Real Estate Exam Practice Test: 10 Sample Questions

A real estate exam practice test should mirror the real thing: a national portion built around agency, contracts, financing, and valuation, plus a state portion on your state’s license law and forms. Most states require 70 to 75 percent correct to pass, exam fees run $35 to $100 per sitting, and you can retake a failed portion without redoing your whole license course in most states.

Real exams vary by state because every state license law is different, but the shape of the test does not. PSI, Pearson VUE, and a handful of state-run testing services all split the exam into a general (national) section and a state-specific section, score them separately, and require a passing mark on both before you’re eligible to apply for a license. What changes state to state is the question count, the passing threshold, and the fee. We pulled the specifics below straight from the testing vendors’ own candidate bulletins so you’re studying against real numbers, not guesses.

What’s actually on a real estate exam practice test?

A real estate exam practice test should cover two distinct blocks: the national (general) portion tests real estate principles that apply everywhere (agency law, contracts, property ownership, financing, appraisal, fair housing, closing), and the state portion tests your state’s specific statutes, license law, and required forms. In Colorado, for example, PSI’s real estate broker exam pairs an 80-question national portion (60 correct needed to pass) with a 74-question state portion (53 correct needed to pass), according to PSI’s Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin for Colorado, current as of 2026.

The national portion carries more weight in most states because it covers a bigger body of knowledge. It’s built around roughly ten major categories: property ownership and land use, laws of agency, valuation and financial analysis, financing, transfer of title, contracts, and practice of real estate, among others. A good practice test walks all ten, not just the two or three that show up most often in a Google search.

How is the exam scored, and what counts as a passing score?

Most states set the passing score at 70 to 75 percent correct on each portion, scored separately, and you must clear both to qualify for a license. California requires a minimum of 70 percent correct on its salesperson exam, according to the California Department of Real Estate’s Salesperson Examination Content page. Virginia requires 70 percent on the national portion and 75 percent on the state portion, and Oregon runs a similar split of roughly 70 percent nationally and 75 percent on the state section.

There’s no partial credit and no curve. Scores post immediately at the test center, and most vendors, including PSI, hand you a diagnostic breakdown by topic if you fail, so you know exactly which category cost you the license.

What does a real estate exam actually cost?

Exam fees are billed per sitting, and every failed attempt costs money again. In Colorado, PSI charges $44.95 for a first attempt and $42.50 for each retake, per its 2026 candidate bulletin. Texas charges separate fees for the sales agent and broker exams, and Nevada runs a flat $100 regardless of license level. None of these fees are refundable if you no-show or arrive late, so treat exam day like a flight you can’t rebook for free.

Pearson VUE sells its own practice test for the Texas exam at $19.95, according to the Texas Real Estate page on pearsonvue.com, current as of March 2026. That’s worth knowing before you pay a third party for something the testing vendor already offers directly.

How should we actually use a practice test to get ready?

The honest answer: timed, full length, and reviewed question by question, not skimmed for right answers. Set a timer that matches your state’s real allotment (Colorado gives 120 minutes for the national portion and 110 for the state portion), sit through the whole thing without pausing, then go back through every miss and figure out why the wrong answer was tempting. That last step, the “why,” is what separates a practice test that builds skill from one that just measures where you already stand.

We’d also push back on one common habit: cramming state-specific rules the week before test day and skipping the national review because “it’s mostly common sense.” National-portion topics like agency disclosure, contract remedies, and financing math are dense and easy to mix up under time pressure. Split your study time roughly to match the exam’s own weighting rather than your gut feeling about what’s hard.

What happens if we fail, and how many times can we retake it?

Failing one portion doesn’t require retaking your whole license course in most states, and you keep the passing score on the portion you cleared for up to a year. Retake policies do have limits, though, and they’re stricter than most people expect. In Texas, candidates who fail three times must complete an additional 30 classroom hours of qualifying real estate education before they can register to test again, according to Pearson VUE’s Texas Real Estate scheduling page. Illinois requires candidates to retake their pre-licensing coursework after four failed attempts, per Colibri Real Estate’s retake-policy breakdown.

Nationally, first-time pass rates aren’t as high as most prep marketing suggests. A 2026 state-by-state analysis by Colibri Real Estate put the national first-time pass average at 61.4 percent, with wide swings by state, from around 74 percent in strong-performing states down to the low 40s in the toughest ones. That gap is almost entirely a preparation gap, not a difficulty gap between states.

