- OH P&C is Ohio's combined Property and Casualty licensing exam, administered by PSI as Series 11-36.
- The exam has 150 multiple-choice questions, a 2-hour 30-minute limit, and costs $49.
- You need a 70% score to pass, and Property and Casualty Insurance Basics is the largest domain at 16%.
- Resident applicants complete 40 hours of prelicensing education (20 hours Property, 20 hours Casualty) plus fingerprint-based background checks.
What Is the OH P&C Exam?
The Ohio Property & Casualty Insurance Agent Exam (OH P&C) is the state licensing test that insurance producers in Ohio must pass before they can legally sell property and casualty insurance products - think homeowners policies, auto coverage, and commercial packages. It is regulated by the Ohio Department of Insurance and delivered through the testing vendor PSI under the exam code Series 11-36.
Unlike a voluntary industry certification, OH P&C is a mandatory gate. If you want to work as a licensed producer selling property or casualty lines in Ohio, this exam sits between you and your license. It combines two lines of authority - Property and Casualty - into a single, unified test rather than requiring separate exams for each.
Who Administers It and How It's Structured
The Ohio Department of Insurance sets the licensing requirements, but the actual test delivery is handled by PSI, a third-party testing company that administers the exam under the designation Series 11-36. PSI offers two delivery options: testing at a physical test center or online-proctored testing you can take remotely. This flexibility matters for candidates juggling a job while preparing - you're not locked into driving to a single testing location on a fixed schedule.
The exam fee is $49, which is a relatively low barrier compared to many professional licensing tests. For a full breakdown of every cost involved in becoming licensed - not just the exam fee - see the OH P&C Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Exam Format and Scoring
OH P&C is a computer-based, multiple-choice exam. Here's what candidates are actually sitting down to take:
- 150 questions, all multiple-choice format
- 2 hours 30 minutes total time limit
- 70% required to pass
- Delivered via PSI at a test center or through online proctoring
Because the passing threshold and question count are fixed, your prep should be built around efficient recall and pacing, not around guessing at an unknown format. If you want the exact math behind what "70%" means in terms of correct answers and how the scoring actually works, the OH P&C Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass breaks it down question by question.
Key Takeaway
With 150 questions in 150 minutes, you have roughly one minute per question on average - plenty of time if you know the material, but not enough time to second-guess every answer. Practice under timed conditions before test day.
The 10 Content Domains
OH P&C isn't a single blended pool of random insurance trivia - it's built from 10 defined content domains, each weighted differently. Understanding these weights is the single most useful thing you can do before you start studying, because it tells you exactly where to spend your limited prep hours.
| 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% |
Notice that the top four domains - Property and Casualty Insurance Basics, Homeowners Policy, Auto Insurance, and Commercial Package Policy - together account for well over half of the exam. That's not a coincidence; it reflects the products Ohio agents sell most often in the real world.
Property and Casualty Insurance Basics (16%)
This is the largest single domain and the foundation everything else builds on. Candidates need to be fluent in core policy structure, insurable interest, underwriting fundamentals, and the general vocabulary that shows up embedded inside every other domain's questions.
- Policy provisions and contract law basics
- Risk and insurable interest concepts
- Underwriting and rating fundamentals
Homeowners Policy (14%) and Dwelling Policy (6%)
These two domains are closely related but distinct - dwelling policies and homeowners policies cover overlapping risks with different structures and endorsements. Confusing the two is a common mistake, so candidates should study them side by side to spot the differences clearly.
- HO policy forms and coverage parts
- Dwelling policy forms and typical endorsements
- Exclusions unique to each policy type
Auto Insurance (14%)
Auto Insurance ties with Homeowners as the second-largest domain, reflecting how central personal auto coverage is to a producer's daily book of business.
- Liability, collision, and comprehensive coverage parts
- PAP (Personal Auto Policy) structure and exclusions
- No-fault and financial responsibility concepts as they apply in Ohio
Commercial Package Policy (CPP) and Businessowners Policy
Together these commercial-lines domains make up a fifth of the exam. Candidates coming from a personal-lines background often underestimate this section because it introduces business property, liability, and package policy structures that don't overlap much with homeowners or auto content.
- CPP structure: how monoline coverages combine into a package
- BOP eligibility and what's bundled versus optional
- Common commercial exclusions and endorsements
The remaining domains - Insurance Regulation, General Insurance, Other Coverages and Options, and Workers Compensation Insurance - carry smaller individual weights but are not optional to study. Workers Compensation Insurance is the smallest domain at just 4%, but skipping it entirely still risks losing points you can't easily make up elsewhere. For a full walkthrough of what's actually tested inside each of these 10 areas, see the OH P&C Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 10 Content Areas.
