The life insurance examination is the gateway to an exciting career as a licensed agent in the insurance industry. Passing this exam is of paramount importance to you in ultimately being accepted as an insurance agent entitling you to sell life insurance. If you pass the life insurance exam, your career in the insurance field is virtually assured.
With great reward comes great responsibility – preparing for the life insurance test entails a series of pitfalls and mistakes that you will want to avoid. In this guide, we’ll provide you with the strategies needed to avoid some of the most common pitfalls during test prep and put yourself on the surest course to pass the life insurance exam on your first try.
Inadequate Study Planning
It is a perfectly structured study plan that paves the way for perfect preparation for your exam. However, it is procrastination that makes the majority of candidates fall into the trap of ineffective preparation.
Lack of a Structured Study Schedule
Importance of Regular and Consistent Studying Schedule: It helps you to stay organized and cover all the important topics on time.
General advice to help develop a useful study plan:
- Check how long you have until the test and mark it off in your calendar or planner.
- Take your materials to be studied, and divide them into reasonable sections.
- Decide how much time you have to study and write out in this planner/calendar how much time you will spend every day.
- In addition, inform your friends, and acquire moral support.
Procrastination and Last-Minute Cramming
Disadvantages of Delaying Study: If you keep postponing your studies to the last minute, you will be under stress and you won’t have time to grasp the lesson.
Based on their research, they proposed a set of strategies for how to avoid last-minute cramming: Set a study schedule based on achievable time goals. How much time do you need to spend on a particular activity? Break up study sessions into shorter intervals of sustained attention (eg, the Pomodoro technique, proposed by Francesco Cirillo, involves studying for 25 minutes with five-minute breaks).
Ineffective Study Techniques
Using the wrong study techniques might be detrimental to taking the material in and understanding it, and this would then affect your examination performance.
Benefits of Diversifying Your Study Sources: Different study materials offer different views and explanations of the material making it easier for you to see it through different perspectives.
Ignoring Practice Exams for Life Insurance Test Prep
Taking practice exams replicates the actual exam mood and environment which would help you to overcome your test anxiety and get familiar with the testing atmosphere and time management before the exam. Practicing mock tests is the way to figure out your blind spots and the areas that need improvement.
Neglecting Difficult Topics
Prevalent Distaste for Difficult Subjects: It’s natural to avoid subjects in which you are not strong, but you will not do well on your exams without confronting these areas.
Strategies for Tackling Difficult Subjects Tackling difficult subjects may be tedious and challenging initially. However, it is important to break them down into understandable components or to use like tutorial videos, study groups, or one-on-one tutoring to aid the studying process.
Poor Study Environment
It has a huge impact on your ability to concentrate and remember what you have learned.
Studying in Distracting Environments
Study room helps students to pay attention and improve the absorption of knowledge because there is no interference.
Tips for writing the ideal study space for your life insurance exam prep:
- Picking an ideal space at home where you could focus and be relaxed.
- The space should fit with natural sound.
- There should be an adequate lighting.
- Try to organize your space and remove distractors such as smartphones and noisy places.
Not Taking Regular Breaks
Advantage of Study Session Intermissions: Study breaks prevent burnout and keep you productive
Recommended Break Schedules and Activities: For every hour of work/ studying, use the Pomodoro Technique or take a 5–10 minute break. When you break from your studies, stretch, walk around, or do a quick relaxation exercise to refresh your mind.
Underestimating the Exam Difficulty
Realistic Expectations About Exam Difficulty: Overconfidence can lead to inadequate preparation and poor performance.
Difficult questions are often unanticipated and tend to catch job candidates off guard. Answering any question well requires a significant amount of preparation that most candidates fail to carry out, and failing to prepare means failing. This is especially true when it comes to hard questions.
The key to answering difficult interview questions successfully is practice, practice, and more practice. With this in mind, one of the best ways to prepare for a challenging job interview is to have a friend ask you unexpected questions. You can also time yourself, and if you don’t feel comfortable guessing, because sometimes you will have no idea, think about what is likely to be a good guess.
ignoring Health and Well-being
Your ability to study and your exam performance is largely dictated by your state of health, both physical and mental.
Poor Nutrition and Sleep Habits
The impact of diet and sleep on taking exams: Good nutrition and sleep increases concentration/memory/cognitive function.
Healthy hints for exam success: Eat well-balanced meals, drink lots of water, and get to bed early (7-8 hours of sleep every night). Avoid caffeine and chips.
High Stress and Anxiety Levels
Techniques for Managing Stress and Anxiety ☐ High stress and anxiety will hinder your study and performance.
It would be equally important to take care of mental well-being which is also part of the process of success in exams. Practice relaxation techniques like breathing exercises, meditation, or yoga. Maintain a positive attitude and take regular breaks in between studies.
Need study help? Reach out to Your Insurance License for life insurance test prep help or email Justin@yourinsurancelicense.com! We’re here to help.
