What is on the real estate exam
Most study advice describes the exam in vague categories. The exam publishes its own outline, and it counts the items in each area. Here is that outline with the numbers attached, so you can spend your study time in proportion to what is actually being tested.
Two portions, and only one of them is national
In most states the license exam comes in two portions taken in a single appointment. The national — or general — portion covers real estate practice, principles and federal law, and it is the same body of material wherever it is given. The state portion covers that state’s own license law and practice, and no national study material covers it.
A handful of states do it differently. California, for example, gives one combined exam built to a single content outline of its own, with no separately scored national portion at all.
The figures on this page describe the national portion as one of the two exam vendors publishes it. Read them as a well-sourced description of that vendor’s exam rather than as a universal rule — the other vendor publishes its own outline, and the two are not obliged to distribute items identically.
The eight content areas, with the exam’s own item counts
The national portion is 80 scored items plus 5 unscored pretest items — 85 in total — in 150 minutes. The pretest items are mixed in, are not marked, and do not count toward your score.
| Content area | Scored items | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Real property characteristics, legal descriptions, and property use | 11 | 14% |
| Forms of ownership, transfer, and recording of title | 9 | 11% |
| Property value and appraisal | 11 | 14% |
| Real estate contracts and agency | 16 | 20% |
| Real estate practice | 10 | 13% |
| Property disclosures and environmental issues | 9 | 11% |
| Financing and settlement | 7 | 9% |
| Real estate math calculations | 7 | 9% |
| Total scored | 80 | 100% |
From the published national/general content outline for salespersons, effective 1 March 2025, as printed in the Pearson VUE Texas Real Estate Candidate Handbook (January 2026), read 22 August 2026.
What the numbers tell you to do differently
Contracts and agency is sixteen items — one item in five, and twice the size of financing. It is also the area where the questions are scenario-shaped rather than definitional, which is to say it is where preparation pays most and cramming pays least.
Real estate maths is seven items. It is the area that frightens candidates most and it is tied for the smallest on the exam. Getting every maths item right and losing the agency section is a failing paper; the reverse usually is not.
Property and land use and valuation are eleven each, and both reward vocabulary. A large share of what those twenty-two items ask is whether you know what a word means precisely — easement appurtenant against easement in gross, market value against market price, functional against external obsolescence.
The two numbers you must bring in your head
The handbook states that these are not supplied at the test centre and should be memorised. Every area calculation depends on the first of them.
A question that needs a proration will tell you whether to use a 360-day or a 365-day year, and whether the day of closing belongs to the buyer or the seller. You are not expected to guess the convention.
- 43,560 square feet in an acre
- 5,280 feet in a mile
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Start a practice testFrequently asked
- How many questions are on the national portion of the real estate exam?
- 85 items: 80 scored and 5 unscored pretest items, in 150 minutes. Your state portion is separate and its length varies by state.
- What is the passing score on the real estate exam?
- There is no national passing score. Each state commission sets its own and they are not even expressed in the same units — Texas publishes a raw number of correct answers, California a percentage. Check your own state’s figure.
- What is the hardest section of the real estate exam?
- By weight rather than by reputation, contracts and agency is the one to take seriously: sixteen of the eighty scored items, and mostly scenario questions rather than definitions.
- Are the pretest questions marked?
- No. They look exactly like scored items and there is no way to identify them, which is why leaving anything blank is strictly worse than guessing.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, with the date it was read. Requirements change; if a source has moved on since that date, the source is right and this page is out of date.
- Pearson VUE — Texas Real Estate Candidate Handbook (#094400, January 2026) Read August 22, 2026
Page facts last verified August 22, 2026.
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Independent exam preparation. Real Estate Exam Bank is not a state-approved pre-licensing course and completing anything here does not satisfy any state education requirement. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by any state real estate commission, Pearson VUE, or PSI. Practice questions here are original study material, not the official exam.