National Real Estate Exam Practice Test: Free Questions and Prep Guide
What the national portion covers
Every state splits its licensing exam into a national portion and a state portion. The national portion tests the principles that apply everywhere: agency law, contracts, financing, valuation, fair housing, and math. Your state's exam provider, usually Pearson VUE or PSI, publishes the exact outline.
Here is the topic breakdown from the current Pearson VUE national outline for salespersons (80 scored questions, effective March 2025). PSI's national portion covers very similar ground, though its weights differ by state, so treat those as approximate.
| Topic area | Questions (of 80) | Approx. weight |
|---|---|---|
| Real estate contracts and agency | 16 | ~20% |
| Property characteristics, legal descriptions, and property use | 11 | ~14% |
| Property value and appraisal | 11 | ~14% |
| Real estate practice (includes fair housing) | 10 | ~13% |
| Ownership, transfer, and recording of title | 9 | ~11% |
| Property disclosures and environmental issues | 9 | ~11% |
| Financing and settlement | 7 | ~9% |
| Real estate math calculations | 7 | ~9% |
Notice what that table is telling you. Contracts and agency alone is one question in five. Add financing and fair housing and you have covered roughly a third of the exam. That is exactly why the practice test below focuses on those units.
Free national practice test: 8 questions
These 8 questions come from AgentLingo's national question bank, two each from agency, contracts, financing, and fair housing. Answer honestly, read every explanation, and note which topic tripped you up.
Question formats on the real exam
Every question on the national portion is multiple choice with four answer options and exactly one correct answer. There are no essays, no fill-in-the-blank, and no trick formats. What varies is the thinking level. Pearson VUE builds each question to one of three cognitive levels:
- Knowledge: recall a fact or definition. "What is a special agent?"
- Application: apply a rule to a situation. "A property manager handles leasing and rent collection. What type of agent is she?"
- Analysis: work through a fact pattern to a conclusion, including math problems and scenario questions.
Expect about 5 unscored pretest questions mixed in with the scored ones. They look identical to real questions and are never identified, so answer everything with full effort.
How scoring works
Your score is a raw score: the number of scored questions you answered correctly. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so never leave a question blank. In Texas you leave the test center with your official score report in hand, marked pass or fail, the same day.
Passing numbers vary by state but cluster around 70%. Texas requires 56 of 80 national questions correct for sales agent candidates. If you fail one portion but pass the other, most states let you retake only the failed portion. In Texas you can retake just the failed portion, as long as you do it within one year of the date your application was filed, and each attempt costs the exam fee again ($43 for the sales exam as of 2026; fees change, so check your candidate handbook). You get three attempts. Fail three times and Texas requires additional qualifying education before you can retest: 30 extra hours if you failed one portion, 60 if you failed both.
Study strategy: weight your effort like the exam does
Most people study the wrong way: equal time on every topic. The exam does not weight topics equally, so your study time should not be equal either. A better plan:
- Start with contracts and agency. At roughly 20% of the exam, this section alone can swing you from fail to pass. Drill offer and acceptance, counteroffers, OLD CAR fiduciary duties, and how agency is created and terminated.
- Lock in financing vocabulary. Note versus mortgage, mortgagor versus mortgagee, FHA versus VA versus conventional, and the common clauses. These are mostly knowledge-level questions, which makes them the cheapest points on the exam.
- Make fair housing automatic. Know the seven federal protected classes cold, plus steering, blockbusting, and redlining. These questions are heavily scenario-based, and the fact patterns repeat.
- Do a little math every day. Only 7 of the 80 scored questions are pure math, but math also hides inside financing and closing questions. Ten minutes a day beats one panicked weekend.
- Finish with full mock exams. In your last two weeks, take timed 80-question practice runs. You are training pacing, not just knowledge: 150 minutes for 85 questions is under 2 minutes per question.
Short daily sessions beat marathon cramming because spaced repetition moves definitions into long-term memory. That is the entire design behind AgentLingo: 5-minute daily lessons, streaks to keep you consistent, and mock exams when you are ready.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the national real estate exam?
The national portion has 80 scored questions plus about 5 unscored pretest questions mixed in, so you will typically see around 85 questions on screen. In Texas, Pearson VUE gives you 150 minutes for the national portion.
What score do you need to pass the national portion?
Most states set the bar at roughly 70 percent. In Texas, sales agent candidates must answer 56 of the 80 scored national questions correctly. Your state's candidate handbook lists the exact number.
Is the national real estate exam the same in every state?
The national portion follows a standard content outline from your state's exam provider, usually Pearson VUE or PSI, so the topics are consistent across states using the same provider. The state portion is different everywhere, covering your state's license law.
Which topics are most heavily tested on the national portion?
Contracts and agency is the biggest section at roughly 20 percent of the Pearson VUE national exam, about 16 of 80 scored questions. Property characteristics and valuation each take roughly 14 percent, and real estate practice, which includes fair housing, takes about 13 percent.