"Certificate Withheld After Passing State Exam – Poor Transparency"

Update 5.1.25

Let’s be clear—I have a screenshot from your Certificate Requirements section, and nowhere does it mention the required 52 hours. It vaguely refers to a “minimum time requirement” but provides no specific number.
That’s misleading especially for something that’s supposedly state-mandated.

I completed every listed step, passed the state exam, and now you’re withholding my certificate unless I pay again to “make up” time I had no way of knowing I needed to track.

This is not just poor communication—it’s a failure to disclose a material requirement that directly affects licensing. I’m attaching this evidence in my formal complaints to the California Department of Insurance and the Better Business Bureau.

Consumers deserve transparency—not vague terms and hidden rules.

April 14-2025
My employer enrolled me in ExamFX’s California pre-licensing course. I completed all chapters, passed the quizzes, and passed the California state exam for Property & Casualty.
Despite meeting all the listed course requirements, I was later told I hadn’t completed the 52-hour study time—a rule that was never clearly disclosed or trackable. Like most students, I focused on learning the material and passing the exams, not hunting for a hidden timer.
I’m fully qualified and cleared to work, but the certificate delay is holding up my license and employment. Support gave me conflicting answers, extended only one course and the escalation team has been silent for over 8 days.
I also noticed their “Pass Guarantee” originally claimed 80% showed mastery but made no mention of a three-day access rule until after I raised the concern.
While it didn’t apply to my case, it highlights another serious lapse in transparency.

This experience has cost me valuable time and income. I can’t recommend ExamFX to anyone expecting clear communication or timely licensing support.

"Do not use!!! Terrible customer service!!"

They allow you to take the entire test and then ask proctor questions. If they don’t agree with the type of proctor you use, you have to retake the entire test over. Absolute waste of time and I will not be using them again. Kaplan, PearsonVue, so many better options out there.

"Easier and more streamlined ways to study than Examfx's products"

TLDR: Try a different course provider unless your agency forces this one down your throat as there are better and more efficient products out there. Life and health shouldn't be this hard to study and pass.

At first glance the portal seems deceptively simple and appears user friendly...not really.

Instead of writing paragraph over paragraph I'll just list the issues. Before doing so, I've taken their same courses before when they used to be testteachersonline and passed the same exam I'm studying for a few years ago before I let my license lapse so my review is true.

1. A lot of typos

2. the practice exams in "learning mode" are still timed and this makes it freakishly counter intuitive cause by reading the rationale to the correct answers which you got wrong and trying to absorb that information the clock is still ticking. By doing so you will not finish the practice exams, but your bad score will still be recorded.

3. When taking every exam, after you answer each question whether practice (which of course have explanations) or what they call "confirm mode" you have to scroll down to move onto the next question due to the poor webpage design. Seems little, but after your 30th question it becomes a nuisance.

4. The text is really small in the exams. They give you the limited ability to enlarge the question text, but the answers will remain tiny and this makes a huge difference when you are trying to keep up concentration, especially at night after a day of working. You will find this extremely taxing on the eyes once you start moving into the longer exams. Another aspect of the poor product.

5. Verbage: Someone had the bright idea of now making all the explanations and course material in overly complicated sentences that seem to run on forever. They've deliberately antiquated the entire learning process by doing this. The previous company did not do this and was very easy to read in plain English. Much of the explanations in the exam questions and other areas read like dissertations trying to give off an aura of sophistication or something. This is totally pointless in any test prep.

6. The exam explanations aren't in "smart" format, meaning sometimes there is one correct answer, but also another that may be close or can be confused as the the correct one. Examfx's explanations don't go the extra step to tell you why that one which can be confused as the correct answer really isn't....this isn't one of those study courses that go the extra distance in that regard. So you're often left wondering why the other isn't the correct answer. You'll have to dig through the chapters and find out why yourself if you can. This is not conducive to efficient learning.

As mentioned earlier I've already passed my life and health state exams before and am taking this course again to reinstate, but I'm finding aspects of this company's course material more harm then help - this should speak volumes to anyone reading this. As things stand I haven't been able to finish any of the practice exams due to the fact they're all timed. After receiving section exam scores of 80+ I can't even get above 65% on any of the practice exams as I can't even finish them. This is a huge oversight and a roadblock in the entire process. The only way to do things now is to take the practice exams in learning mode and race through the overly complicated explanation hoping it makes sense -OR- take the practice exams in confirm mode and try to absorb all the rationales all at once at the end which I don't retain info that way.

Also, if you don't pass on either of the practice exam modes you will have to take the "focused" practice exam in either learning or confirm modes......which are also timed. Unreal

I believe the better course is STC for insurance prep work. I've taken their stuff for my securities license and it's a much more refined product although it may seem a little drab. I think Examfx is trying too hard or just doesn't know what to do. Maybe it's a combination of the two and making things more complicated that it should be. Regardless their previous product was much more simple and easier to learn from and helped me pass.

TBH I think the even better route is to take the cheap courses that focus on PASSING rather than being something they're not.

As the way things stand right now in the middle of my course work I definitely would be challenged to pass my life and health for my state...and I've passed more than several years ago, but now I'm not too confident I could as I'm even more confused.

Maybe your experience will be different if you decide to use them. Maybe I know better cause I've studied their material before they were rebranded. Either way I don't feel this is as good as it could be and definitely not worth the money.

