AK-LH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

What "Passing" Actually Means on the AK-LH

When candidates ask "what's the passing score for the AK-LH," they're usually picturing a simple percentage - get 70% of questions right and you're done. That's not quite how the Alaska Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam works. The Alaska Division of Insurance, through its testing partner Pearson VUE, uses a scaled score system rather than a raw percentage. The number you need to hit is 70, but that 70 is not literally "70 correct out of 100."

This distinction matters because it changes how you should think about missed questions. A scaled score converts your raw performance into a standardized number that accounts for item difficulty across different exam forms. Two candidates who each answer a different mix of questions correctly can both land on a scaled 70, because the underlying math weights harder items differently than easier ones.

If you want the full breakdown of what's actually tested before you worry about the score itself, the AK-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 13 Content Areas is the companion piece to read alongside this one.

The Scaled Score of 70, Explained

The practical takeaway for candidates is simpler than the psychometrics behind it: treat 70 as a hard floor, not a target to graze. Because the exam blends 180 scored questions with 30 unscored pretest questions in the same 4-hour-30-minute session, you won't know which items count toward your score and which are being field-tested for future exams. That means every single question deserves full attention - there's no way to identify and skip the "practice" items.

This structure also explains why cramming the night before rarely works for the AK-LH. With 210 total items spread across both the Life exam and the Accident and Health exam, the exam rewards broad, durable knowledge of insurance concepts over memorized definitions you might forget under time pressure. If you're still deciding how much runway to give yourself, How Hard Is the AK-LH Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 walks through what makes the format challenging beyond just the score itself.

How the 13 Domains Determine Your Score

The AK-LH combination exam draws its 180 scored questions from 13 distinct domains, split between the Life exam and the Accident and Health exam. Domain percentages are calculated by normalizing the official scored-item counts across the full two-exam path, which is why some domains carry noticeably more weight than others.

Here's the full domain list you're being scored against:

Notice that Domains 5 and 12 share nearly identical titles - both cover law "common to" multiple insurance lines, just filed under the Life-specific and Accident-and-Health-specific sections of the outline, respectively. That overlap is intentional and directly tied to how the passing threshold gets built, which we cover next.

The One-Third Alaska Law Rule

Here's a fact every AK-LH candidate should internalize early: the two common Alaska-law domains - Domain 5 and Domain 12 - together account for one-third of all scored questions on the combination exam. That's a massive concentration of scoring weight sitting in material that has nothing to do with product mechanics and everything to do with Alaska statute, licensing rules, and regulatory conduct.

This is also where generic national study guides fail Alaska candidates. Material written for other states' insurance exams won't cover Alaska's specific statutory language, and no amount of general product knowledge substitutes for direct familiarity with the Alaska Division of Insurance's rules. For a full walkthrough of exactly which Alaska statutes and regulatory concepts show up most often, see AK-LH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.

210 vs. 220: The Outline Discrepancy

If you've cross-referenced older Alaska Division of Insurance materials against the current candidate handbook, you may have noticed a mismatch: the older examination table lists 220 items, while the current outline - effective from the March 3, 2025 update - specifies 210 items. That newer figure breaks down as 180 scored and 30 pretest questions across the combined Life and Accident and Health exams, totaling 4 hours and 30 minutes of testing time.

Practically speaking, always plan around the current outline's 210-item structure rather than the older 220-item reference still floating around in some handbook tables. If your prep materials cite a different item count, double-check the publication date before trusting the number.

For a broader picture of how these numbers stack up against candidate expectations, AK-LH Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows covers what's publicly known about outcomes on this exam.

Registration and Exam-Day Mechanics That Affect Scoring

Scoring well starts before you sit down at the testing station. A few mechanical details from Alaska's process directly affect your exam-day experience:

• Test-center-only combination: The same-session Life-and-Health combination exam must be taken at a physical Pearson VUE test center. Individual exams (Life alone, or Accident and Health alone) may be available through OnVUE remote testing, but the combined path is not.
• Cost: A same-session combination costs $89, covering both the Life and the Accident and Health portions in one 4-hour-30-minute appointment.
• Eligibility basics: You must be at least 18 years old, reside in Alaska, and be considered trustworthy and competent to hold a producer license. There is no required number of prelicensing education hours - a notable difference from many other states.
• Fingerprinting: Initial applicants submit a fingerprint card as part of the licensing process, separate from the exam itself.
• Score validity: A passing result is valid for one year, so don't let too much time lapse between passing the exam and completing your license application.

For the complete eligibility rundown, see AK-LH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, and for a full cost breakdown beyond the exam fee itself, check AK-LH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Scheduling Your Prep Around the Domains That Count Most

Generic study techniques like spaced repetition or timed practice blocks only help if you're pointing them at the right material. Given that Domains 5 and 12 combine for a third of your scored questions, your prep calendar should reflect that weight rather than splitting time evenly across all 13 domains.

Running full-length timed practice tests at the main practice test platform is one of the more reliable ways to simulate that 210-item, 4-hour-30-minute format before exam day, since it forces you to pace yourself across both the Life and Accident and Health sections in one sitting.

After You Pass: Validity, Licensing, and Renewal

Clearing the scaled score of 70 is the exam milestone, but it's not the finish line for licensing. Your passing result is valid for one year, during which you need to complete the remaining license application steps, including the fingerprint card submission for initial applicants.

Once licensed, producers in Alaska renew biennially. Each two-year renewal cycle requires completing 24 continuing education hours, including 3 hours specifically in ethics, after you've completed a full two-year licensing period. Budgeting time for CE early avoids a scramble near your renewal date.

If you're weighing whether the exam and licensing process is worth the time investment relative to career outcomes, Is the AK-LH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and AK-LH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis cover that angle in more depth. And once you're licensed, AK-LH Jobs looks at where newly licensed producers typically find opportunities.

Before your test date, it's worth doing a final pass through AK-LH Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts and confirming your appointment details against AK-LH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling so nothing about scheduling catches you off guard. A final timed run-through at the practice test site the week before your appointment is a good last checkpoint.

Frequently Asked Questions