CPCU^® 557 Exam Format

The CPCU^®557 exam consists of 85 multiple choice questions broken up into two sections, part A and part B.

Part A: Concept questions – The first section of the exam will be approximately 62 concept questions; these questions will test your understanding of a definition or topic. The multiple-choice answers will generally provide 2 or 3 partially correct answers and one “best” answer.
Part B: Case questions – The second section of the exam will be approximately 23 case questions; these questions will require you to apply your knowledge to a specific scenario or event. You will be given a real-life scenario; your job will be to select the best recommendation to solve the given scenario.

In this blog we will breakdown the exam format along with the most important topics of the exam. These are the topics that you must memorize to be prepared for this exam. These topics come straight from our CPCU^® 557 online course where we provide a detailed breakdown of the most important topics of each chapter, along with our difficulty and importance rank for each chapter.

CPCU^® 557 – Question Format

The CPCU^® 557 exam questions will be formatted in a similar to the other CPCU® exams that you have previously taken. There will be a mix of definition based questions, concept based questions, and real life scenario questions. You’ll see some questions that put you in the shoes of a commercial insurance professional, requiring you to provide a recommendation based on a given scenario. You will see other questions that require you to calculate the claim payment of the insurer based on a real life commercial claim scenario. And like you’ve seen in other CPCU® exams, there will be some questions formatted stating “all of the following are true, except” and “which of the following is true”.

These questions require you to fully understand every aspect of the main topics and require you to actually apply the knowledge, rather than just repeating a definition. You will NOT be simply repeating a definition.

You can see some example exam questions by downloading our free CPCU® 557 practice exam.

Download: Free Practice Exam (CPCU® | API™ | ARM™)

CPCU^® 557 – Exam Topics

The CPCU^® 557 exam focuses on the commercial insurance products, including topics such as the commercial general liability policy (CGL), the building and personal property coverage form (BPP), and business auto coverage form (BACF).

We have personally reviewed the content and counted over 20 different commercial insurance products (such as commercial auto, commercial crime, cyber risk, and employer’s liability) that you need to be familiar with for this exam. Almost every single question on the CPCU® 557 exam will be based on some type of coverage, exclusion, or endorsement.

The CPCU® 557 exam is difficult. This exam is tough because there is so much content to memorize. The reason people fail this exam is because they underestimate the amount of content. For each commercial insurance product you must know the insurance limit, covered losses, optional coverages, additional coverages, coverage extensions, loss conditions, coverage conditions, exclusions, and endorsements. You have to know this for EACH of the 20 commercial insurance products covered in this exam (that’s a lot to memorize).

CPCU^® 557 – Important Topics

Below we are outlining some important CPCU^® 557 exam topics. We recommend you master these topics before attempting the CPCU^® 557 exam. This is our opinion of the topics that are important on your exam.

BPP – The building and personal property coverage form (BPP) is probably the most important topic of this exam. It is so important, and contains so much content, that two sections of our course are dedicated to the BPP. We recommend you heavily focus on the BPP chapters. Understand the BPP coverages, insuring agreements, conditions, exclusions, and endorsements.
CGL – The commercial general liability form (CGL) is a close second behind the BPP for the most important topic of the exam. Similar to the BPP, the CGL is so important, and contains so much content, that two sections of our course are dedicated exclusively to the CGL. This is the second most important topic of the exam. Like the BPP, we recommend you heavily focus on the CGL chapters. Understand the CGL coverages, insuring agreements, conditions, exclusions, and endorsements.
BACF – The business auto coverage form (BACF) is another one of the most important topics of the exam. In our opinion, it is not as important as the BPP and CGL, but it is still a very important chapter that you should focus on when studying the 557 course. Make sure to memorize the BACF coverage symbols, along with the conditions and exclusions of the BACF.
Coverages – this is a common theme throughout every section of the CPCU^® Each section will touch on the specific coverages of the commercial insurance product covered in the section. For example, the business auto insurance section will cover the available auto coverages. Be sure to memorize each coverage, additional coverage, optional coverage, and coverage extension for each commercial insurance product, and know how each is applied to a real life claim.

Disclaimer

Remember, every CPCU^® exam is different. No single exam is the same. Be sure to study ALL topics (not just our recommendation). This resource is intended to provide you with a general idea of where your focus should be. Make sure to thoroughly study every topic of this exam.

CPCU^® 557 – Two Final Tips

Here is our two final tips to help you study and master the CPCU® 557 content:

1) Read the entire online course and focus on the details: Remember to focus on the hundreds of coverages, conditions, and exclusions. There are a lot of tricky minor details on this exam, take extra time to write down every coverage, condition, exclusion, and endorsement in your notes. You must be able to apply the appropriate coverage and calculate the claim payment given a scenario. These questions require that you know all of the minor details and differences between each CPCU^® 557 topic so be sure to fully read through the course and memorize all minor details because these questions will try to trick you by changing one little detail!

2) Practice, practice, practice: Practice makes perfect. The only way to prepare for the type of questions you will see on the CPCU^® 557 is to take as many practice exams as you possibly can. This will help you familiarize yourself with the CPCU^® 557 question format and help you determine which topics you need to re-study.

Free Practice Exam

Ready to get started studying? We’re here to help (for free). Download our free CPCU^®557 practice exams to get a feel for the type of questions you will see on the exam.

Download: Free Practice Exam (CPCU® | API™ | ARM™)

More Information

For more information about the CPCU^® 557 exam, checkout some of our other free resources:

Disclaimer

Difficulty rank, importance rank, and the advice provided in this resource are solely the opinion of AssociatePI. This resource is intended to provide you with a general idea of where your focus should be. Each exam administered by The Institutes is different. AssociatePI is not affiliated with The Institutes or involved in the exam writing process. Please be sure to thoroughly study every chapter and every topic of this course.

CPCU^®exams are administered by the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (“The Institutes”). AssociatePI does not administer the actual exams, we are an independent resource of free content, advice, and study material for professional insurance education. This blog is intended for informational purposes only, to inform prospective students of the benefit of the CPCU^® designation.

CPCU^® and API^™ are trademarks of the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (“The Institutes”). AssociatePI LLC is not affiliated with, associated with, endorsed by or otherwise supported or recognized by The Institutes in any way. AssociatePI LLC is not authorized by The Institutes to offer courses, practice examinations, or any other resources related to the Institutes’ designations or other programs.

For further information, please email contact@associatepi.com.

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