Sorry this did turn out so long, but I'm really compelled to reveal all this.

"Good course and I passed on my first try."

At first I was worried with all of the information in this course that was required to be learned, but it was very informative and helped me pass the licensing exam on my first try.

"Bad practice exams and unhelpful feedback "

Hard to choose where to start. It's super unhelpful that you're unable to see what answers were wrong on anything other than the practice exams because the questions are completely different on the certificate and readiness exams, so there's no way to know what you still need to study. That and the exams are scored separately but you only get the lower of the two, even though they are separate tests. Can't take just one section unless you're ok with having a zero as your final result, even if you get every single question right in the section you did. Also, there's several questions with more than one right answer, you just have to hope you picked the same one as whoever designed the question. It'd be really nice to take the readiness exams separately, instead of being forced to take both back to back, especially since you only get 2 attempts. Also, that 2 attempts rule is not a good one, and rather effective at diminishing any possibility of a refund. Would highly recommend literally any other method of obtaining your certificate and studying. The online courses were also not great, the instructors weren't even from the state that I am applying for. The website layout is also really inconvenient, I have to close the tab and log back in every time I want to switch between property and casualty. It's a shame that reviews like mine aren't presented on the website, it is much easier to just cover them up than to actually solve the problem. There's several misspellings and grammatical errors that make certain parts of the material much harder to understand. Overall just a very disappointing outcome from what claims to be the best prep for these exams. Just get your credit hours on here and study on quizlet and check out Insurance Exam Queen on YouTube, she makes everything super easy to understand.

1. I didn't request to see the answers, just to see which questions were wrong so I know what needs further review.

2. I am referring to the fact that the general exam and the state exam are scored together, only giving the lower of the two. This is a problem because that is not how the exam works in my state. They are regarded as entirely separate tests, each with their own individual score, and not dependent on passing the other. I know this because I just passed my exams, and that was the case. Not how it is compiled on this website. I'm saying this is not good because it does not allow you to take it in sections like you will the actual test, and if I am continuously doing well on the general side, I should not have to go through that entire test just to receive a passing score for the state side. Again, they are separate tests scored separately, so it makes no sense to score them together in practice. Especially when it's just that. PRACTICE.

3. This one is self explanatory and should not require assistance to determine which answer is "more correct" they are either correct or not, there shouldn't be more than one correct answer

4. This goes back to my previous point, they should not be scored together. I understand that they are scored separately, but you only take the lower of the scores, which means they are scored together, since passing one depends on passing the other. Again, this is not how the real test works. General and State are scored separately and you can pass one without passing the other. Deciding to only take one part of the readiness exam should not give you a final score of zero, and definitely shouldn't consume one of only two attempts allowed. There's this thing called thinking youre ready. And you shouldn't be punished for learning that you are not ready.

5. I am not surprised that it's "being worked on"

"Since I cannot reply to ExamFX I…"

Since I cannot reply to ExamFX I figured I would make another post. There was so many questions that were not covered in the material given on ExamFX. Even getting a 80% on the practice exams and quizzes would not have prepared me enough because it did not include half the questions I actually had/saw on the exam. There is some good material but again not in depth enough to cover what you'll actually see on the exam. ExamFX is easy to navigate and use but when you get to the exam you will be overwhelmed with questions you do not get while taking practice exams or quizzes. I wish I could get a refund for the time spent wasted.

"ExamFX Made Passing My Life Insurance Exam Easy on the First Try!"

ExamFX was an incredible tool in my preparation for my life insurance license. Their content is clear and well-structured, with summaries, videos, and quizzes at the end of each unit that helped reinforce what I learned. The best part was the practice exams, which gave me the confidence I needed on test day. Thanks to ExamFX, I passed on my first attempt! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an effective study program

"Absolutely awful"

Absolutely awful. I take my test tomorrow and all of the practice quizzes will not load including the readiness exam. I have been trying to get them to work all day. I was told to wait until 3 days before to take the readiness exam for the 2nd time, so now I will not even get my money back if I fail. Customer service is closed and all emails bounce back. Do yourself a favor and do not use examfx. They also constantly update their website and it messes everything up.

"Absolute garbage"

Absolute garbage. I have had to renew my service multiple times because they only give you 30 days from when you pay to complete everything. So, if you have a job you need to make darn sure you can start and complete the program in 30 days or you have to continuously pay $70 every time you log on to study and try to test out. No other insurance teachings online do this. Most offer one year. So, I have had to pay an additional $210 for the extensions so I did not lose all the work I put into this. What a joke.

"The health and life course was helpful"

The health and life course was helpful, sort of. I barely passed my exam so I thought I’d purchase my next course, property and casualty, with exam fx. I studied this course for two months. I have restudied sections of it twice, but the questions and most of the review doesn’t match the state test I have. I have failed it 3 times and I only have one more shot at it. I don’t think exam fx is really helpful with multiple learning techniques. It’s just a textbook separated into chapters. The quizzes/practice exams aren’t similar to the real thing so it’s kind of pointless to focus your attention on those. The chapters also have a lot of unimportant information bolded like it’s important to remember. There was 2 things on my actual exam that were no where in the learning material for the exam fx course. Now I have to buy a different course and restudy that because exam fx had a crappy course.