National vs state portion: what actually differs

The portions are passed independently. In Texas, a candidate who fails one portion retakes only that portion, provided they do so within one year of the date the application was filed. That is a meaningful difference from a single combined exam, where a weak state-law section drags down an otherwise strong paper.

It also means the two need separate study plans. The national portion is a body of general principles, and material written for it works anywhere. The state portion is statute and commission rule, and nothing written nationally covers it.

Two details in that table are worth pausing on. The national portion is the same 85 items for both licenses, but a broker must answer more of them correctly. And the state portion is where the two licenses actually diverge in length.

Because the national portion tests general principles rather than one state’s law, some states will waive it for a candidate who already holds an active license elsewhere and passed a national exam approved by ARELLO, the association of license law officials. Texas publishes exactly that provision in its candidate handbook.

Whether it applies to you is a decision for the commission in the state you are moving to, not for the exam vendor and not for a study site. It is worth asking about before you pay for a full course.

California is the clearest example of the other model. The Department of Real Estate writes and delivers its own examination — 150 questions in three hours for the salesperson license, with a 70 percent passing score — built to a single content outline in which California law and general practice are mixed together rather than separated.

For a candidate that has one practical consequence: there is no national portion to carry in from another state, and a national-only question bank leaves the largest content area on the California outline substantially uncovered.