National portion · salesperson exam · checked Oct 24, 2026
The national real estate exam, state by state
There is no stand-alone national real estate exam. The national portion is the shared part of your state’s salesperson exam: 80 scored questions on general practice and federal law, built by Pearson VUE or PSI, depending on the state. Your state adds its own law questions and sets the passing score, so the same national questions can be scored one way in Arizona and another in Alabama.
Updated Oct 24, 2026 · Not affiliated with any state commission or test provider.
80scored national questions
150 minPearson VUE testing time
5unscored pretest items (Pearson VUE)
Apr 1, 2025Pearson VUE outline in force
Try 4 national questions
0 of 4 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 4 · Transfer of title · 6 items
A quitclaims a property to B. The property is subject to a mortgage lien. B later sues A to clear the lien, claiming A warranted clear title. What is the likely outcome?
Answer and explanations
Correct: A quitclaim deed gives whatever interest A had with no warranties, so B has no warranty claim for the mortgage.
Incorrect: When the lien was recorded does not matter; a quitclaim gives no warranty either way.
Incorrect: B cannot recover, but not because the lien is void; a mortgage stays on the land after transfer.
Incorrect: A quitclaim carries no implied warranty of clear title; that is its defining feature.
Incorrect: A quitclaim makes no promise about liens at all.
Question 2 of 4 · Transfer of title · 6 items
A buyer obtains lender financing; only a lender's title policy is issued. After closing, an undisclosed encroachment is found. What coverage does the buyer have?
Answer and explanations
Incorrect: A lender policy covers the lender's insured interest, not every defect for everyone.
Incorrect: Loan default affects the lender's claim, not the buyer's; the buyer is never covered under it.
Correct: A lender's title policy protects the lender's loan interest only, so the buyer has no coverage for the encroachment.
Incorrect: Owner coverage exists only if the buyer bought an owner's policy, which did not happen.
Incorrect: A loan policy does not insure the owner's equity; that requires an owner's policy.
Question 3 of 4 · Agency · 10 items
A dual agent learns the buyer would pay $15,000 above list. Later the agent uses this to advise the seller to hold firm. Which duty is most directly breached?
Answer and explanations
Incorrect: Helping the seller hold firm is not disloyal to the seller; the harm falls on the buyer.
Correct: What the buyer would pay is the buyer's confidential information, and using it to advise the seller breaks the duty of confidentiality owed to the buyer.
Incorrect: Accounting covers money and documents held for a client, not information.
Incorrect: A dual agent must not pass one client's confidences to the other, so disclosure to both is not the duty at stake.
Incorrect: Reasonable care to the seller is not breached by helping the seller; the breach is against the buyer.
Question 4 of 4 · Transfer of title · 6 items
In a state with a pure notice statute, an owner deeds a lot to Buyer A, who does not record. The owner then sells the same lot to Buyer B, who pays value, has no notice of A's deed and does not record. A then records. Who owns the lot?
Answer and explanations
Incorrect: Recording order decides race and race-notice states; under a notice statute A's later recording does not defeat B.
Incorrect: Failing to record does not void either deed; the statute favors B because B lacked notice.
Incorrect: Being first in time loses to a later buyer for value who had no notice of the unrecorded deed.
Incorrect: Requiring B to record first is the race-notice rule; a pure notice statute does not require it.
Correct: A notice statute protects a later buyer who pays value without notice of the earlier deed, whether or not that buyer records first.
Answer every question to see your score
The national portion at a glance
Checked Oct 24, 2026; sources are numbered and listed at the end of the page. Each rule with its own anchor: national portion exam facts.
Fact
Detail
Source
Checked
Test provider
Pearson VUE or PSI, depending on the state
Pearson VUE: National/General content outline for salespersons, eff. April 1, 2025 (Arizona outlines #090301, 01/2026) · PSI: Georgia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (7/1/2026) [1][2]
National portion
80 scored questions + 5 unscored pretest (Pearson VUE); 80 questions in Tennessee (PSI)Georgia’s PSI bulletin publishes the national outline in percent, without a question count
Pearson VUE: National/General content outline for salespersons, eff. April 1, 2025 (Arizona outlines #090301, 01/2026) · PSI: Tennessee Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (updated 7/1/2025) [1][3]
Unscored questions
Pearson VUE: 5 unidentified pretest questions · PSI (Georgia): 1–10 experimental, about 10% of the total
Pearson VUE: National/General content outline for salespersons, eff. April 1, 2025 (Arizona outlines #090301, 01/2026) · PSI: Georgia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (7/1/2026) [1][2]
Testing time
150 minutes (Pearson VUE); 160 minutes in Tennessee (PSI)Alabama lists the general portion as 2.5 hours; Georgia does not publish a time
Pearson VUE: Arizona Real Estate Candidate Handbook #090300 (02/2026) · Pearson VUE: Alabama Real Estate Candidate Handbook #093300 (rev. 02/2026) · PSI: Tennessee Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (updated 7/1/2025) [3][4][5]
Passing score
Set by each stateArizona 75% · Alabama one overall scaled 70 · Utah and Kansas scaled 70 per part · Tennessee 56 of 80 (70%) · Georgia not published
Pearson VUE: Arizona Real Estate Candidate Handbook #090300 (02/2026) · Pearson VUE: Alabama Real Estate Candidate Handbook #093300 (rev. 02/2026) · Pearson VUE: Utah Real Estate Candidate Handbook #094500 (July 2024) · PSI: Tennessee Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (updated 7/1/2025) · PSI: Georgia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (7/1/2026) [2][3][4][5][6]
