How hard is the PGI exam? Know before you book
How hard is the PGI exam? 50 questions in 1 hour 15 minutes, 35 right to pass. Familiar cover is the trap, because the marks go to exact conditions.
How hard is the PGI exam? It's moderate, and the catch is how familiar it feels. PGI covers motor, home, travel and accident policies that you may have bought yourself, so people underestimate it. You get 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour 15 minutes and need 35 right, and the marks go to exact conditions and exclusions, not general knowledge of how cover works.
The paper in numbers
| What | PGI | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 50, multiple choice | You can miss 15 |
| Time | 1 hour 15 minutes | 90 seconds a question |
| Pass mark | 70% | 35 right |
| Wrong or blank answer | No mark lost | Answer every question |
| Fee | S$109.00 weekday, S$119.90 after 5pm | Includes a S$10.90 registration fee |
SCI publishes no pass rates, so ignore any you see. The useful facts are the clock, which is generous, and the content, which is precise.
Why familiar cover is a trap
You've probably owned a motor policy, a travel policy or a home contents policy. That gives you a sense of what they cover, and it's usually close to right. But a paper asks about the edge: a loss that looks covered and isn't, or a claim that fails because a condition wasn't met. Close to right doesn't earn the mark.
SCI lists seven topics: private motor car insurance including private motorcycles, personal property, personal accident, travel, personal liability, critical illness and hospital cash health cover, and foreign domestic worker and golfer's insurance. Each is a product with its own wording. The study text teaches that wording, and the questions test whether you've absorbed it instead of assuming.
What makes it easier than ComGI
PGI has seven topics against ten in SCI's ComGI list, and you can see most of the products in daily life. You get 90 seconds a question, roughly 20 seconds more than BCP gives. If you've handled personal general insurance claims or sold motor cover, you'll find parts of the paper familiar in the good sense.
It also comes second in SCI's order. SCI says BCP forms the base for the other modules and should preferably come first, so by the time you sit PGI you already know the principles behind the products.
What catches people out
SCI doesn't release question data, so these are the places the paper's design points to.
Exclusions and conditions come first. A travel policy, a personal accident policy and a motor policy each list what they don't pay for. Learn the exclusions as carefully as the benefits.
Next is the health cover topic. Critical illness and hospital cash sits inside PGI, and it overlaps with the HI paper. SCI's HI page says products with only critical illness or hospital income benefits don't need the HI requirement if you've passed BCP and PGI, or M9. So the topic matters beyond this exam, and the products are easy to blur with other health cover.
The last is the smaller covers: foreign domestic worker and golfer's insurance. They look like footnotes beside motor and travel, which makes them easy to under-revise, and a skipped topic is a gift to the paper.
What the clock allows
At 50 questions in 75 minutes you have 90 seconds each. Most definition and coverage questions need less than that, so a steady pace of about a minute leaves you with 25 minutes in hand. Spend that time on the scenario questions where you hesitated, because a loss description with three or four facts in it deserves a second read.
The practice habit that pays is timing yourself on topic blocks of 10 questions. Ten questions should take about 10 to 15 minutes. If a block takes 20, you're slow on that topic, and the cause is usually that you're hunting for the condition that decides the case.
How hard it is for you
Difficulty depends on where you start. This is our read, based on the topics SCI lists, and not a measured result.
| If you | Expect | Spend your time on |
|---|---|---|
| Handle personal lines claims or sales | Familiar products, unfamiliar wording | Exclusions and conditions you apply by habit |
| Are switching from another career | Everything new, but nothing exotic | Learning each product from scratch, in the order SCI lists them |
| Hold or plan to sit HI | An overlap in the health cover topic | Critical illness and hospital cash, and where it ends |
Whichever row fits, the plan is the same: learn one product at a time, answer questions on it straight away, and keep a list of the conditions you got wrong. Come back to that list the night before.
Why it's forgiving
- A wrong answer loses nothing beyond that question.
- You can miss 15 and still pass.
- SCI sets no limit on attempts, and a retake costs the same as a first attempt.
- Your result shows when you finish.
The cost of a failed attempt is higher than for BCP, because the fee is S$109.00 and not S$49.05. That's a good reason to be properly ready before you book, and not a reason to wait for perfect.
How long to prepare
SCI recommends at least 40 to 50 hours of study per module, and says it depends on your experience. A claims or sales background cuts that. Three weeks is a sensible span for most recruits, and the PGI study plan lays one out.
Are you ready to book
Run timed mocks at 50 questions in 75 minutes. Wait for several in a row above 35, with no topic scoring far below the others. Then pick a date. The PGI booking guide explains SCI's rules on changes, which allow one free move until seven working days before the exam. For practice material, PGI practice paper options lists what to check before you pay. You can also practise PGI with timed mocks.
Sources
- SCI, Certification in General Insurance (BCP, PGI and ComGI) exam details and fees, read 2 November 2026
- SCI, Health Insurance (HI) exam details, read 2 November 2026
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Frequently asked questions
PGI is moderate. The products, such as motor, home and travel cover, are familiar, but the marks go to exact conditions and exclusions, so general knowledge is not enough. The clock is fair at 90 seconds a question.
You can miss 15. PGI has 50 questions and the pass mark is 70%, which is 35 right. A wrong or blank answer loses no extra mark.
SCI says BCP forms the base for the other modules and should preferably be taken first. PGI then applies the principles to personal products.
SCI recommends at least 40 to 50 hours for each general insurance module, and says it depends on your experience. Three weeks is a sensible span for most recruits.
SCI's HI page says products with only critical illness or hospital income benefits do not need the HI requirement if you have passed BCP and PGI, or M9. Critical illness and hospital cash is also a PGI topic.
