- OH P&C stands for the Ohio Property and Casualty Insurance Agent Exam, administered by PSI as Series 11-36.
- The combined exam has 150 questions, a 2-hour 30-minute limit, and requires a 70% score to pass.
- Property and Casualty Insurance Basics is the single largest domain at 16% of the exam.
- Resident candidates complete 40 hours of prelicensing education (20 Property, 20 Casualty) before sitting for the test.
What OH P&C Actually Means
OH P&C stands for the Ohio Property and Casualty Insurance Agent Exam, the state licensing test that the Ohio Department of Insurance requires before someone can sell property and casualty insurance products in Ohio. The exam itself is administered by PSI, a third-party testing vendor, under the internal designation Series 11-36. If you've seen "OH P&C" attached to other unrelated credentials online, that's a different acronym collision entirely - on this site, and in this article, OH P&C refers only to the Ohio state licensing exam described here.
Passing OH P&C is not a voluntary professional certification you add to a resume for prestige. It's a mandatory regulatory checkpoint. Without a passing score reported to the Ohio Department of Insurance, an applicant cannot receive a resident producer license authorizing them to sell property or casualty insurance in the state. For a broader breakdown of what the credential is and isn't, see What Is OH P&C? and OH P&C Meaning.
Exam Mechanics: Format, Fees, and Delivery
Understanding what the letters "OH P&C" stand for is only half the picture - candidates also need to know how the test is actually structured, because that shapes how you prepare. The combined Property and Casualty exam consists of 150 computer-based multiple-choice questions and gives candidates 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete it. A score of 70% is required to pass.
The exam fee is $49 for the combined Property and Casualty test. PSI offers two delivery options: testing at a physical PSI test center, or online-proctored testing from home or another private location. Both formats use the same question bank and time limit, so the choice comes down to convenience and comfort rather than difficulty.
- Question format: multiple-choice, computer-based
- Number of questions: 150
- Time limit: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Passing score: 70%
- Fee: $49 for the combined exam
- Delivery: PSI test center or online proctoring
For a line-by-line breakdown of every fee associated with becoming licensed - not just the exam fee - see OH P&C Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. And if you want the exact scoring mechanics explained further, including how the 150 questions are typically distributed, check OH P&C Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
Key Takeaway
Because the exam is timed at 150 questions in 150 minutes, pacing is roughly one question per minute - plan practice sessions that build that rhythm rather than untimed review alone.
The 10 Domains Behind the Acronym
What actually makes up "OH P&C" content-wise? The exam is built from 10 weighted domains. Knowing these weights is more useful than knowing the acronym's history, because it tells you exactly where study time should go.
Domain 3: Property and Casualty Insurance Basics (16%)
This is the largest single domain on the exam, covering foundational insurance concepts that underpin every other topic tested.
- Insurable interest, risk, and indemnity principles
- Policy structure: declarations, insuring agreements, exclusions, conditions
- Underwriting and rating fundamentals
Domain 5: Homeowners Policy (14%) and Domain 6: Auto Insurance (14%)
These two domains together make up over a quarter of the exam and reflect the products most Ohio agents sell daily.
- HO policy forms, coverage parts, and endorsements
- Auto liability, physical damage, and Ohio-specific auto coverage nuances
Domain 7: Commercial Package Policy (CPP) (12%) and Domain 8: Businessowners Policy (8%)
Commercial lines make up a meaningful chunk of the test, so candidates aiming for commercial-focused agency roles cannot skip this material.
- CPP structure combining property, general liability, and other coverage parts
- BOP eligibility and how it differs from a standalone CPP
The remaining domains - Insurance Regulation (10%), General Insurance (9%), Dwelling Policy (6%), Workers Compensation Insurance (4%), and Other Coverages and Options (7%) - round out the exam and cannot be ignored just because they carry smaller weights; together they still represent over a third of all questions. For a full domain-by-domain walkthrough with study priorities for each, see OH P&C Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 10 Content Areas.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Property and Casualty Insurance Basics | 16% |
| Homeowners Policy | 14% |
| Auto Insurance | 14% |
| Commercial Package Policy (CPP) | 12% |
| Insurance Regulation | 10% |
| General Insurance | 9% |
| Businessowners Policy | 8% |
| Other Coverages and Options | 7% |
| Dwelling Policy | 6% |
| Workers Compensation Insurance | 4% |
Who Needs OH P&C and Who Hires For It
Passing OH P&C is the gateway credential for anyone who wants to work as a licensed property and casualty producer in Ohio. That includes captive agents working for a single carrier, independent agents representing multiple insurers, and staff at agencies who need to legally bind or sell P&C policies. It's also relevant for people moving into insurance from adjacent fields - customer service reps at agencies, account managers, and commercial lines specialists frequently need this license once their duties expand into selling or advising on coverage.
