The Indiana Notary Public examination is the 30-question examination the Indiana Secretary of State delivers online in its Learner Hub, inside the commission application itself, that every applicant for an Indiana notary public commission — including an applicant reapplying for a subsequent commission — must pass after completing the Secretary of State’s education course. In the Secretary of State’s published form, the exam consists of 30 questions and you must score at least 80% (24 correct answers) to pass; a failed attempt may be retaken after a 24-hour wait, with an unlimited number of attempts. The commission it leads to runs eight years, on a $75 nonrefundable application fee that covers the education course and the examination, a $25,000 surety bond, and continuing education of not more than two hours every two years for the life of the commission.
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The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Examination | Indiana Notary Public examination — Indiana Secretary of State, delivered online in the Secretary of State’s Learner Hub as part of the commission application |
| Commission | Notary public, commissioned by the Indiana Secretary of State; term of eight years; notarial acts may be performed within the State of Indiana |
| Governing law | Indiana Code Title 33, Article 42 — principally IC 33-42-12-1 (commission and qualifications) and IC 33-42-12-2 (education and examination); Secretary of State rules at 75 IAC 7-2 |
| Who must take it | Every applicant for a commission, including an applicant reapplying for a subsequent commission (IC 33-42-12-2(a)). No exemption from the education course or the examination for any applicant category, attorneys included, appears in the official sources read |
| Format | 30 questions, taken online in the Learner Hub after the education course is completed. No time limit is published in the official sources read, and this guide prints none |
| Content | The examination follows the Secretary of State’s education course: Indiana notary law, the duties and responsibilities of the office, and the procedures and ethics of notarial acts under IC Title 33, Article 42. No topic weights are published, and none are printed |
| Passing standard | The exam consists of 30 questions; you must score at least 80% (24 correct answers) to pass (Secretary of State, New Notary System FAQ, May 2026) |
| Retakes | Unlimited attempts; after a failed attempt, a 24-hour wait before the examination opens again |
| Education | The Secretary of State’s own education course, completed inside the application flow in the Learner Hub before the examination; continuing education of not more than two hours every two years thereafter |
| Application fee | Indiana fee: $75, nonrefundable, covering the application, the education course, and the examination. Renewal $75; continuing education $50 per course |
| Bond | $25,000 surety bond (the statute’s “assurance”), eight-year term, applicant’s exact name as principal |
| Administrator | Indiana Secretary of State (Business Services Division, Notary section). PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Indiana Secretary of State |
Indiana’s examination is a course-sealed examination in the strict sense: the statute pairs a course of education and an examination in a single subsection, the Secretary of State delivers both inside its own application system, and the examination unlocks only after the course is complete. That structure decides how to prepare for it. The syllabus is closed and knowable — the State’s course, built on IC Title 33, Article 42 — and the standard is a published line: 30 questions, at least 80% (24 correct answers). What is not published is just as instructive: no time limit and no topic weights appear in the Secretary of State’s materials read for this guide, so preparation cannot be paced or trimmed against figures the administering body has not issued. This guide works the law part by part, the route clock by clock, and the standard exactly as published.
Reading the verified facts
Every fact in the table above is stated as the Secretary of State states it in its own publications, because candidates for this examination are ill-served by the approximations that circulate about it — up to and including one widely read guide that affirms this examination in its body and denies it in its own frequently asked questions. Three reading disciplines govern this guide. First, the figures given are the Secretary of State’s figures, reproduced from its New Notary System guidance, its Notary Public Guide and 2024 Update, IC Title 33, Article 42, and its rules at 75 IAC 7-2; where those documents do not publish a figure, this guide prints none rather than borrowing one — that discipline applies with full force to the examination time limit that secondary sources do not agree on because the State has not published one. Second, the passing standard is given in its sole published form — 30 questions, at least 80% (24 correct answers) — as a pair: the percentage and the raw count are the same published line, and neither is ever restated without the other. Third, the companion PassProfessor program is in the works and unbuilt: nothing in this guide describes a question bank, a course, or an enrollment that exists today, and nothing in this guide is the State’s education course, which must be completed in the Secretary of State’s own Learner Hub.
