The New York real estate exams,
weighted the way the State teaches them.
Six full-length practice exams, three for the salesperson license and three for the broker license. The salesperson forms run 75 questions in 90 minutes, the shape and the clock the exam is reported to have. Every section is sized by the hours the Department of State sets for that subject, so the weight of the practice matches the weight of the course, and every wrong answer carries its own sentence saying why somebody picks it.
Which of the two are you sitting?
They are separate examinations with separate courses behind them, and almost everybody sits the first one. You cannot skip to the second.
77 hours of qualifying education. No experience required. This is the door everybody goes through. The Department of State publishes the syllabus as nineteen subjects with exact hours, from Law of Agency at eleven down to Real Estate Mathematics at one, and it says the written exam is multiple choice with an hour and a half to sit it.
A further 75 hours, plus two years as a licensed salesperson. Three years of experience in the field with the required points also qualifies. It is not a harder salesperson paper: its own syllabus says the broker's job is running a brokerage so that what the salesperson course teaches actually happens. Over half the weight sits on supervision, office operation and advanced fair housing.
What the Department of State publishes about each exam.
Everything in this table comes from the Department's own salesperson and broker pages. Where a number is missing below, it is missing because New York does not publish it — not because we could not find it.
| Salesperson | Broker | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Multiple choice | Multiple choice |
| Based on | The 77-hour curriculum | The 152-hour curriculum |
| Time allowed | 1½ hours | 2½ hours |
| Exam fee | $15 per attempt | $15 per attempt |
| Application fee | $65 | $185 |
| Questions | Not published by DOS widely reported as 75 | Not published by DOS widely reported as about 100 |
| Passing score | Not published by DOS widely reported as 70% | Not published by DOS widely reported as 70% |
| A pass lasts | Not published | Two years |
The Department says plainly of both exams: “All exam results are reported as either passed or failed; you will not receive a numerical score.” There is obviously a line somewhere — a pass or fail has to be decided — but the Department does not publish where it is, and it will not tell you how close you came. The 75 questions and the 70% you will read everywhere come from schools, prep companies and people who have sat it. They are probably right. They are not the state, and we will not print them as though they were.
You schedule the exam yourself, through eAccessNY.
There is no phone booking and no walk-in. Everything runs through the Department's online account system, and the same account is where the result appears afterward.
- Create an eAccessNY account on the Department of State's site, if you do not already have one
- From the Main Menu, choose Apply to Take an Exam and follow the instructions
- Pick your site and date and pay the $15 exam fee
- Sit the exam, then log back in and choose View Exam Results. Results are not given over the telephone
- Once you have passed, the license application itself is a separate step and a separate fee — $65 for a salesperson, $185 for a broker — and a salesperson needs a sponsoring broker to authorize it
Eleven sites across the state, and one rule that ends the day early.
The Department lists exam sites in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Franklin Square, Hauppauge, New York City, Plattsburgh, Pomona, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. Which sites are running, and on which dates, changes through the year, so check the Department's exam-sites page when you book.
- No one is admitted after the starting time. The Department states it in capitals, and it means the whole fee and the whole trip
- Bring current, government-issued photo identification that carries your signature and has not expired — a driver license, a state ID, a passport, a military ID
- Exams are occasionally called off for weather. The Department posts cancellations on its social accounts rather than taking calls at the site
- The 77 or 152 hours of qualifying education come first. The exam is the step after the course, not instead of it
You will never be told your score, and the state will not say what passes.
Search either exam and you will be told it has 75 questions and that 70% passes, stated with great confidence and no source. That figure may well be right — it is what schools teach and what people who have sat the exam report. What is certain is where it does not come from: the Department of State publishes no question count and no passing mark for either exam, and its own words are that results are reported as passed or failed and you will not receive a numerical score.
- No passing score is stated as fact anywhere in this product. Not in a question, not in an explanation, not in a report — because there is no state figure to quote, and we will not pass somebody else's estimate off as one
- The school-administered exam has its own mark, set by the school. Where you see 70% quoted, check which of the two exams it is describing
- Our salesperson exams are 75 questions in 90 minutes — the length the exam is reported to have and exactly the time the state publishes, so 72 seconds a question, the pace of the real paper. The broker forms are 110, because that exam is reported at about 100 and covers twice the syllabus
- The times the state does publish — 1½ hours for the salesperson exam, 2½ for the broker — are in the table above, quoted rather than estimated
- What the state does publish in detail is the syllabus, hour by hour, and that is what we built the exams from
Section sizes come from the syllabus hours, not from a guess.