Employers hiring for these roles include independent insurance agencies, captive carrier branches, brokerages that place personal and commercial lines, and insurance divisions inside banks or financial services firms that sell P&C products alongside other offerings. Because the exam covers both personal lines (homeowners, auto, dwelling) and commercial lines (CPP, BOP, workers compensation), a passing score signals baseline competency across the full spectrum of P&C products - which is exactly why it's a prerequisite rather than an optional add-on. For more on where this license can take a career, see OH P&C Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and OH P&C Jobs.
Licensing Requirements Tied to the Exam
The exam doesn't exist in isolation - it's one step in a sequence of licensing requirements. Resident applicants generally must complete 40 hours of approved prelicensing education, split evenly as 20 hours covering Property and 20 hours covering Casualty. This coursework is designed to map directly onto the domains tested on exam day.
Two timing details trip up a surprising number of candidates:
- 180-day validity window: Course completion certificates and education waivers are only valid for 180 days. If you finish your prelicensing hours and then delay scheduling the exam too long, you may need to redo the education requirement.
- Background checks: Resident applicants must complete both BCI and FBI fingerprint-based background checks as part of the licensing process, separate from the exam itself.
Because these pieces have to line up - education completion, background check clearance, and exam scheduling - it's worth mapping out the full timeline before you start. A detailed eligibility breakdown is available in OH P&C Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, and scheduling specifics are covered in OH P&C Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.
Key Takeaway
Schedule your exam within the 180-day window after finishing prelicensing education - don't let a completed certificate expire while you're still "planning to study."
Turning Domain Weights Into a Study Plan
Rather than studying every topic with equal intensity, the smart approach is to weight your time in proportion to the exam's own weighting. Since Property and Casualty Insurance Basics carries 16% - the largest share - it deserves an early and thorough pass, since its concepts (insurable interest, policy structure, underwriting basics) reappear as building blocks inside the Homeowners, Auto, and Commercial domains later.
Foundations First
- Master Property and Casualty Insurance Basics (16%) and General Insurance (9%)
- Review Insurance Regulation (10%) since it's largely memorization-based
Personal Lines
- Deep dive into Homeowners Policy (14%) and Dwelling Policy (6%)
- Study Auto Insurance (14%), Ohio's second-largest domain
Commercial Lines
- Work through Commercial Package Policy (12%) and Businessowners Policy (8%)
- Cover Workers Compensation Insurance (4%) and Other Coverages and Options (7%)
Timed Practice
- Run full-length, timed 150-question practice sessions on our OH P&C practice test platform
- Target weak domains identified from missed questions
This isn't a generic weekly template - it's ordered specifically around the 16%, 14%, and 12% domains that account for the bulk of the scored questions. For a more granular week-by-week breakdown with drills, see OH P&C Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. If you're still deciding how much preparation time to budget, How Hard Is the OH P&C Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 walks through what makes certain domains more challenging than others.
Common Mix-Ups With Other "OH P&C" Terms
Because "P&C" is a widely used shorthand across the insurance industry, and because "OH" can be read as a state abbreviation in multiple contexts, it's worth being precise. On this site, every reference to OH P&C means the Ohio Property and Casualty Insurance Agent Exam administered through PSI as Series 11-36 - nothing else. If you've encountered other explainer pages using this same acronym, always check that the certifying body, fee, and format match what's described here before applying that information to your Ohio exam prep.
For readers who arrived here wanting the plainest possible explanation, related explainer pages on this site cover the same ground from different angles: What Does OH P&C Mean?, What Does OH P&C Stand For?, What Is A OH P&C?, and What Is OH P&C Certification?. For the licensing side specifically, see OH P&C Certification and OH P&C Training.
If you want to gauge how test-takers generally perform against the 70% threshold, OH P&C Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows covers what's publicly known. And for anyone still weighing whether the licensing effort is worth pursuing given career goals, Is the OH P&C Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 lays out the considerations. Once you're ready to test your knowledge under realistic conditions, practice questions modeled on the real exam format are the most direct way to see where you stand before test day.
Frequently Asked Questions
OH P&C refers specifically to the exam covering property and casualty lines. Ohio also has separate licensing exams for other insurance lines, such as life and health, which are not covered by this credential.
This article covers the combined Property and Casualty examination, which costs $49 and includes 150 questions across both lines within a single 2-hour 30-minute session.
Property and Casualty Insurance Basics is weighted at 16%, making it the single largest domain out of the 10 tested on the exam.
No. PSI offers both in-person testing at PSI test centers and online-proctored testing, so candidates can choose the format that fits their situation.
Course completion certificates and education waivers are valid for 180 days. If that window passes before you test, you may need to repeat the applicable prelicensing coursework.