The route, step by step
Step 1 — Place yourself: first application or reapplication
The route has one shape with two entries, and the examination belongs to both. (a) The first-time applicant meets IC 33-42-12-1(b): at least 18 years of age; a citizen or permanent legal resident of the United States; a resident of Indiana or primarily employed in Indiana, and continuously so; not disqualified to receive a commission under IC 33-42-13 (read with IC 5-8-3-1, under which crimes or adverse civil rulings involving deceit, dishonesty, or fraud, and felony convictions, may disqualify); all educational requirements satisfied; and the examination passed. (b) The reapplying notary — a current or former notary seeking a subsequent commission — is reached by the same statute in terms: IC 33-42-12-2(a) requires the course of education and the examination of “an applicant seeking a commission as a notary public, including an applicant reapplying for a subsequent commission.” There is no renewal path in Indiana that skips the examination, and no applicant category — attorneys included — is exempted from it in the official sources read. What renewal does change is the commission’s identity: a renewed commission carries a completely new commission number and takes effect on the previous commission’s expiration date.
Step 2 — Gather the bond, the background record, and the signature sample
Three items must exist before the application can be completed, and each has an exactness rule. The bond: a $25,000 surety bond — the assurance IC 33-42-12-1 requires — with an eight-year term and your exact name as principal, issued by a surety; its premium is the surety’s price, not a State fee. The background record: a valid Indiana State Police criminal history report, dated within the last six months under the Secretary of State’s current system guidance and its rules at 75 IAC 7-2-1. (The Secretary of State’s older INBiz page states a 30-day limit; the current guidance and the rule govern, and this guide follows them — see the INTERNAL note in the companion page.) The signature sample: signed in ink on a clean, white background, with the name in the signature perfectly matching the personal information on the application; light ink, pencil, or a mismatched name delays the application. A non-resident applicant adds the employer’s details and an Employer Consent form at the Residency stage.
Step 3 — Apply online, in six sections, and clear review
Sign in with Access Indiana credentials and start the application in the Applicant Hub of the Secretary of State’s notary system — the dedicated notary pages that have replaced the INBiz dashboard route; a started application can be resumed from its card in the Applicant Hub, which shows progress as a completion percentage. The application has six sections: Personal Info, Residency, Background, Bond, Signature, and Payment. Uploaded bonds, signature samples, and background checks pass through a secure verification review; an applicant may skip that automated validation, or dispute a finding and continue, and in either case the application is flagged for staff review rather than stopped — an application showing “Pending Staff Review” is in that queue, and approval is notified by email. The payment section carries the $75 nonrefundable application fee, which covers the application, the education course, and the examination together.
Step 4 — Complete the State’s education course in the Learner Hub
On approval, an email states that the “Education course is ready.” In the Learner Hub — reached from the top-right navigation, alongside the Applicant Hub and “My Commission” — a card for the assigned course details its size in modules and lessons and tracks progress; the course is begun from that card. Two disciplines matter here. First, provenance: the requirement is the Secretary of State’s own course, and education from an outside provider does not satisfy IC 33-42-12-2 — a commercial course, however good, is preparation for this course and its examination, never a substitute for either. Second, sequence: the examination follows the course, and the Learner Hub dashboard is where completion of both is checked, with status counts for courses completed, in progress, and yet to start, and for examinations taken. Work the course as the syllabus it is: every module is examinable material in the State’s own ordering.
Step 5 — Sit the examination: 30 questions, at least 80% (24 correct)
The examination is taken online in the Learner Hub, after the course. Its published parameters are few and exact: 30 questions; at least 80% (24 correct answers) to pass; no time limit published by the Secretary of State; no topic weights published. Failure carries a defined recovery, not a closed file: wait 24 hours — an email follows when the examination opens back up — and sit it again, with an unlimited number of attempts. A passing score is a required component of the application itself under 75 IAC 7-2-1, listed among the application’s contents alongside the bond and the background check.
Step 6 — Commission, continuing education, and renewal
The granted commission is held in the system: “My Commission” shows the active commission, the official certificate for download, the attached documents, and the continuing education due dates. The term is eight years from its effective date. Inside the term, the continuing education machinery runs on its own clock: a course of not more than two hours every two years — three courses in all — each begun on the Applicant Hub with its $50 payment and completed on the Learner Hub, each due by the end of the anniversary month of the commission (the last day of the month in which the commission was issued, on its two-year cycle), and each completable only within the window the rules allow around its due date. Completion does not extend the commission term and does not exempt renewal; failure to complete on time results in expiration of the commission. Renewal opens 90 days before expiration, notified by email, at the $75 fee, through the same application machinery — education course and examination included — and the renewed commission runs eight years from the expiration of the current one, under a new commission number that may not be used until its effective date, the day the previous commission expires.
