How Many Questions Are on the Real Estate Exam?
By the AgentExamHub team | Updated July 15, 2026
Real estate exam length varies sharply by state: New York runs a single 75-question exam, while Georgia scores 152 questions across national and state portions. Most states split the test into a national portion, typically 80 to 100 scored items, and a state-specific portion, typically 40 to 60 scored items, though California, Florida, and New York use one combined exam instead of a split format.
Because licensing is a state function, each state’s real estate commission contracts with its own testing vendor, Pearson VUE, PSI, or its own in-house system, and sets its own exam length. There’s no national standard length; there’s a shared national item bank that most vendors draw from for the general portion, layered under a state-specific portion whose size depends on how much unique statute that state has to test.
How many questions does each state actually use?
Verified counts for eight states, pulled directly from each state’s current candidate handbook or commission page:
| State | Vendor | National/combined items | State items | Total | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | Pearson VUE | 85 (80 scored + 5 pretest) | 50 (40 scored + 10 pretest) | 135 items, 120 scored | Texas Real Estate Commission |
| Georgia | PSI | 100 scored | 52 scored | 152 scored | Georgia Real Estate Commission candidate bulletin |
| Illinois | PSI | 100 scored | 40 scored | 140 scored | Illinois Division of Real Estate candidate bulletin |
| North Carolina | Pearson VUE | 80 (+5 pretest) | 60 (+5 pretest) | 140 scored | NCREC, Real Estate Licensing in North Carolina |
| Pennsylvania | Pearson VUE | 80 (+5 to 10 pretest) | 40 (+5 to 10 pretest) | 120 scored | Pearson VUE Pennsylvania Candidate Handbook |
| California | CA DRE (in-house) | 150, single combined exam | included above | 150 | California DRE, Taking the Exam |
| Florida | Pearson VUE | 100, single combined exam | included above | 100 | DBPR Candidate Information Booklet |
| New York | NY Dept. of State | 75, single combined exam | included above | 75 | NY Dept. of State real estate licensing |
New York’s 75-question figure is consistent across current prep-provider candidate guides, but the Department of State’s own page doesn’t publish an exact count. Confirm your specific format against the current eAccessNY candidate material before test day.
Why do some states split national and state content, and others don’t?
Most states using PSI or Pearson VUE score two separate sections: a national/general portion drawn from a shared item bank, and a state-specific portion covering that state’s own license law, each with its own pass/fail threshold. Texas, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania all follow this split format.
California, Florida, and New York instead run one combined exam that blends national concepts and state law into a single score. California goes further than blending vendors: the Department of Real Estate writes and administers its own exam questions rather than drawing from PSI’s or Pearson VUE’s shared national bank, which is part of why its format and pass rate both look different from split-format states.
Do unscored pretest questions count toward the total?
No, but they’re mixed in without being labeled. Texas includes 5 unscored pretest items in its national portion and 10 in its state portion; test-makers use these to try out future questions without affecting your score. You can’t tell a pretest item from a scored one during the exam, so every question has to be answered as if it counts. This is also why published “total items” and “total scored” numbers sometimes differ, as in Texas’s 135 items against 120 scored.
Does more questions mean a harder exam?
Not directly. A longer exam spreads your score across more data points, which can smooth out the effect of one or two unfamiliar questions. A shorter exam, like New York’s 75-question format, gives each question more relative weight, so a rough patch on five or six questions moves your score further than the same rough patch would on a 150-question exam. Georgia’s 152-question format and New York’s 75-question format aren’t measuring different levels of difficulty; they’re measuring the same content at different resolutions.
What matters more than raw count is the ratio you need correct and how the exam is split. A 152-question exam at 75% still requires roughly the same proportional mastery as a 75-question exam at 70%; only the number of individual questions carrying that weight changes.
Run a practice set that matches your state’s real format
A 20-question online quiz doesn’t tell you much if your actual exam runs 140 or 150 questions in a single sitting. The AgentExamHub practice quiz tool runs full-length sections matching real state formats, national and state portions timed separately where your state splits them, so your practice pacing matches exam-day pacing instead of a generic short quiz.
For a full walkthrough of your state’s specific content outline and item weighting, the AgentExamHub free study guide is organized by the same categories your state’s exam actually uses.
FAQ
Is the real estate exam the same length in every state? No. Verified counts range from 75 questions in New York to 152 scored questions in Georgia, with most states landing between 120 and 150.
Do all states split the exam into national and state portions? Most states using PSI or Pearson VUE do, with separate timing and separate pass/fail thresholds for each section. California, Florida, and New York use a single combined exam instead.
Why is Illinois’s entry-level exam called “Broker” instead of “Salesperson”? Illinois abolished its salesperson license tier; its entry-level license is titled Broker, and its 140-question exam (100 national plus 40 state, both scored) is the entry-level exam despite the name.
Are practice tests online usually the same length as the real exam? Not usually. Many free practice tools default to round numbers like 50 or 100 questions for convenience, which may not match your specific state’s actual length or its national/state split.
Do unscored pretest questions hurt my score if I get them wrong? No. Unscored items don’t count toward pass or fail, but because they’re not identified during the exam, treat every question as scored.
Bottom line: check your specific state’s current candidate handbook for the exact count, since it ranges from 75 to 152 scored questions depending on where you’re testing, and build your practice around your state’s real format, split or combined, rather than a generic-length quiz.