exams · study
What the State Real Estate Exam Actually Tests
A national outline will not save you on California disclosures, Texas promulgated forms, BRRETA, or NCREC broker-in-charge rules.
By Gabriel Giner, Editor · Published
Most prep apps sell a “national real estate exam.” Many commissions split a national (general) portion from a state-law portion. California DRE and New York DOS do not. Studying only the national outline is how people fail the half of the test that is actually about the destination.
The split states
Texas TREC, via Pearson VUE: sales agents sit 85 national questions in 150 minutes (pass 56) and 50 state questions in 90 minutes (pass 28). Brokers sit a different raw cut (60 / 38 on the current handbook). Pennsylvania: 80 national / 150 minutes plus 40 state / 60 minutes, 75 percent on each. Illinois PSI: 100 national plus 40 state, scaled 75. North Carolina Pearson: 80 national and 60 state, 75 percent on each. Georgia PSI publishes its own salesperson and broker outlines; the state items are GREC rules and BRRETA, not a generic agency chapter.
Where a split exists, you usually must pass each section separately. That is why North Carolina can waive the national section for some currently licensed out-of-state applicants and still make them sit 60 state items, and why Pennsylvania can offer a state-portion-only sitting to recently active out-of-state licensees. A “I already passed the national” story is only useful if the destination’s handbook says it is.
The in-house exams
California DRE writes a unified 150-question salesperson exam (three hours, 70 percent) and a 200-question broker exam (four hours, 75 percent). There is no national portion to waive. DRE’s own content outline weights Practice and Disclosures — Transfer Disclosure Statements, Natural Hazard Disclosure, trust funds, Consumer Recovery Account, licensing and CE procedure — at about 25 percent of the salesperson test. Agency under Civil Code § 2079 is not the same as a generic fiduciary chapter. New York DOS seats a 90-minute salesperson exam and a 2.5-hour broker exam through eAccessNY, reports pass/fail only, and will not publish a numerical cut score this site will invent. Article 12-A and DOS regulations, including the fair-housing and cultural-competency overlay, are the state law. A PSI national outline is the wrong book.
Florida is a single Pearson sitting
The sales-associate exam is 100 questions, 3.5 hours, 75 percent — not a published national/state split. The content is still Florida: Chapter 475, 61J2, FREC I material, and the post-license statute you will live under. Mutual-recognition applicants sit a different, 40-question law exam (30 to pass). Do not study the 100-question outline for a 40-question sitting, or the reverse.
What fails people
Promulgated-contract drills in Texas that never happened in a California classroom. Trust-fund and TDS items on DRE after a TREC-only prep course. BRRETA on GREC after a national app. Broker-in-charge and provisional rules on NCREC after a salesperson syllabus. Office management on the Pennsylvania broker exam after recycling salesperson notes — which the 240-hour rule already forbids in the classroom. Assuming 70 percent is universal when Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Illinois sit at 75 (scaled or raw) and Texas uses raw counts. Sitting before PALS (Pennsylvania broker) or NCREC eligibility (North Carolina). Treating New York’s pass/fail printout as a score you can carry to Pearson.
The fix is boring: print the destination’s candidate handbook the week you schedule, match the outline on the matching exam page and license guide, and throw away the national app’s state pack if it was written for a commission you are not sitting.
Cut scores and retake math
California salesperson 70 percent, broker 75, no numeric score printed for passers. Florida 75 percent of 100. Pennsylvania 75 percent of each portion. North Carolina 75 percent of each portion. Illinois scaled 75. Texas sales 56 and 28 raw; broker 60 and 38 raw. New York pass/fail. Retakes: Illinois four attempts then re-education; Texas three failures then extra education; California unlimited during the two-year application at $100 or $150 a sitting; New York $15 and schedule again, pass valid two years; Georgia’s clock is after you pass — apply in three months at $170, three to twelve at $340, then retake.
Vendor choice is not a study strategy. Pearson VUE in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina still delivers four different state outlines. PSI in Illinois and Georgia still delivers two different license acts. The vendor logo on the door does not mean the questions travel.
Math, contracts, and the items prep apps under-weight
National portions still fail people on proration, loan-to-value, and cap-rate arithmetic even when the state law was the part they feared. Texas state items then add promulgated-form sequencing that a national math drill never touched. California’s ownership and land-use bucket (about 15 percent on DRE’s salesperson outline) is Civil Code and public-report material, not a generic zoning chapter. Florida’s 100-question sitting mixes FREC I math with Chapter 475 discipline. If you only drill agency vocabulary, you are studying the part every app already covers.
Broker exams add supervision. DRE’s 200-question broker test is where trust-fund and management items live at a higher density. Pennsylvania’s required office-management credits exist because the broker exam and the Commission’s discipline docket expect them. Illinois managing-broker items are about the person who sponsors other brokers. Studying a salesperson deck for those sittings is how people who “already passed once” fail the second time.