The law in full: what the examination is drawn from
The examination follows the education course, and the course teaches the law of the office under IC Title 33, Article 42. This section follows that law’s own organisation — qualifications and the commission, the acts and their performance standards, certificates and the seal, fees, prohibitions, and the maintenance machinery — at the granularity the material is examined at: named duties, exact figures, and prescribed forms.
Qualifications, disqualification, and the commission — IC 33-42-12-1 and IC 33-42-13
The commission section is a checklist with legal consequences at every line. Age 18. Citizenship or permanent legal residency. Residence in Indiana or primary employment in Indiana, continuously maintained — the non-resident’s commission rests on the Indiana employment, and the file proves it with employer details and a consent form. The $25,000 assurance. The educational requirements and the passed examination. One active Indiana commission at a time. Statewide authority to perform notarial acts, with no immunity or benefit conferred. Against the checklist stands the disqualification chapter: IC 33-42-13, read with IC 5-8-3-1, under which — in the Secretary of State’s summary — crimes or adverse civil rulings involving deceit, dishonesty, or fraud, and felony convictions, may disqualify an individual from holding a commission. Know which side of the line each described applicant falls on; qualification items are built on single disqualifying facts placed quietly inside otherwise clean files.
The acts and their performance — personal appearance, identity, and the interest bar
A notary public is commissioned to perform notarial acts: taking acknowledgments, administering oaths and affirmations, taking verifications on oath or affirmation, and witnessing or attesting signatures. The performance standards are the examinable core. The signer appears before the notary; identity is established to the standard the law requires before the act is performed; the record is complete — an incomplete document is not notarized; and the act is refused where the notary cannot be satisfied. The interest bar is absolute in its lane: a notary may not perform an act where the notary or the notary’s spouse holds a direct financial or beneficial interest in the transaction, and may never notarize the notary’s own signature. The credible-witness mechanics belong to this unit as well — including the rule that a person whose own signature is being notarized in the transaction cannot serve as the credible identifying witness for another signer in it. Items in this unit are scenarios with one decisive fact moved at a time: the signer who is the notary’s spouse, the witness with an interest, the record missing its certificate language.
Certificates and the seal — the prescribed forms
Every notarial act must be evidenced by a notarial certificate: a written statement, signed and sealed by the notary public, certifying the facts of the act, placed in the document or securely affixed to it. The Secretary of State’s guidance is blunt about the two failure modes — a notarization is not complete without a proper certificate, and a notary should never simply stamp a document with the seal. Certificate contents are mechanical and therefore heavily examinable: the date and time of the notarization, the printed name of each signer, the type of notarization, the date and the title or brief description of the document. The seal is prescribed element by element: the words “notary public”; the words “state of Indiana”; the notary’s name exactly as it appears on the commission; the words “commission number” followed by the commission number; and the words “my commission expires” followed by the expiration date. One element was removed: since July 1, 2024, under HB 1032’s amendment of IC 33-42-0.5-13, seals no longer need to contain the word “Seal” — a candidate whose material still lists it is working from pre-amendment law. The Secretary of State does not supply seals; they are obtained from suppliers, and the commissioned name the seal carries must match the commission exactly.
Fees — the fixed schedule
A notary may charge $10 per notarial act. A remote notary public may charge $25 per remote notarial act. Travel may be charged at the federal mileage rate. Those figures, from the Secretary of State’s published fee summary, are the whole schedule for the base commission — memorise them as a set, because fee items test the boundaries: the per-act basis, the remote figure’s attachment to the separate remote authorization rather than to any act done at a distance, and the travel rate’s federal source.