Fail one part
Alabama retakes the whole exam; Tennessee, Utah and Kansas retake only the failed part; Arizona books, pays and scores General and State as separate exams
Pearson VUE: Alabama Real Estate Candidate Handbook #093300 (rev. 02/2026) · Pearson VUE: Arizona Real Estate Candidate Handbook #090300 (02/2026) · PSI: Tennessee Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (updated 7/1/2025) · Pearson VUE: Utah Real Estate Candidate Handbook #094500 (July 2024) · Pearson VUE: Kansas Real Estate Candidate Handbook #091700 (April 2025) [3][4][5][6][7]
Question format
Pearson VUE tags every item as knowledge, application or analysis and prints the counts per area; PSI’s national sample questions have four options
Pearson VUE: National/General content outline for salespersons, eff. April 1, 2025 (Arizona outlines #090301, 01/2026) · PSI: Georgia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (7/1/2026) [1][2]
Calculator
Arizona allows a silent, non-printing calculator without an A–Z keypad; Alabama and Georgia give an on-screen calculator only
Pearson VUE: Arizona Real Estate Candidate Handbook #090300 (02/2026) · Pearson VUE: Alabama Real Estate Candidate Handbook #093300 (rev. 02/2026) · PSI: Georgia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (7/1/2026) [2][4][5]
Already licensed elsewhere
Utah, Idaho, Kansas and Tennessee can waive a national portion passed elsewhere; Alabama and Arizona test licensees of other states on the state portion only; Florida residents take only the Georgia state portion
Pearson VUE: Utah Real Estate Candidate Handbook #094500 (July 2024) · Pearson VUE: Idaho Real Estate Candidate Handbook #091300 (July 2024) · Pearson VUE: Kansas Real Estate Candidate Handbook #091700 (April 2025) · PSI: Tennessee Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (updated 7/1/2025) · Pearson VUE: Alabama Real Estate Candidate Handbook #093300 (rev. 02/2026) · Pearson VUE: Arizona Real Estate Candidate Handbook #090300 (02/2026) · PSI: Georgia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (7/1/2026) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Outline in force
Pearson VUE salesperson outline in force since April 1, 2025
Pearson VUE: National/General content outline for salespersons, eff. April 1, 2025 (Arizona outlines #090301, 01/2026) [1]
Vendor practice test
Pearson VUE sells online practice tests for the national/general portion only; PSI sells online practice exams (Georgia)
Pearson VUE: Alabama Real Estate Candidate Handbook #093300 (rev. 02/2026) · PSI: Georgia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (7/1/2026) [2][5]
Which vendor builds your state’s national portion
For the states on this site, two vendors write the national portion, and each uses one outline in all of them. Pearson VUE publishes an item count for each area of its outline; PSI publishes its outline as percentages. The topics are nearly the same, the grouping is not.
Everything around the national questions is the state’s: how many law questions sit beside them, the passing score, and whether failing one part means sitting both again. The Florida broker exam has no national portion at all, because Florida writes every question itself.
Checked Oct 24, 2026; sources are numbered and listed at the end of the page.
We split the national material into ten topics so that every state page links to the same place. The counts are Pearson VUE’s 80 items regrouped by sub-area: its contracts-and-agency area, for example, is divided between contracts and agency. PSI’s percentages for the same topics are on the PSI page.
Within one vendor the national questions follow the same outline, but the scoring rules belong to your state:
Alabama:one overall scaled score of 70 across both parts. The parts count together, and a fail means the whole exam again.
Tennessee: you need 70% each on the national and state portions, and you retake only the portion you failed.
Arizona: General and State are two exams, and you need 75% each.
Georgia: passing score not published.
A scaled score is not a percentage. Pearson VUE converts raw scores to a 0–100 scale so that easier and harder versions of the exam are passed on equal terms, and its Alabama handbook says a scaled score is neither the number nor the percent of questions you answered correctly. The rules side by side: passing score by state.
Not in the national portion
State license law. Commission rules, license categories, state agency and disclosure forms are on your state portion, with its own outline.
Rules from recent commission lawsuits.Pearson VUE: exam content “reflects the real estate industry as a whole and may not reflect any ongoing litigation or settlements”.
Broker-level questions. Where a broker exam has a national part (Utah, Kansas, Idaho, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee), it is a separate broker version: national broker portion. The Arizona and Florida broker exams are state-only.
National portion questions on your phone
Practice on your phone
1National portion: practice questions with every answer explained, in a study app. Not affiliated with any state commission or test provider.
Not as a separate test. You register for your state’s salesperson exam, and the national questions come with it, next to the state’s own law questions. The vendor your state uses decides which national outline you get: Pearson VUE or PSI.
How many questions are on the national portion?
With Pearson VUE, 80 scored + 5 pretest questions in 150 minutes. Tennessee’s PSI exam has 80 questions, 160 minutes. Georgia’s PSI bulletin gives the outline in percentages and no count. Full breakdown: exam facts.
What is the state portion of the real estate exam?
The questions on your state’s own law: licensing, commission rules, agency and disclosure as the state defines them. Its size varies: 30 questions in Kansas, 40 in Alabama, 52 in Georgia and 60 in Arizona.
If I fail one part, do I retake both?
It depends on the state. Alabama makes you retake the whole exam; Tennessee lets you retake the failed portion only. More states: retake rules.