Real Estate Practice Exam Pennsylvania: 120-Question Test
By the AgentExamHub team | Updated July 15, 2026
Pennsylvania’s real estate salesperson exam is 120 scored questions: 80 on national real estate principles spread across eight content areas, and 40 on Pennsylvania license law spread across five categories, both administered by Pearson VUE. Each portion is scored separately against a passing bar of 75, reported as a scaled score on a 0 to 100 range rather than a raw percentage correct, a distinction most practice-exam guides skip entirely.
The content outline itself is a public document, and it lists exactly which subtopics fall inside each named category, not just a count. Most practice materials study to the category names, “Contracts and Agency,” “Financing and Settlement,” without ever opening the outline that spells out what’s actually inside them. That’s the gap this page fills.
What exactly falls under each of the 8 national categories?
The national portion carries 80 scored items (plus 5 to 10 unscored pretest items you can’t identify), broken into eight categories with a published item count each, per Pearson VUE’s National/General Exam Content Outline for Salespersons, effective April 1, 2025.
- Real property characteristics, legal descriptions, and property use (11 items): real versus personal property, fixtures and trade fixtures, legal description methods, and land-use controls including zoning, easements, and HOA restrictions.
- Forms of ownership, transfer, and recording of title (9 items): estates and interests (fee simple, life estate, leasehold), deed types, constructive versus actual notice, and title insurance.
- Property value and appraisal (11 items): the sales comparison, cost, and income approaches; a comparative market analysis versus a broker price opinion; assessed value.
- Real estate contracts and agency (16 items, the single heaviest category): contract elements and performance, offer and counteroffer mechanics, contingencies, and how agency relationships are created and terminated.
- Real estate practice (10 items): listing agreement types, buyer representation, Fair Housing protected classes, and broker supervision liability.
- Property disclosures and environmental issues (9 items): lead paint, asbestos, radon, and underground storage tank disclosure obligations.
- Financing and settlement (7 items): FHA, VA, and conventional loan basics, Truth-in-Lending and Regulation Z, and closing disclosure requirements under TRID.
- Real estate math calculations (7 items): covered in detail below, since it’s the category candidates most often under-prepare.
What exactly falls under Pennsylvania’s 5 state categories?
The state-specific portion carries 40 scored items (plus 5 to 10 unscored pretest items), also per Pearson VUE’s outline, with the Pennsylvania-specific content effective March 16, 2026.
- Real Estate Commission (5 items): the Commission’s duties and powers, how complaints and investigations proceed, and the Real Estate Recovery Fund.
- Licensure (8 items): qualification requirements, renewal and reactivation, and the specific exemptions from needing a license.
- Agency and Disclosure (10 items): required agency disclosures, licensee duties, and compensation rules.
- Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees (11 items, the heaviest state category): advertising rules, broker and salesperson relations, and prohibited conduct.
- Miscellaneous (6 items): the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, time-shares and planned communities, and rental and leasing rules.
A sample question in the style of that Regulations category: A salesperson places a “for sale” sign on a property before written authorization from the seller. Under Pennsylvania regulations, this is: (A) permitted if the broker approves verbally, (B) a violation regardless of broker approval, (C) permitted only for vacant land, (D) permitted after 24 hours notice. The correct answer is B: Pennsylvania’s advertising rules require written authorization before any sign or ad referencing a specific property.
What does Pennsylvania’s math section actually cover?
Real estate math is only 7 of the 80 national items, but it’s disproportionately where candidates lose points, because the questions apply a formula inside a fact pattern rather than testing the formula in isolation. Per the outline, the seven items pull from: property area calculations (square footage, acreage), property valuation math (net operating income, capitalization rate, assessed value and taxes), commission and compensation splits, loan financing costs (loan-to-value, discount points, amortization), settlement and closing costs (prorations, transfer tax, debits and credits), investment math (return on investment, appreciation, depreciation), and property management calculations (rent and budget math).
Two things the outline doesn’t spell out but candidates need to know going in: you’re expected to have 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile memorized, since neither is provided at the test center, and any proration question will specify whether it’s using a 360-day or 365-day basis rather than leaving you to guess.
A sample math-style question: A property sells for $340,000. The listing broker charges a 6% commission, split evenly between the listing and selling brokerages. What does the selling brokerage receive? Work it in two steps: $340,000 times 0.06 equals $20,400 total commission, then split evenly, $10,200 to the selling brokerage.
Is the passing score really 75%?
Not exactly, and this is the detail most practice-exam pages get wrong. Pennsylvania reports a scaled score of 75 as passing on each portion, per Pearson VUE’s Pennsylvania Candidate Handbook (revised March 2026), and the handbook states directly that this scaled score is neither the number of questions you answered correctly nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly. In practice, treating 75% correct as your working target is a reasonable planning shortcut, since scaled scoring is calibrated to sit close to that range, but it’s not literally what the number on your score report represents.
| Portion | Scored items | Pretest items | Categories | Passing bar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National | 80 | 5 to 10 | 8 | Scaled score of 75 |
| Pennsylvania state | 40 | 5 to 10 | 5 | Scaled score of 75 |
How should this change how you practice?
Weight your practice time to the item counts above, not to which categories feel familiar from your pre-licensing course. Contracts and Agency (16 items) and Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees (11 items) carry the most combined weight, and both test scenario recognition, not simple recall, so drilling with fact-pattern questions matters more than reviewing definitions.
Run a full 120-question practice set, timed and split into the national and state portions the way Pennsylvania actually scores them, using the AgentExamHub practice quiz tool, so a strong national score doesn’t mask a weak state-portion score before it costs you a retake.
For a walkthrough of every subtopic above with worked math examples, the AgentExamHub free study guide follows this same category breakdown rather than a generic national-only outline.
FAQ
Does Pennsylvania’s exam test county-specific or municipal law? No. The state-specific portion tests statewide Pennsylvania license law and Real Estate Commission regulations, not county or municipal ordinances, which fall outside the tested content outline entirely.
How many of the 120 questions are unscored pretest items? Between 10 and 20 total: 5 to 10 mixed into the national portion and 5 to 10 into the state portion. They’re not identified, so every question needs to be answered as if it counts.
Which category should I study first? Start with Contracts and Agency (16 national items) and Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees (11 state items), since together they carry more combined weight than any other pairing on the exam.
Is the passing score the same for the broker exam? Pennsylvania’s broker exam uses the same scaled-score-of-75 structure on each portion, but the state-specific outline adds a Brokerage Management category not tested on the salesperson exam.
Do I need to memorize conversion factors like square feet per acre? Yes. Pennsylvania’s math items expect you to know 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile without a reference sheet, since neither is provided at the test center.
Bottom line: know the subtopics inside each category, not just the category names, weight your practice to the item counts (Contracts and Agency, then Regulations), and go in understanding that “75” is a scaled score calibrated close to a percentage target, not a literal raw percent correct.