Prelicensing Education and Eligibility
Before you can even sit for the OH P&C exam, Ohio resident applicants generally need to complete 40 hours of approved prelicensing education, split evenly: 20 hours covering Property topics and 20 hours covering Casualty topics. This mirrors the exam's own combined structure - you're building foundational knowledge in both lines before being tested on both lines together.
A few mechanics worth knowing:
- Course completion certificates are valid for 180 days - so don't finish your prelicensing coursework and then wait six months to schedule your exam.
- Education waivers, for those who qualify for one, are also valid for 180 days.
- Resident applicants must complete BCI and FBI fingerprint-based background checks as part of the licensing process, separate from the exam itself.
For the complete eligibility checklist - including who qualifies as a resident applicant and what documentation you'll need - read the OH P&C Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify. And if you're still deciding when to schedule everything, the OH P&C Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling covers how PSI's scheduling windows actually work.
Who Actually Needs This Exam
OH P&C is required for anyone seeking a resident producer license in Ohio to sell property and casualty insurance products. In practice, that includes people entering the field as:
- Independent insurance agents representing multiple carriers
- Captive agents working for a single insurance company
- Insurance agency staff who need licensure to bind or quote P&C policies
- Career changers moving into insurance sales from adjacent fields like real estate or finance
Because the exam blends personal lines (homeowners, auto, dwelling) with commercial lines (CPP, BOP, workers compensation), it's designed for producers who will sell a broad range of P&C products rather than specialize narrowly from day one. That breadth is also why the exam feels more demanding than a single-line test - you're being evaluated across an entire product spectrum in one sitting.
How to Approach Studying for OH P&C
Given the domain weights above, a smart prep sequence starts with the heaviest-weighted material and builds outward rather than studying domains in the order they happen to appear in a textbook.
Foundations
- Property and Casualty Insurance Basics (16%)
- General Insurance (9%)
Personal Lines
- Homeowners Policy (14%)
- Dwelling Policy (6%)
- Auto Insurance (14%)
Commercial Lines and Regulation
- Commercial Package Policy (12%)
- Businessowners Policy (8%)
- Insurance Regulation (10%)
Remaining Coverage and Review
- Workers Compensation Insurance (4%)
- Other Coverages and Options (7%)
- Full-length timed practice under exam conditions
This sequencing front-loads the domains worth the most points, so if life interrupts your study plan, you've already covered the material most likely to affect your score. It's a strategy tied directly to how OH P&C weights its content - not a generic study calendar. For a more detailed week-by-week plan with specific resources and practice recommendations, see the OH P&C Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.
Running full-length, timed practice questions on our OH P&C practice test platform before test day is one of the most reliable ways to confirm you can maintain accuracy across all 150 questions within the 2 hour 30 minute window - not just in short study bursts.
After You Pass
Passing OH P&C is a milestone, not the finish line - you'll still need to complete the remaining licensing steps with the Ohio Department of Insurance, including the background check requirements mentioned earlier. Once licensed, many new producers want to know what the career path actually looks like in terms of day-to-day work and long-term earning potential; the OH P&C Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis covers that in more depth.
If you're still weighing whether pursuing this license is the right move for your career at all, the Is the OH P&C Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 lays out the tradeoffs in more detail. And once you're deep into practice mode, using a full practice exam simulator repeatedly is the best way to build the stamina and pacing you'll need for the real 150-question format.
Key Takeaway
OH P&C licensure opens the door to selling both personal and commercial P&C products in Ohio - the exam's dual-line structure exists precisely because the job itself spans both.
Frequently Asked Questions
It refers to the Ohio Property and Casualty Insurance Agent Exam, the state licensing test administered through PSI (Series 11-36) for producers seeking to sell property and casualty insurance in Ohio.
The exam contains 150 computer-based multiple-choice questions, and you're given 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete it.
The combined Property and Casualty exam fee is $49, paid to PSI when scheduling your test at a center or via online proctoring.
Yes, resident applicants generally complete 40 hours of approved prelicensing education - 20 hours in Property topics and 20 hours in Casualty topics - before sitting for the exam.
Property and Casualty Insurance Basics is the largest domain at 16%, followed closely by Homeowners Policy and Auto Insurance at 14% each - these three areas deserve the most study time.