After failing twice, I decided to wait for a while. Now that I’m ready to take the test again, I went to the PSI site and suddenly the fee shows $175 instead of $119. What’s going on? Did they raise the fee, or is this some kind of error? Does anyone know? and I am in GA
i’ve heard many people say that they have passed and they have failed on this software. To make sure I don’t fall into the latter category, here is what I am doing. A lot of times I use Google AI, since their definitions are a bit fuzzy for lack of a better term. I make sure I understand everything backwards and forwards, which I have to go to Google a lot. I am personally fine with it. i’m also not going to stop until I have 100 on the practice test. I also purchased a practice test from the PSI testing company with the state and national. You only get one try, which is why it’s $24. if anyone else has any tips, i’m sure myself and many others would love to hear them. thanks so much in advance and good luck to us all!
Got laid off from my tech job so decided to give RE a try. I ended up being the first person to finish the exam this morning in Oakland, and the guy at the front desk with the glasses let me know I passed when I walked out. The reason I made this post is because I was a little intimidated by all the different resources given by this sub (as well as accusations of fake shilling from different companies) so figured I would give my two cents — you can also take a look at my account history to verify I’m a real person, which I felt a lot of the other similar posts on this sub lacked.
I started cramming for the test in early June, and just did about an hour or two every day outside of the mandatory coursework. Did CE Shop for my courses because they were cheap and were on sale — found it ok for understanding concepts but terrible for exam prep. I also tried the one week Aceable/Prepagent subscription but I feel like it’s shallow and doesn’t go deep enough into core concepts — the “cheat sheet” they offered was pretty useless as it goes over the general principles but not dates or other things that you probably will need to know on the exam. It’s also extremely overpriced for what it offers. Real Estate Exam Practice Pro was wayyyy cheaper at $10 a month and the questions I saw there were pretty similar to the exam, if not a little harder. Instead of memorizing answers I made sure to read the description of why I was right or wrong when I took the test, which helped me understand key concepts at a much deeper level compared to the other two exam prep resources. If you search up FirstTuesday they also have some free practice exams up but YMMV, a few questions were outdated such as how much rent you can use as security deposit for unfurnished apartments, which is 1 month as of July 2024. Honestly if you just grind REEPP for like two weeks you should be fine with that alone, I was averaging about 87% on the tests and felt pretty confident going into the actual exam. I watched the PrepAgent webinar with Irene driving up to Oakland and it was laughably easy compared to the stuff I was memorizing.
The exam covered some topics I wasn’t familiar with but I was able to guess a few (I.e. what is the saving of resources called - conservation?) or when disclosing a AIDs death is permitted (I was under the impression never). I was however able to use some questions to answer others, like what makes up net operating income since there were two questions about its makeup. I ended up finishing my first pass of the exam in about 40 minutes, did a second pass to double check answers, and then a third pass to guess questions I wasn’t sure about (roughly 10 or so), finishing in roughly about an hour and ten minutes. There was no calculator provided and the only math was a question that involved multiplying 20 with 3000. I found the test much easier than I was expecting, mostly because I’d already seen a lot of the questions before or similar ones on practice exams — bingeing vocab can only be so efficient, as often the point of the question is trick wording to get you to stumble on that.
Good luck to everyone else taking the exam!
I wanna share this because I know how brutal this exam feels when you're in the middle of it.
A coworker at my brokerage took the California salesperson exam 15 times before he finally passed. He told me the first several attempts he kept getting tripped up on agency relationships and contracts — the kind of dense, technical material that's easy to memorize wrong and hard to unlearn. It wasn't until he stopped cramming everything at once and started isolating exactly which topics he kept missing that things clicked.
He didn't quit. Today he's one of the top agents at our office.
I'm not telling you this to scare you — I'm telling you because the exam genuinely is hard, and that's not a reflection of whether you'll be good at this job. The CA exam tests an enormous amount of material in a format that has almost nothing to do with how you'll actually serve clients, negotiate deals, or run a business. Plenty of excellent agents are bad test-takers. Plenty of people who pass on the first try struggle once they're actually in the field.
If you've failed once, twice, even several times — you're NOT behind, and you're NOT the exception. You're closer than you think. Every attempt tells you something real about where your gaps are, even when it doesn't feel like it.
So if you're discouraged right now: stop and figure out specifically what tripped you up this time. Was it a particular topic? Time pressure? Reading comprehension under stress? Study that, not everything again. Then schedule your next attempt.
Our sub: r/CalRealEstateExam exists for exactly this — 230 people right now grinding through the CA exam together, sharing what's working and what isn't. Come hang out if you're prepping.
You've got this. 💪
Hi everyone!! I am currently studying to take my Oregon real estate Broker exam and I’m pretty stressed out about it. I have been taking a bunch of practice tests, and rereading materials for my online ED courses. I just started reading peoples opinions on here and I was hoping to get more helpful advice on the best way to study/ pass the exam. I have always been a hands on learner, and have never been a good test taker. So that’s kinda where I’m stressing a little bit.