10 real estate exam practice questions with answers explained

We wrote these to match the categories that actually appear on PSI and Pearson VUE national outlines, not to recycle the same five agency questions every prep site runs.

1. A seller tells their agent to keep an offer confidential from other buyers. What duty is the agent following? Answer: confidentiality. Agents owe sellers confidentiality on information that could weaken their negotiating position, separate from the disclosure duty they owe all parties on material facts about the property itself.

2. A buyer’s loan is approved for 90 percent of a $220,000 purchase price. How much cash does the buyer need for the down payment alone? Answer: $22,000. Ninety percent financed means 10 percent down: 0.10 x $220,000 = $22,000, before closing costs.

3. Which type of deed gives the buyer the strongest protection against title defects? Answer: general warranty deed. It warrants against defects arising both before and during the grantor’s ownership, unlike a special warranty deed, which only covers the grantor’s own period of ownership.

4. A lender’s mortgage clause lets them demand full repayment if the property is sold. What’s this clause called? Answer: acceleration clause, triggered here by a due-on-sale provision. It protects the lender from an unqualified buyer assuming the loan without approval.

5. A property is advertised only to buyers of a specific national origin. What Fair Housing Act violation is this? Answer: discriminatory advertising, a form of steering. National origin is a federally protected class, and advertising that targets or excludes based on it violates the Fair Housing Act regardless of intent.

6. What does a capitalization rate measure? Answer: the rate of return an investor can expect on an income property, calculated as net operating income divided by purchase price. It’s an income-approach valuation tool, not a financing calculation.

7. A buyer and seller sign a contract, and the buyer later can’t get financing under an included contingency. What happens to the earnest money? Answer: it’s returned to the buyer. A financing contingency protects the buyer specifically; if it isn’t met and the buyer acted in good faith, the contract terminates and the deposit comes back.

8. Which document transfers legal title from seller to buyer? Answer: the deed. The purchase contract creates the obligation to transfer; the deed is what actually executes it at closing.

9. A property’s assessed value is $180,000, and the local mill rate is 25 mills. What’s the annual property tax? Answer: $4,500. A mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value, so 25 mills x 180 (thousands) = $4,500.

10. An agent represents both the buyer and seller in the same transaction with both parties’ written consent. What’s this arrangement called? Answer: dual agency. It’s legal in many states with informed written consent from both sides, though some states ban it outright or require a designated-agency alternative instead.

Run these against the real thing before test day

A practice test only earns its keep if it forces the same recall speed the real exam demands. We built the AgentExamHub practice quiz tool to time each section the way PSI and Pearson VUE actually do, so the pressure you feel in practice matches test day instead of surprising you there.

If you want a structured pass through every national and state category in one sitting rather than piecing it together from scattered blog posts, the AgentExamHub free study guide walks the full content outline in the order it’s actually tested, with worked examples for every math-heavy section.

FAQ

Is a real estate exam practice test the same as the real exam? No. Practice tests are study tools built to mirror the real exam’s format and topic weighting, but the actual licensing exam is administered by a vendor like PSI or Pearson VUE under your state’s contract and is the only test that counts toward licensure.

How many practice questions should we do before test day? There’s no single magic number, but working through every major content category multiple times, until missed questions drop to a handful per category, matters more than hitting a specific total. Depth beats volume.

Can we use a calculator on the real estate exam? Most states allow a basic four-function calculator, either provided at the test center or brought in, but programmable or graphing calculators are typically banned. Check your state’s candidate bulletin before test day since policies differ.

Do practice test scores predict our real exam score? Roughly, if the practice test is timed and full length. A practice score in the 80s under real time pressure is a reasonable signal you’re ready; a rushed, untimed practice score in the 90s tells you much less.

What happens if we run out of time on the real exam? Unanswered questions are scored as incorrect, so guess rather than leave anything blank. Time management during practice, not just accuracy, is part of what a full-length timed practice test is supposed to train.

Bottom line: know your state’s exact question count, passing score, and fee before you sit down, because those numbers are public and verifiable. Then practice against a full-length, timed test that covers every category the real exam does, not just the topics that are easiest to write questions about.