25-question VA claims agent exam practice set

This free 25-question practice set is built for one job: getting you ready for the VA accredited claims agent exam, the test the VA Office of General Counsel (OGC) uses to decide who earns the right to represent veterans and their families in claims for benefits. Below you will find 25 exam-style questions covering 24 different topics, every one with an explanation, a citation to the controlling law or regulation, and a callout of the trap the question is testing. Answer them like it counts, because that is how the real exam feels.

What the claims agent exam is and why it exists

Under 38 U.S.C. 5904 and the accreditation regulations at 38 CFR 14.626 through 14.637, nobody may prepare, present, or prosecute a claim for VA benefits for a fee without accreditation from the VA General Counsel. Accredited claims agents, attorneys, and VSO representatives are the only people allowed to do this work for compensation. The exam exists to protect veterans: the law it tests is dense, the stakes for claimants are real (back pay, survivor benefits, health care eligibility), and a representative who misstates an effective date or a review option can cost a family thousands of dollars. That is why the exam does not reward general familiarity with the system. It rewards precision. Every question on this page was written in that spirit.

How this practice set is built

Twenty-five questions may not sound like much, but the set is deliberately constructed to punch above its weight. The questions span 24 distinct topics, from ratings and effective dates to accreditation rules, fiduciary protections, DIC, education benefits, home loans, vocational rehabilitation, pension, insurance, and special monthly compensation. The difficulty mix mirrors the exam's own profile: 18 medium, 4 easy, and 3 hard. Easy questions anchor the core rules every agent must know cold. Medium questions make up the bulk, the way they do on the real test, and they lean on the distinction-heavy rules the exam loves: new and material versus new and relevant, private-record versus federal-record effort standards, direct versus presumptive versus secondary service connection. The three hard questions are the kill shots: clear and unmistakable error, secondary service connection, and herbicide presumptions, each with a distracter that looks exactly like the rule you memorized.

Every question carries three layers of support. The explanation tells you why the right answer is right and, just as importantly, why each wrong answer is wrong. The citation names the controlling statute or regulation section so you can verify the rule yourself in the eCFR. And the trap callout names the specific move the question is making, the reflex answer it is trying to provoke. Studying the traps is the fastest way to improve, because the exam reuses the same moves: date-of-receipt reflexes on effective dates, award-date reflexes on apportionments, and exception-swallowing-the-rule distracters throughout.

How to use this set

First pass: answer all 25 untimed, clicking each option and reading the full explanation, citation, and trap note before moving on. Do not skip the explanations for questions you got right; the exam punishes confident-but-shallow knowledge, and a right answer for the wrong reason is a landmine. Second pass: for every question you missed, open the cited section in the eCFR and read the surrounding paragraphs. The citation links on the results card point you to the source. Third pass: retake the set a few days later, this time on a timer of about one minute per question. If your score holds, the rules are in long-term memory. If it drops, you were pattern-recognizing, not rule-knowing, and that topic goes back to the reading list.

What your score means

The results screen at the end breaks your score down by topic, so you can see exactly where to aim your next study block. As a rough guide: 22 to 25 means you are exam-ready on these rules and should push into full-length timed practice; 18 to 21 means you are close, with one or two topic clusters to shore up; 14 to 17 means the core rules are not yet automatic, and you should re-read the flagged sections before retaking; below 14 means start from the study guides, especially the 38 CFR part 3 study guide and the topic outline, then come back. The topic breakdown matters more than the raw number: a 19 with every miss in effective dates is a fixable problem, and a 19 with misses everywhere is a different study plan.

What to study next

When you finish, follow the citations you missed into the primary sources, then widen: the 38 CFR part 3 study guide covers the largest substantive block on the exam, the exam topic outline maps every tested statute and regulation, and the sample questions page adds more practice. Pair this set with the free quiz for spaced repetition across study sessions. Veterans law rewards reps, and every rep with an explanation attached moves the needle.

Topics covered in this set

• 38 CFR part 20 - Board appeals
• 38 CFR part 3 - duty to assist
• 38 CFR part 3 - presumptive service connection (structure)
• 38 CFR part 3 - secondary service connection
• 38 CFR part 3 - special monthly compensation
• 38 CFR part 4 - total disability based on unemployability
• 38 U.S.C. ch. 13 - dependency and indemnity compensation
• 38 U.S.C. ch. 17 - CHAMPVA
• 38 U.S.C. ch. 39 - automobiles and adaptive equipment
• 38 U.S.C. chapter 11 - herbicide presumptions
• Accreditation, fees and discipline
• Appeals: AMA, legacy, Board and CAVC
• Character of discharge and line of duty
• Claims process and duty to assist
• DIC, death and survivor benefits
• Education benefits
• Fiduciaries, apportionment and benefit protection
• Health care, dental and copays
• Home loans and housing assistance
• Insurance: SGLI, VGLI and related
• Pension
• Ratings and effective dates
• Service connection and presumptions
• Vocational rehabilitation and employment

The quiz

Click one answer per question. You will get instant feedback with the explanation, the citation, the source quote, and the trap. Your score appears at the end with a per-topic breakdown.