I would love all the helpful advice, and tools to helping me pass the exam. Thank you so much!
Hi everyone! I want to take the real estate exam but struggling to find the best 135-hour course! I cannot attend in person classes, anyone took an online course that really worked for you and helped you pass the exam? I bought a book on Amazon coz I like reading printed materials alongside watching videos online. Looking forward to read your comments!!
Thanks so much!!!!!!!!
Hello everyone, passed my exam today on my 1st attempt. Hope this doesn’t come off as bragging sounding, not my intention. Actually the opposite I did not think stood a chance at passing 1st try. I figured would be 2nd or 3rd. I haven’t taken any test or exam in 20 plus years and was so nervous, anxious and didn’t think had it in me to learn all this info. Big Thanks to some knowledge of this community and reading some others advice.
Here’s what I did(in hopes it reaches someone that needs it). I took my courses through Colibrri, kinda slacked first month back in Jan, wasted a lot of time reading each word in the chapters and taking notes. Then just started skimming and reading the chapter reviews, doing chapter quizzes and then each exam. After completed my courses end of April. I signed up for month with prep agent Joe. I really enjoyed his videos, he’s funny and chill but did not realize when purchased the program was aceable agent and was lots of others teaching with the 50 bucks a month package. So I didn’t get any live webinars with Joe, but still watched a lot of his videos and got a decent understanding of some concepts and memorization. I thought I got all I could from prep agent and didn’t sign up again after month expired .
Next I signed up for RE exam pro, from the suggestion of another person on Reddit. This was my most valuable tool, IMO it’s worded way harder than the actually exam and it prepared me over time to handle the questions, stay calm and read every question and answer . My scores were pretty low and kinda broke my confidence abit. But then I discovered Dee kumars vidoes like week and half ago and it all clicked for me. Started getting a lot of answers right on his channel , and remembering the concepts. He breaks it down nicely and little more speed up than prep agent Joe(no diss) but still just enough to get it memorized . I watched a ton of his videos, cuts it down to what you really need to focus on, coupled with taking my RE exams before and after work(or quick 10-20 questions ones slow times at work) . I’m married and Work 2 jobs so free time was hard to come by. I purchased Dees 48hr review for like 10-12 bucks and prob didn’t need it, all stuff knew and vidoes up already up for free but wanted to support his channel and team. Plus it was nice to have structed breakdown, on what to do days leading up to exam. I used chat a tiny bit for some quizzes on California, and touch up few week points(financing)
My best scores on RE full simulated exams before was like just barely 70, and then 71, even with cheating a little and asking google(side note google was wrong a good amount times). I read every wrong and right answer, wrote down all the wrong ones(worst hand writing and did not read it again but it helped). Then Just yesterday I took a timed exam and got a 80. Felt as ready as was going be but still not 100 sure and booked test month ago. Point of no return. I got up ealry followed instructions, ate nice breakfast got there early etc and listened to vocab and touch of contract video on car ride over to Oakland.
Once got to the center, my anxiety kinda kicked in, and don’t really remember the first 20-30 questions. But you can go back and re click/change answers. No math on mine and the mile question popped up. Remember that and acre, acre did not for me but had it memorized. I don’t really remember anh other ones. I skipped ones wasn’t sure on and went through the rest. I went back to ones I didn’t click, and tried focus best I could on the 50 or so mins had left. Couple jus had to make education guess or 50-50, and then went back and tickerd with first 20-40 questions, def fixed a couple mistakes and maybe made few more I’ll never know? Spent the full 3hrs and when leaving, getting my things for sure thought failed. The lady at the desk told me would have results in hour(I completely forgot this was most likely that I passed since didn’t get print out) lack of awareness or jus the exhaustion from exam but she told me before I left wouldn’t be seeing me again and smiled. I instantly got teary eyed, said thank you and walked away fast. I couldn’t believe it, and honestly still can’t. I did not think had it in me but it was all there with all this prep, and study. Shoot out to all the comments on here, encouraging me, prep agent Joe, Dee kumar and most importantly RE exam pro. Not joking that was the best 11-12 bucks I spent, it will break you down some but it will also get you over the goal line. The real exam was not as hard as RE exam, maybe few questions worded this way but most part seemed much easier. Anyway hope this helps atleast one person as others have helped me. Keep on trucking and studying, you got this!
I was so nervous. I think what really helped was the state required 77 hour class I took with RELNY. The lady who teaches the class previously mentioned that she used to write the questions for the DOS real estate license exams. She informed her students that the state encourages them to write trick questions. That’s when I knew it wasn’t about knowing the concepts, but how in depth you understand them to the degree wording won’t throw you off. Even after I passed her class I would go back and retake her quizzes until I got 100% on each of them.
