To clear the IC 38 exam you need 18 marks out of 50 on a 60-minute multiple-choice paper, about two weeks of honest reading, and an insurer or corporate agent willing to sponsor you — this is a pre-recruitment exam, so in practice you cannot book a slot for yourself. There is no negative marking, which changes how you answer. This post is the execution plan: what to read, in what order, and how to spend fourteen days. For the pattern, the fee and how registration works, read our full IC-38 pattern, fees and registration guide — this page assumes you already know those.
What clearing IC 38 actually takes
Three things, in this order. A sponsor, because the exam sits inside an insurer or corporate agent appointing you. The mandatory practical training, which IRDAI's agent regulations require from an approved institution before appointment. Then the paper, the easiest of the three.
18 out of 50 is a little over a third of the paper; the sources describe the bar as 35%. In the batches we train, failures come from not opening the book, not from a hard paper.
One honesty note before you plan around the numbers. The 50 questions, the 60 minutes, the 18-of-50 pass mark and the absence of negative marking are consistent across insurer and training-provider sources, but neither IRDAI nor the Insurance Institute of India publishes the pattern, pass mark or fee on a public page — we checked both. Treat them as industry consensus, not regulator-published fact, and confirm them with your sponsoring insurer.
If you have not yet settled on the sector itself, read how insurance careers start for freshers first.
Before you study: get the right material
The Insurance Institute of India publishes the material itself, in three streams — Life, General and Health. Study the stream you are being appointed into. The opening chapters overlap; the product chapters do not, and a Life candidate who revised general insurance classes has wasted a week. Ask your sponsor which stream your appointment is for before you open a book.
Then settle the language. The Institute publishes the material in English, Hindi and several regional languages. Use the one you read fastest in — very few financial-sector exams publish their material in this many.
Work from the Institute's own material, not a PDF forwarded on WhatsApp. Forwarded notes go stale quietly, and a stale note on the code of conduct costs marks.
What actually carries marks
The chapter-by-chapter syllabus lists what the paper covers. What matters for a fortnight of study is which parts repay the time, and two do.
The agent's code of conduct and duties. None of it is hard; all of it is detail you cannot guess, which is exactly why it is easy to set questions on. Drill what you must disclose and what you must never promise until you can say both without the book.
The documentation chain. Learn it as a sequence rather than five separate facts: the customer agrees, the form is completed, underwriting happens, the policy is issued, the free-look window opens. A sequence holds up under time pressure in a way that five memorised definitions do not.
Coaching sites publish chapter-wise weightage tables. We are not printing one, because neither IRDAI nor the Institute publishes that split and we cannot check the circulating numbers. Count the pages per chapter in your own contents page instead.
The 14-day plan, day by day
Two weeks of steady reading is enough for most candidates. This is how our trainers split the days; working candidates need about 90 minutes an evening.
| Days | What you read | How you check yourself |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | What insurance is, how risk pooling works | Write ten definitions from memory |
| 3–4 | The regulatory framework and IRDAI's role | Say out loud who regulates what |
| 5–6 | Agent's duties and code of conduct, twice | What you must disclose, and never promise |
| 7–8 | Products in your stream only | Name each type and who it suits |
| 9–10 | Proposal form, policy document, free-look, claims | Draw the sequence, book closed |
| 11 | Nothing new — first timed mock | Which chapters cost you marks |
| 12–13 | Only the chapters the mock exposed | Two more timed mocks, one a day |
| 14 | Light revision of conduct and documents | Nothing. Sleep properly |
The shape matters more than the dates. Regulation and conduct come first because they carry marks; products are easier once the vocabulary is in place. A mock taken before you have read the material only tells you that you have not read it.
How to attack the paper
Because there is no negative marking, a blank and a wrong answer cost the same one mark. So never leave a question unanswered. If two minutes are left and eight are blank, guess all eight.
Work the paper in two passes: answer everything you know immediately, mark anything that needs thought, then come back. Sixty minutes for fifty questions is a little over a minute each — comfortable, unless you spend six minutes on one stubborn question.
In your mocks, aim for 30, not 18. That twelve-mark gap is your insurance against a paper that leans on the chapters you skimmed. Someone scoring 22 in mocks is not safe; someone scoring 32 is.
And read the whole question before the options. A lot of the losable marks come from questions containing "not" or "except".
Six mistakes that fail people
- Preparing for the wrong exam. IC-38 is for selling insurance. To sell mutual funds you need NISM Series V-A for mutual funds — different regulator, different paper. If you are unsure which applies to you, compare the two BFSI certifications and read which certification your job actually needs.
- Studying the wrong stream. Life, General and Health diverge after the opening chapters. Confirm yours on day one.
- Reading a summary instead of the material. Ten pages of notes feel efficient until a question comes from the paragraph they dropped.
- Never sitting a timed mock. Knowing the material and answering 50 questions in 60 minutes are different skills.
- Treating 35% as "no preparation needed". It is a low bar on material most freshers have never seen, and a resit means going back to your sponsor for another slot — nobody publishes what that costs.
- Leaving questions blank. Free marks thrown away, in every batch.
Exam day, and what if you fail
Your sponsor books the slot and tells you where to go, what to carry and what form the paper takes. Ask early, not the night before.
We are not listing exam-day requirements here — accepted ID documents, Institute centre versus insurer premises, computer-based or paper. Neither IRDAI nor the Institute publishes those details, and they differ by insurer and city. A confident wrong instruction here could cost you the slot.
What holds anywhere: reach early, and do not spend the last hour skimming a chapter you never read.
If you fail, it is not the end of anything. We cannot tell you how soon you may sit again, whether attempts are capped, or what a resit costs — there is no published source, so ask your sponsor. No pass rate is published either, so treat any percentage you see quoted as marketing. Note the two chapters that hurt and give them four focused days rather than restarting the book.
One warning about money. If anyone asks you for several thousand rupees as a "registration fee" or an "IRDA licence fee", stop and check with the insurer directly. The exam is inexpensive — the fee range, and every source behind it, is on our IC-38 guide.
What IC 38 does and does not give you
Clearing IC 38 does not make you an insurance agent — it is one of three requirements, alongside the mandatory training and an actual appointment by an insurer. What happens after you pass covers the appointment and what it lets you sell.
Agency work is also usually paid by commission, not salary. That can pay well once you have a book of clients, and very little in month one. If rent is due on the fifth, choose that shape of job knowingly.
If you want a salaried role rather than commission income, an on-role route is the right shape — but do not confuse the destination with the year that gets you there. The HDFC Life Smart Achievers pathway we run is a paid-for 12-month program, not a salary from day one: it charges a fee, the first four months are virtual classroom training, and the stipend phases come after that. Its certificate is the PGCLI awarded by Manipal Academy of BFSI — it is a different qualification from the IC-38 licence route, not a way of getting IC-38 handled for you. We are an independent BFSI training institute, not an insurer and not your employer, and we do not guarantee a job or a package. Our record of who we have placed and where is published.
Either way, clear the paper properly the first time. If you would like a second opinion on which route fits, have a counsellor look at your plan — it is free and there is no obligation.
IC 38 preparation: common questions
Written by
Amit VermaLead Trainer — Insurance & NBFC
Amit is an IRDAI-certified insurance and NBFC specialist who has trained thousands of advisors and credit executives for field roles. He leads Become Banker's insurance and lending...
