How to Study for the Real Estate Exam's National Portion: A Plan Weighted by Your Vendor's Outline

Step 1: Pin down your vendor, outline and format

Everything else depends on this. Your state's candidate handbook names the vendor, prints the national and state outlines with their effective dates, and gives your question counts and time limits. Pearson VUE's national salesperson outline has been effective since April 1, 2025 (Texas's copy is dated March 1, 2025, with the same counts). PSI's national outline has been in use since October 1, 2023. If you aren't sure which applies, the guide to what the salesperson exam is shows how to tell them apart.

Write down three things before you plan: your vendor, your test date, and the number of hours a week you can study.

Step 2: Turn the outline into study hours

Give each area time in proportion to its share of the exam. The tables below spread an example budget of 40 hours of national-portion study. That figure is Passy's illustration, not an official requirement: scale it up or down for your own schedule, and add extra time to areas your course covered lightly.

Pearson VUE national outline (80 scored items)

PSI national outline (percent of the salesperson exam)

PSI publishes percentages, not item counts, so the middle column is rounded arithmetic. The weights are the salesperson ("Sales") column printed in the New Hampshire, Virginia, New Jersey and Iowa bulletins. Colorado's bulletin, dated 10/1/2023, prints the broker column instead (Financing 9%, Property Management 5%, Calculations 6%), although the Division's 2023 notice says Colorado's exam reflects PSI's salesperson outline, so Colorado candidates should ask PSI which applies. The free study planner does this weighting for you from your exam date and daily study time.

Step 3: Learn every topic by applying it

Pearson VUE's outline classifies 26 of its 80 scored items as application and 16 as analysis, so more than half ask you to use a rule rather than recite it. Study in that shape:

1. Read one subtopic from your course materials, such as "Voidable vs. unenforceable" or "Exclusive right-to-sell and exclusive agency listing."
2. Answer scenario questions on it the same day, and write down why each wrong option is wrong.
3. Keep an error log by outline area. Three misses on the same idea mean you go back to step 1 for it.

Definitions still matter, because many scenarios hinge on one term. 560 flashcards planned for launch for quick recall suit short daily reviews of estates, deeds, contract terms and agency duties.

Step 4: Build the math in from week one

Math is only 7 of Pearson VUE's 80 items (7% on PSI's outline), but its topics overlap with the valuation, financing and settlement areas, so the same skills earn points there too. Pearson VUE's outline lists calculations including square footage and acreage, comparative market analysis, net operating income, capitalization rate, equity, listing price, assessed value and property tax, commission, interest, loan-to-value, discount points, PITI payments, net to the seller, cost to the buyer, prorations, transfer tax, return on investment, appreciation and depreciation, and property management budgets.

Two facts must be memorized, because the test center doesn't provide them: 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile. For prorations, the question will tell you the year length (360 or 365 days) and who owns the closing day.

A quick Passy example: a building produces $60,000 a year in net operating income, and buyers in the area expect a 7.5% capitalization rate. Its estimated value is $60,000 ÷ 0.075 = $800,000. Work one or two problems like this every study day rather than saving math for the end. Calculator rules differ by state, so check the format guide before you practice with one.

Step 5: A 4-week and an 8-week plan

Both plans assume your prelicensing course is finished and follow Pearson VUE's areas; PSI candidates can map their areas onto the same weeks. As a rule of thumb, keep at least a quarter of each week for the state portion, and more if your state outline is long: Colorado's has 74 items and Arizona's 60.

The 8-week plan uses the same order at half the pace: weeks 1–2 for contracts, agency and practice, weeks 3–4 for property and title, weeks 5–6 for value, disclosures and financing, and weeks 7–8 for mixed practice and review. The extra time goes to applied questions and a second pass through your weakest two areas.

When you move to mixed review, practice sets planned for launch that mix all eight areas show whether you can switch between topics the way the exam does.

Step 6: The last ten days before the exam

• Practice at your state's pace. Use the per-question time from your handbook's limits.
• Retest yourself on the error log, not on material you already know.
• Consider an official practice test. Pearson VUE sells a national-portion practice test for $19.95 that reflects its current outline; its answers show correct or incorrect but give no explanation. PSI's bulletins say its practice exams can be repeated, paid each time.
• Confirm the logistics: your ID, calculator rules, and your vendor's cancellation deadline.

For the final few days, Cram, planned for launch, builds your last days around weak spots and traps.

Studying the state portion alongside

The state portion has its own outline in your handbook; New Hampshire's, for example, cites the statute or rule behind each topic. Use that outline with your prelicensing course materials. Colorado's PSI bulletin, for example, points candidates to the Colorado Real Estate Manual for the state portion. Passy covers the national portion only, so plan your state study from those sources. If you want to know why the state portion deserves its own block of time, the difficulty guide has Colorado's pass rates for both parts.