Chris Donnelly
Expert
- 31
I strongly recommend taking a course with Kaplan Financial, along with buying their book which they sell through their own organization but can also be found here:
Amazon product ASIN 1475456441
I also tried a course w/ WebCE but found that Kaplan was better in that they have videos you can watch while you follow along with what is in the book I linked above. The videos cover 1-for-1 what’s in the book and what’s in the book is what’s on the exam. Easy.
In order to get these pre-recorded videos, you need to sign up for a live Kaplan Financial Zoom class in your state, which, at least in my resident state of Massachusetts (MA), are offered once a month. But honestly, I just left the live class after an hour once I realized all the same stuff was available to watch more cleanly pre-recorded, at your own pace, and more in line with what is in the course manual that gets shipped to you and that I have linked on Amazon.
I just watched these videos for each of the 22 course units twice through (a total of about 8 hours times two) and each time followed along with the book; I didn’t even bother with the practice quizzes and tests.
Then, I just went in and took the state exams a few days apart in MA and got an 81 out of 100 on Life and 80 out of 100 on Health. 70 is the minimum passing score, so there was even some margin for error.
Oh, another thing. If you’re trying to be efficient, I would honestly not even bother studying stuff specific to your state. Kaplan will send you a smaller state-specific course manual (you can see the one I have linked above is bundled w/ Ohio, for example) but it’s a ton of additional material despite being only a small number of the questions. Given you can get up to 30 of the 100 wrong and still pass, it just isn’t worth the time and energy to learn this stuff for exam purposes. Save it for when you start selling and need to actually know it, but not when you just need to pass your state exam.
Below is a link where you can find the requisite courses:
[EXTERNAL LINK] - Insurance Adjuster Licensing and Exam Prep | Kaplan Financial Education
Lastly, what worked for me may not be the best for everyone reading this. That being said, my past career before this was as a college professor of political science; I have a BA (Vanderbilt), an MA (UC-Davis), and a PhD (also UC-Davis), all in poli sci, and I knew absolutely nothing about insurance until a month or two ago. So if what I did worked well, imagine what this strategy could do for someone who actually has some familiarity with the insurance world!
Oh and I hope it’s clear I’m not in any way affiliated with Kaplan. If I was I probably wouldn’t be suggesting the shortcuts that I am. Lol.
I am just giving an unvarnished take on how someone with little to no prior knowledge of insurance can pass their exam(s) on the first go-round with less than 20 hours of studying.
Hope this helps!
Amazon product ASIN 1475456441
I also tried a course w/ WebCE but found that Kaplan was better in that they have videos you can watch while you follow along with what is in the book I linked above. The videos cover 1-for-1 what’s in the book and what’s in the book is what’s on the exam. Easy.
In order to get these pre-recorded videos, you need to sign up for a live Kaplan Financial Zoom class in your state, which, at least in my resident state of Massachusetts (MA), are offered once a month. But honestly, I just left the live class after an hour once I realized all the same stuff was available to watch more cleanly pre-recorded, at your own pace, and more in line with what is in the course manual that gets shipped to you and that I have linked on Amazon.
I just watched these videos for each of the 22 course units twice through (a total of about 8 hours times two) and each time followed along with the book; I didn’t even bother with the practice quizzes and tests.
Then, I just went in and took the state exams a few days apart in MA and got an 81 out of 100 on Life and 80 out of 100 on Health. 70 is the minimum passing score, so there was even some margin for error.
Oh, another thing. If you’re trying to be efficient, I would honestly not even bother studying stuff specific to your state. Kaplan will send you a smaller state-specific course manual (you can see the one I have linked above is bundled w/ Ohio, for example) but it’s a ton of additional material despite being only a small number of the questions. Given you can get up to 30 of the 100 wrong and still pass, it just isn’t worth the time and energy to learn this stuff for exam purposes. Save it for when you start selling and need to actually know it, but not when you just need to pass your state exam.
Below is a link where you can find the requisite courses:
[EXTERNAL LINK] - Insurance Adjuster Licensing and Exam Prep | Kaplan Financial Education
Lastly, what worked for me may not be the best for everyone reading this. That being said, my past career before this was as a college professor of political science; I have a BA (Vanderbilt), an MA (UC-Davis), and a PhD (also UC-Davis), all in poli sci, and I knew absolutely nothing about insurance until a month or two ago. So if what I did worked well, imagine what this strategy could do for someone who actually has some familiarity with the insurance world!
Oh and I hope it’s clear I’m not in any way affiliated with Kaplan. If I was I probably wouldn’t be suggesting the shortcuts that I am. Lol.
I am just giving an unvarnished take on how someone with little to no prior knowledge of insurance can pass their exam(s) on the first go-round with less than 20 hours of studying.
Hope this helps!
