:

• Treat the 70% threshold as a floor, not a target. Aim your practice scores meaningfully above 70% before scheduling, since exam-day pressure typically costs a few points. See exactly how the passing score is calculated in NM-PC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
• Practice under real time pressure. With 150 questions in 150 minutes, you have exactly one minute per question on average - including time to flag and review. Timed practice tests on our practice test platform build the pacing instinct that reading alone cannot.
• Choose remote proctoring if your setup allows it. Given the 72.6% versus 54.4% split in the 2025 data, a quiet, familiar testing environment appears to correlate with stronger outcomes.
• Don't skip the low-weight domains entirely. Domains like Domain 13 (Workers' Compensation Laws) and Domain 2 (Federal Laws and Regulations) are small, but a handful of missed questions there can be the difference between 68% and 71%.

A Domain-Weighted Study Timeline

Generic weekly study templates rarely map to how NM-PC actually weights its content. A more effective approach allocates study time roughly in proportion to domain weight, front-loading the heaviest domains while they're still fresh for review closer to exam day.

For a more detailed week-by-week breakdown with specific topics inside each domain, see the NM-PC Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.

Frequently Asked Questions