1.1 Current Exam Facts
Key Takeaways
- The CISRO Life Insurance module provincial exam has 35 multiple-choice questions in 75 minutes: 30 scored items plus 5 unscored pilots mixed in.
- The pass mark is 60% on the 30 scored items, which is 18 correct; perfect pilots cannot salvage 17 scored answers.
- Only the administrator-supplied approved electronic reference is permitted; personal notes, printed manuals, and phones are not an open-book exception.
- CISRO sets the curriculum and exam; provincial regulators issue the licence; Durham College administers many jurisdictions, but Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec book elsewhere.
- Durham fees current as of July 2026 include Ontario paper CAD $68 and listed online CAD $85 per module; FSRA currently treats Ontario as in-person only, and the August 2025 $66/$84 figures are superseded.
What this sitting actually is
This chapter is independent OpenExamPrep study material that helps learners study the Life Licence Qualification Program (LLQP) Life Insurance module. It is not a regulator handbook, and it does not claim official approval from the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO), a provincial regulator, Durham College, or any approved course provider.
The Life module is the product exam for people who intend to recommend individual and group life insurance in Canada. It is one of four LLQP modules. Accident and Sickness, Segregated Funds and Annuities, and Ethics and Professional Practice remain separate sittings with their own item counts and provincial rewrite rules. Mixing those syllabi into Life is how candidates waste the 75-minute clock. This section stays on logistics so you do not walk in with a practice-bank size, a 2025 Ontario fee, or a delivery mode your regulator is not currently offering.
CISRO’s Life Insurance curriculum table and Durham College’s examinee materials describe the same booklet. The Alberta Insurance Council (AIC) states the Life sitting the same way: 75 minutes, 30 questions, plus five pilots. When a provincial table lists “Life insurance 30,” read that as the scored count. The complete paper you will see is 35 items including pilots.
| Fact | Current figure | Common trap |
|---|---|---|
| Total items | 35 four-option multiple-choice | Treating OpenExamPrep’s 100-item practice bank as the real paper |
| Scored items | 30 | Counting all 35 toward the mark |
| Unscored pilot items | 5, mixed in and unmarked | Trying to spot and skip “experimental” stems |
| Time | 75 minutes, including pilots | Spending the open-book e-book on every stem |
| Pass mark | 60% of scored items | Using 60% of 35, or a 70% securities-exam habit |
| Options | Four choices, one correct | Looking for “select all that apply” |
| Reference | Administrator-supplied approved e-book only | Bringing course notes or a highlighted manual |
Official starting points: CISRO Life curriculum document, Durham LLQP ADMIN, FSRA Ontario LLQP, and the AIC LLQP page.
Worked pass mark: 18 of 30, not 21 of 35
Sixty percent of 30 scored items is 18 correct. Seventeen scored correct is 56.7% and a fail. Pilots are excluded from that arithmetic on purpose: regulators use them to pretest future items. You are not told which five they are, and the 75 minutes already includes time to answer them.
Work a nasty but realistic case. Suppose you leave the room having answered 22 of 35 stems correctly, including all five pilots. Only 17 of those 22 sit on scored items. That is a fail, even though your raw booklet looks strong. The inverse is also true: you can miss every pilot and still pass if 18 of the 30 scored items are right. Because the five pilots are hidden, the only safe behaviour is to treat every stem as live.
Pacing the 75 minutes
Seventy-five minutes is 4,500 seconds. Across 35 items that is about two minutes and nine seconds each (4,500 ÷ 35 ≈ 129 seconds). The open-book e-book is a confirmation tool, not a research engine.
Open-book means one approved file
Durham tells online candidates that a PDF of the approved reference will be available during the session. In-person sittings use the administrator’s electronic tablet or the same approved file. That is the entire open-book privilege.
Personal Canadian Insurance Participant Registry (CIPR) printouts, a tabbed CSI Life Insurance manual, a second device, and a phone search of cisro-ocra.com are not permitted. If a number is not in the approved e-book, you cannot introduce it from a blog, and you also cannot flip to a sticky note from class. Four options, one correct, is the item design the Financial and Consumer Services Commission (FCNB) and other regulators describe; there is no extra “none of the above” format to hunt for.
Who writes it, who licences you, who books the room
Keep three layers separate or you will email the wrong body when a mark, a stem, or a licence stalls.
CISRO publishes the harmonized curriculum and the exam content. Questions about a stem or the official manuals go to CISRO, with your CIPR number. Provincial and territorial regulators issue the life agent licence. In Ontario that is the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA). In Alberta it is AIC. In New Brunswick it is FCNB. In Quebec, licensing and the Ethics sitting run through the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and the Civil Law ethics module; Life product content is still the national Life module.
Durham College administers the provincial exam for many jurisdictions. CSI’s booking note is the practical split: use Durham except Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec, which book through their own councils or the AMF. Durham does not sell the pre-licensing course and will not recommend a provider or quote provider pass rates. Course tuition is set by approved providers. CIPR stores course certification and exam results; posting a result in CIPR is not itself a licence.
Ontario in person versus the Durham fee table
FSRA’s current LLQP page says the exam is administered by Durham and is available only in person. Plan an Ontario sitting as a test-centre appointment unless Durham and FSRA both confirm a remote booking for your file.
Durham’s public fee table still lists an Ontario online price as well as paper, and Durham has described a distance accommodation for candidates far from a centre (commonly discussed as 150 km). Other Durham jurisdictions still run online sittings. FCNB, for example, lets candidates write in person in Fredericton or schedule an online module. Do not import Ontario’s in-person default into Alberta or Quebec, and do not assume every Ontario candidate can still choose virtual just because a fee row exists.
Fees current as of July 2026
Ignore older Ontario figures still circulating in blogs and outdated prep pages. FSRA material from August 2025 that quoted CAD $66 paper / CAD $84 online is superseded. Lists that still say $65 / $82 are one generation further out of date. Durham’s schedule current as of July 2026—and expressly subject to change—is:
| Province / group | Paper (CAD, per module) | Online (CAD, per module) |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario | $68.00 | $85.00 listed; Ontario’s default sitting is still in person |
| New Brunswick | $68.00 | $85.00 |
| Nova Scotia | $97.00 | $85.00 |
| Yukon | Not offered | $85.00 |
| All other Durham provinces | Not offered | $85.00 |
Fees are payable with each registration, including rewrites. Four Ontario paper sittings at $68 would be $272 in Durham exam fees alone. That arithmetic is not a published national “licence package”: course tuition, CIPR processes, and rewrite fees sit outside it. A Nova Scotia candidate writing four paper modules at $97 would pay $388 in Durham exam fees before tuition. Confirm the amount on Durham’s site the week you book.
Complaints about facilities, marks, or registration go to Durham (LLQP.ADMIN@durhamcollege.ca) with your CIPR number. Complaints about exam content go to CISRO. Mixing those inboxes delays both.
Which statement correctly separates who designs the LLQP Life Insurance module from who issues the life agent licence?
During the provincial Life Insurance module sitting, which reference is a candidate actually allowed to use?
As of Durham College’s July 2026 fee schedule, what is the Ontario paper sitting fee per LLQP module, and how should an Ontario candidate treat delivery mode?