For the most part her questions were very similar to those on the test.
The main concepts they tested were:
-License Law & Regulations -Law of Agency -Legal issues -Land Use Regulations -Condominiums vs Cooperatives -Property Management -different types of liens -municipal agencies -construction & environmental issues
I found it really helpful that my proctor informed us that you can still pass with getting 22 wrong. I zoomed through the questions I was confident about & noted the ones I was iffy about, which ended up being less than 22. I then went back around and spent a little more time on them recalling the concepts. (highly recommend everyone doing this).
I have been a property manager for a few years, exploring getting my license to move up and will be working with a realtor before doing anything individual so I’m looking for a fast but efficient way to get my license.
I liked that ace able agent has an app so you can practice anytime during the day easily. Would love any recommendations though! I’m in Austin, Texas.
Please share?
Would you rather...
Buy your dream house with terrible neighbors
OR
Buy an average house with amazing neighbors?
You can only pick one. Explain your choice.
I just passed my NYS Real Estate Licensing Exam (on the first try💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽) and now need to apply for the license. Since we need to provide our sponsoring broker in order to apply, how does it work if you want to apply to salary jobs (ex. real estate development positions) that require a license rather than be an agent/independent contractor? Just wondering if anyone knows how that works, because I don’t technically have a license to apply to the job until I’m sponsored but how would I know the sponsoring broker until I have the job?😭😭 Thanks in advance !!
Hello Californians, how many times did you take DRE exam and finally pass? I have taken it multiple times and still haven’t passed! I always miss it by a few points!
Passed the CA Real Estate Exam? Read this before you celebrate.
Before you pop the champagne, here's the financial reality nobody warned you about. Even after you sign with a brokerage firm, the costs start building crumb by crumb and it adds up FAST.
The mandatory stuff first:
Then the startup costs hit:
And then marketing — because nobody finds you by accident:
The bottom line:
You will spend thousands of dollars — most of it recurring annually — before you close your first deal. Months will pass with zero commission income while the bills keep coming. This is why the agent dropout rate is staggering.
Before you get your license, make sure you have a long financial runway. This isn't a side hustle you can test on a shoestring. Go in with eyes open — or don't go in at all. What other fees did I forget to include off the top of my head? hmm?
I failed my first CA exam. Walked out the test center convinced I'd wasted months of my life. The drive home was brutal.
Took a few weeks to recover memtally. Then went back, studied differently, and passed.
That was 6 months ago. I'm now actively working at a brokerage. And honestly? I have thoughts.
Things I wish someone told me before I even opened a textbook:
1. The exam tests understanding, not memorization.
I failed the first time because I was pattern-matching answers, not actually understanding concepts. The DRE will reword things in ways that break pure memorization. Once I focued on why answers were correct, everything clicked.
2. Agency and contracts will follow forever
I used to rush through those sections. Now I'm in the middle of actual transactions and those concepts come up constantly. Learn them cold — not just for the exam, but because you'll need them on day 1.
3. Passing the exam is the starting gun, not the finish line.
I hold open houses almost every weekend now. Sat and Sun, back to back. Some weekends I sit there for 3 hours and get 2-3 vistors, one of whom is just a nosy neighbor. Nobody tells you about those quiet Suns when you're studying for the exam.
4. The mental game after passing is its own exam
Building a pipline from zero is something no prep course covers. There are weeks where nothing moves. Knowing your material cold at least gives you confidence when you finally sit across from a real client — that part matters more then I expected.
5. The people who pass on the first try aren't smarter — they just studied the right things.
I wasted a lot of time on low-weight topics my first try. The CA exam is heavily weighted toward a handful of areas. Know where the points are.
I am not writing this to brag. I'm writing it because I was reading posts on here when I was studying and the encouragement genuinely helped.
If you're in the thick of it right now — especially if you've failed once and are feeling like garbage about it — keep going. The exam is passable. The career on the other side is real.
Drop any questions below. Happy to answer honestly.
👋 Studying for the CA exam specifically? Come join r/CalRealEstateExam — 204 people currectly in the grind with you. CA-specific tips, resources, and support. Would like to have you.
I used prep agent and did countless practice exams and still fell short on national and state portions. Is there any other prep courses I could buy that helped you guys out? Or what methods did you guys use to pass?
I’ve been looking through my sales crammer and asking chat to quiz me on the most missed questions both state and national (I am in Ohio). Not going to lie, this feels too easy which means something seems off. I need better prompts. I’m sticking to 5-10 question quizzes per section and consistently getting them right, but it doesn’t feel hard enough. Maybe the structure of the wording isn’t difficult enough to mimic the real thing, I’m not sure. My exam is in two days. I’m studying now and cramming. Any other (free) suggestions?
I passed the exam on my 5th try. If u have any questions leave in the comments!