Exam guide

Real estate licensing exams

There is no single national real estate license exam that every commission accepts. Some states split a national (general) portion from a state-law portion and outsource seating to Pearson VUE or PSI. Two — California and New York — write and administer the entire test. A passing score in one column does not move with you.

Who seats the test?

Pearson VUE seats Texas TREC, Florida FREC/DBPR, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. PSI seats Illinois IDFPR and Georgia GREC (including GCIC fingerprints at the Georgia site). California DRE seats its own 150-question salesperson and 200-question broker exams at DRE sites in Fresno, La Palma, Oakland, Sacramento, and San Diego. New York DOS seats its own exam through eAccessNY and reports pass/fail only — no numerical score, which is why this site does not invent a New York cut score.

National vs state portions

Where a handbook publishes a split, you usually must pass each section separately. Texas sales agents: 85 national / 150 minutes (pass 56) plus 50 state / 90 minutes (pass 28). North Carolina: 80 national and 60 state, 75 percent on each. Pennsylvania: 80 national / 150 minutes plus 40 state / 60 minutes, 75 percent. Illinois: 100 national plus 40 state, scaled 75. Florida’s sales-associate exam is a single 100-question, 3.5-hour, 75-percent Pearson test — not a published national/state split. California’s 150 and 200 are unified California content; there is no national section for DRE to waive. New York is a single DOS exam.

That architecture is why North Carolina can waive the national section for some currently licensed out-of-state applicants and still make them sit state items, why Pennsylvania can offer a state-portion-only sitting to recently active out-of-state licensees, and why a California DRE pass cannot be “transferred” as a national score to TREC or NCREC.

What the state-law items actually cover

National items look like agency, contracts, finance, property ownership, and valuation. State items are why people who memorized a national outline still fail. California weights Practice and Disclosures — TDS, Natural Hazard Disclosure, trust funds, Consumer Recovery Account — as a quarter of the salesperson exam. Texas state items lean on promulgated contract forms and TREC rules. Florida law items are Chapter 475 and 61J2. Georgia is BRRETA and GREC rules. Pennsylvania is RELRA and 49 Pa. Code Chapter 35. Illinois is the Real Estate License Act of 2000 and Article 1450. North Carolina is Chapter 93A and NCREC rules, including the broker-in-charge structure that does not exist in salesperson states. New York is Article 12-A and DOS regulations, including the cultural-competency and fair-housing overlay that also shows up in CE.

What actually fails people

• Treating 70 percent as universal. California salespersons pass at 70; California brokers at 75. Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Illinois (scaled) sit at 75. Texas uses raw counts (56/28 sales, 60/38 broker). New York will not tell you a number.
• Sitting before the file is eligible. Pennsylvania brokers must clear PALS first. North Carolina requires NCREC eligibility before Pearson. Florida lets you apply before the exam; Georgia does not — exam then apply, with a 3/12-month fee ladder after you pass.
• Failing the retake math. Illinois: four attempts then re-education. Texas: three failures then extra education. California: unlimited during the two-year application, $100/$150 each time. New York: pay $15 and schedule again; the pass expires in two years.
• Studying the wrong outline. A PSI national outline is not DRE’s content page. Promulgated-forms drills do not help a New York Article 12-A sitting. Broker-level office-management items are how Pennsylvania and California brokers who reused salesperson notes get surprised.

Exam at a glance

Question counts, minutes, and cut scores are on each license page only when the handbook or commission published them. Use that candidate bulletin the week you schedule.