Prohibited conduct, advertising, and notifications
The commission authorises notarial acts and nothing adjacent to the law: a notary who is not a licensed attorney may not draft legal records, give legal advice — including immigration advice — or charge a fee for those activities, and a notary who advertises must carry the not-an-attorney disclaimer Indiana law prescribes. The notification duty is a fixed clock: the Secretary of State’s office must be informed within 30 days of a change in the information on file — name, address, and the other particulars the application holds. Discipline runs under IC 33-42-13: a commission held in violation of the chapter’s standards exposes the notary to the chapter’s consequences, up to loss of the commission, and a notary who fails to carry out the duties correctly may be liable for the damages the failure causes.
The journal line — what Indiana does and does not require
Indiana is the state where imported rules do the most damage, and the journal is the standard example. For traditional paper notarizations, Indiana does not require a notary journal; the Secretary of State’s guidance recommends keeping one as protection for the notary, and recommends it strongly — but a recommendation is not a mandate, and material that teaches a universal Indiana journal requirement is teaching another state’s law. The mandate in Indiana attaches to the remote regime: remote notarizations require an electronic journal (IC 33-42-17-8) and the audio-visual record the remote chapter prescribes. State the three positions separately — traditional: recommended, not required; remote: required, electronic; examination: the distinction itself is the testable point.
Remote notarization — a separate authorization, kept separate
Remote notarization under IC Title 33, Article 42, Chapter 17 is not a feature of the base commission. It is a separate authorization layered on a current commission: a $100 Indiana authorization fee, its own education course and its own remote examination administered through the Secretary of State, registration as an electronic or remote notary, and performance through two-way audio-visual technology on an approved platform, with its own certificate, journal, and recording rules and its $25 per-act fee. This guide notes the boundary and stops there: the base examination does not test the remote regime as part of the commission application, and preparation for the base commission must not be padded with remote-authorization process as if the two were one gate.
The sitting itself: format, scoring, and what follows
The Secretary of State defines the event narrowly: 30 questions, delivered online in the Learner Hub, after the education course, against a published standard of at least 80% (24 correct answers). No time limit is published in the Secretary of State’s materials read for this guide, and no honest pacing arithmetic can be built on a figure that does not exist in those sources: the preparation consequence is to practise for accuracy and completeness across the whole course rather than for a rehearsed per-item clock. The arithmetic that does exist is unforgiving in a different way: six incorrect answers exhaust the margin, so a candidate’s readiness question is never “do I know most of this” but “which two areas could each cost me three.” Two published features shape behaviour after a failure. The retake is near and repeatable — 24 hours, unlimited attempts — so a failed sitting inside a live application is diagnostic information, provided the retake is prepared for rather than merely repeated. And the score’s place in the file is structural: a passing score is an application component under the Secretary of State’s rules, so the examination is not an errand after the application but a section of it.
What this examination is for
The catalog’s notary coverage is organised state by state, because notary law is state law — there is no national notary examination. Indiana’s gate is among the family’s most distinctive: a statutory course-and-examination pair delivered inside the application itself, an eight-year commission — double the common term — held in place by biennial continuing education with an expiration sanction, and a renewal that returns the notary to the examination rather than waiving it. This guide and its companion cover the Indiana examination itself — its IC Title 33, Article 42 syllabus, its inside-the-application sequence, and its current new-system machinery — and nothing borrowed from another state’s scheme, whose terms, bonds, exemptions, and renewal rules differ at exactly the points this examination tests.
Preparation errors this guide is written to prevent
The recurring errors are specific to this examination’s shape. Candidates study a borrowed route — a test-center sitting, a vendor fee, an examination taken before applying — for a state whose examination exists only inside its application. Candidates study stale law: a $5,000 or freehold bond, a four-year term, a seal carrying an element the law removed in 2024, dashboard instructions for a system the Secretary of State has replaced with the Applicant Hub and Learner Hub. Candidates trust a single secondary page that contradicts itself — affirming the examination in one section, denying it in another, printing a $25 fee the State does not charge — instead of checking the statute, which settles every one of those points. Candidates collapse the two education regimes, treating the pre-commission course and the biennial continuing education as one requirement with one clock. Candidates import other states’ furniture — a universal journal mandate, an attorney exemption, a four-year renewal cycle — into a state whose law contains none of them. And candidates under-study the machinery — the six application sections, the exact-name bond and signature rules, the 30-day change notification, the continuing education due dates — although machinery, being exact, is what a 30-question paper most easily examines.
