PA Real Estate License Exam Practice Test: 120 Questions
By the AgentExamHub team | Updated July 15, 2026
Pennsylvania’s real estate salesperson exam is 120 scored questions total: 80 on national real estate content and 40 on Pennsylvania-specific license law. You need at least 60 correct on the national portion and 30 correct on the state portion, 75% on each, to pass. Pearson VUE now administers the exam for the Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission, with a current content outline effective March 2026, and a practice test that mirrors this exact split is the only kind worth your time.
Pennsylvania scores the two portions separately rather than combining them into one number, so a strong national score can’t offset a weak state score, or the reverse. That structure is why PA-specific practice, not a generic national-only quiz, matters more here than it does in states that blend everything into a single pass/fail total.
What’s the exact format of the PA real estate exam?
The exam has two parts, and each is scored on its own. The national/general portion carries 80 scored items across eight content areas, plus 5 unscored pretest items mixed in and not identified, per Pearson VUE’s National/General Exam Content Outline for Salespersons, effective April 1, 2025. The Pennsylvania state-specific portion carries 40 scored items across five categories, plus 10 unscored pretest items, per the Pennsylvania Real Estate Salesperson Licensing Examination Content Outline, effective March 16, 2026.
What are the 8 national content areas and the 5 Pennsylvania categories?
The national portion’s eight areas, with their scored item counts for the salesperson exam, are the backbone of any real PA practice test:
| National content area | Scored items |
|---|---|
| Real property characteristics, legal descriptions, and property use | 11 |
| Forms of ownership, transfer, and recording of title | 9 |
| Property value and appraisal | 11 |
| Real estate contracts and agency | 16 |
| Real estate practice | 10 |
| Property disclosures and environmental issues | 9 |
| Financing and settlement | 7 |
| Real estate math calculations | 7 |
The Pennsylvania state portion covers Real Estate Commission (5 items: duties, complaints, and the Real Estate Recovery Fund), Licensure (8 items: qualifications, license renewal, and exemptions), Agency and Disclosure (10 items, the heaviest state category), Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees (11 items: advertising, broker/salesperson relations, prohibited conduct), and Miscellaneous (6 items: property disclosures, PA Human Relations Act, time-shares).
How long do we get, and what does the exam cost?
Candidates get roughly three hours total for the combined exam, split between the two timed sections, and the fee covers both portions in one sitting. According to multiple current Pennsylvania exam-prep resources referencing the Pearson VUE fee schedule, the total exam fee runs $49 per attempt, and there’s no state-imposed cap on retakes, only the fee and a valid pre-licensing course record standing between you and another try.
Pennsylvania requires 75 hours of approved pre-licensing education before you’re eligible to register for the exam. That’s on the lower end nationally, which is part of why PA-specific practice, especially on the state portion’s Agency and Disclosure and Regulations categories, carries real weight: fewer classroom hours means less repetition of the state law before test day.
How is the PA exam scored?
Both portions are scored separately, and you must clear both thresholds in the same sitting or retake whichever portion you failed. A 75% passing bar applies to each section independently: 60 of 80 on the national portion, 30 of 40 on the state portion. Missing the passing mark on just one section means a retake of that section only, not the full 120-question exam.
What should a PA practice test actually drill?
A practice test built for Pennsylvania should weight questions to match the real split: roughly two-thirds national content, one-third state content, with Real Estate Contracts and Agency (16 items) as the single heaviest national category and Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees (11 items) as the heaviest state category. A practice set that treats national and state content as equally weighted, or skips the state portion entirely, doesn’t reflect the actual exam.
Math deserves its own attention even though it’s only 7 of the 80 national items: proration, commission splits, and loan-to-value calculations show up as fact-pattern application questions, not simple recall, so untimed familiarity with the formula isn’t the same as being able to execute it inside a roughly 90-second-per-question pace.
Run the full split before test day
Practicing the national portion alone leaves the state portion, worth 40 of your 120 total questions, completely untested. The AgentExamHub practice quiz tool runs both the national and Pennsylvania-specific sections separately, timed the way the real exam splits them, so you get an honest read on each score independently instead of one blended number that can hide a weak section.
If you want the full national and PA-specific content outline walked in order, with worked math examples for the calculation-heavy items, the AgentExamHub free study guide covers both portions at the weight Pennsylvania’s content outline actually uses.
FAQ
Does Pennsylvania use PSI or Pearson VUE for its real estate exam? Pearson VUE, as of the current Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission candidate handbook effective March 2026. Some older prep materials still reference PSI, which previously administered the exam; verify against the current Pearson VUE handbook before relying on any vendor-specific procedural detail.
Can I retake just the section I failed? Yes. Because Pennsylvania scores the national and state portions separately, failing one doesn’t require retaking the section you already passed, as long as your retake falls within the state’s eligibility window.
How many pre-licensing hours does Pennsylvania require? 75 hours of approved pre-licensing education, completed before you’re eligible to register for the salesperson exam.
What’s the hardest section on the PA state portion? Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees carries the most scored items (11) among the five state categories, covering advertising rules, broker/salesperson relations, and prohibited conduct, closely followed by Agency and Disclosure at 10 items.
Are the pretest questions on the PA exam scored? No. Five unscored pretest items are mixed into the national portion and ten into the state portion; they’re not identified, so answer every question as if it counts.
Bottom line: know the exact split (80 national, 40 state, 120 total), the passing bar on each (75%), and the heaviest categories (Contracts and Agency nationally, Regulations and Agency/Disclosure at the state level) before you schedule. Practice both portions separately, timed, and treat the state section with the same weight as the national one.