After the examination
A pass completes the examination component of the application; the commission certificate then lives in “My Commission,” with the continuing education due dates the next eight years run on. Hold the certificate and its dates together: the commission’s effective date starts the two-year continuing education cycles, the due dates fall at the end of the commission month, and the renewal window opens 90 days before the eight-year expiration. Calendar all of it from the certificate, not from memory — the commission’s tenure failures are calendar failures, and they arrive years after the examination that this guide is about.
A preparation plan that respects the source
Build the plan on the course’s own order, because there is no published weighting to build it on instead. Open with qualifications and the commission machinery itself — who must test, inside what application, against what published standard — since that frame decides what everything else is for. Then work the acts with their performance standards, converting each act into worked items as you finish it: appearance, identity, completeness, refusal, and the interest bar. Give certificates and the seal a complete pass as prescribed-form material to be reproduced exactly, element by element, including the element the law removed in 2024. Give the fee schedule, the prohibited acts, and the notification clock a pass as exact-figure material. Take the maintenance machinery as a distinct study unit — three continuing education courses, their due dates and $50 fee, the renewal window, and the new commission number — and test yourself on which clocks expire the commission when missed. Close by rehearsing the route end to end, in order, from memory: bond and background record, six-section application, approval, course, examination, commission. The companion Indiana Notary Public Exam Preparation page describes the preparation program itself, which is in the works; this guide stands on its own as the route and source reference.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this guide give no examination time limit?
Because neither the Secretary of State’s New Notary System guidance, nor its 2024 Notary Public Update, nor IC 33-42-12-2 publishes one in the sources read for this guide. A plan built on a time limit the State has not published is built on a guess; preparation here is organised around the margin — six questions — instead.
Is 80% the same as 24 correct answers?
On this examination, the Secretary of State publishes them as one line: the exam consists of 30 questions, and you must score at least 80% (24 correct answers) to pass. This guide prints the standard in that published form only, and draws the consequence the arithmetic carries: six incorrect answers is the entire margin.
What is the difference between the education course and continuing education?
They are two regimes at two points in the commission’s life. The education course is the pre-commission course of IC 33-42-12-2(a), completed inside the application, in the Learner Hub, before the examination — by every applicant, including a reapplying one. Continuing education is the maintenance requirement of IC 33-42-12-2(b): not more than two hours every two years during the commission — three courses across the eight-year term, $50 each, administered through the Secretary of State’s office. Passing the first does not satisfy the second, and completing the second does not extend the term or exempt renewal.
My commission is up for renewal. Do I really take the examination again?
Yes. IC 33-42-12-2(a) states the course-and-examination requirement for an applicant “including an applicant reapplying for a subsequent commission,” and the renewal runs through the same application machinery at the same $75 fee. What renewal adds is a new commission number, effective on the previous commission’s expiration date — and that number may not be used before its effective date.
How is Indiana’s journal position different from other states’?
Indiana imposes no journal requirement for traditional paper notarizations; its guidance recommends a journal, strongly, as the notary’s own protection. The journal mandate attaches to remote notarizations, which require an electronic journal under the remote chapter. States that mandate a journal for every act are stating their own law, not Indiana’s.
What must be on the official seal now?
The words “notary public” and “state of Indiana”; the notary’s name exactly as it appears on the commission; the words “commission number” followed by the commission number; and the words “my commission expires” followed by the expiration date. Since July 1, 2024, the word “Seal” is no longer a required element.
When must the Secretary of State be notified of a change?
Within 30 days of a change in the information on file with the Secretary of State’s office.
What are the background check’s currency rules?
The current position: an Indiana State Police criminal history report dated within the last six months, per the Secretary of State’s New Notary System guidance and 75 IAC 7-2-1. An older Secretary of State page states 30 days; where the current system guidance and the rule agree against an older page, this guide follows the current guidance and the rule.
Where do this guide’s facts come from?
From the Indiana Secretary of State’s own publications — its New Notary System Frequently Asked Questions (May 2026), its 2024 Indiana Notary Public Update, and the Indiana Notary Public Guide it points candidates to — from Indiana Code Title 33, Article 42 (principally IC 33-42-12-1 and IC 33-42-12-2), and from the Secretary of State’s rules at 75 IAC 7-2 — recorded in this file’s INTERNAL section. Facts that could not be verified from those sources were omitted.