The Department of State sets how many hours a course must spend on each subject. We convert those hours into questions and let the arithmetic decide how long each section is, so the weight of the practice exam matches the weight of the course.
- Salesperson: eleven sections across the 77 hours, from Law of Agency at sixteen questions to License Law at four
- Broker: thirteen sections across the 75 hours, with Advanced Fair Housing the largest at nineteen
- The State also sets hours inside a subject — one hour on predatory lending, one on standard operating procedures, two on commercial leasing terms. Every one of those has questions on every form, and a check refuses a form that skips one
- Chapter 1 of the broker course is 26 of its 75 hours, so we split it into agency, license law and running an office. A candidate revising supervision can sit exactly that
Sitting for the broker exam? Use both lines, and here is the arithmetic. The Department says the broker exam is based on the full 152-hour curriculum — the 77-hour salesperson course and the 75-hour broker course together. That makes salesperson material 50.7% of what the exam can ask. Our broker forms are weighted by the 75-hour broker half: supervision, office operation, business law and advanced fair housing. Sit one salesperson form and one broker form and you have 220 questions of which 110, or 50.0%, are salesperson material — seven tenths of a percentage point off the real split. A broker form on its own covers the half the broker course adds, and none of the other half.
New York makes you sit two exams, not one.
The Department of State's FAQ says a school-administered proctored examination is required in addition to the qualifying examination the Department itself gives. People find this out late.
- The State exam is the one these practice exams are built for, weighted by the State's own syllabus
- The school exam is set by each school from the same curriculum, so this practice covers the same ground — but no page here claims to match any particular school's paper, because we have not seen them
- Both sit on top of the course hours, which the school also provides
Six practice exams, and an explanation for every wrong answer.
Three salesperson forms of 75 questions and three broker forms of 110. Every incorrect option carries its own sentence saying why a candidate lands there, which is the part that teaches.
- 555 questions, 1,665 wrong answers, and 1,665 explanation sentences — counted separately, and equal
- No question appears on two forms, and no broker question repeats a salesperson one, which matters because it is the same person sitting both, two years apart
- Answer positions are spread and the key is checked against chance, so marking A, B, C, D down the page beats nothing
- Every question is written against the March 2026 statute, and the explanation names the section it comes from, so a candidate who disagrees can go and read it
- You can sit one section on its own — agency tonight, finance on Thursday
The report tells you where the marks went.
Section by section, with every question you missed and the reason beside it. You are buying it for yourself rather than for a child, so it is yours to read straight away — which subject cost you the most, and which single hour of the syllabus would buy back the most marks.
Exam details are summarized from publicly available information from the organization that administers it. Confirm current requirements with your school or the testing organization before registering.
Passed or failed, and then a separate application.
The exam and the license are two different transactions. Passing does not make you licensed, and the fee you paid to sit is not the fee you pay to practice.
- Results appear in your eAccessNY account under View Exam Results, as passed or failed. There is no number and there is no telephone service for it
- A failed attempt is rebooked the same way it was booked, through the same account, for the same $15
- A passed broker result is valid for two years. The Department publishes no such period for the salesperson exam
- A salesperson then applies through eAccessNY with a sponsoring broker to authorize it, and pays $65. A broker applies and pays $185
- Remember the second exam: the school-administered proctored examination is required in addition to this one
The things the search results get wrong.
What score do I need to pass the New York real estate exam?
Schools, prep companies and most people who have sat it will tell you 70%, and they are very likely right. The Department of State does not publish a passing mark for either exam, and it reports your result as passed or failed with no numerical score, so nobody can point you at an official figure. Treat 70% as a sensible working target rather than a published rule.
How many questions are on the state exam?
The salesperson exam is widely reported as 75 questions and the broker exam as around 100, and those figures come from schools and from candidates rather than from the state. What the Department does publish is the time — 1½ hours for the salesperson exam and 2½ for the broker — and the curriculum each is based on.
How much does it cost?
$15 for each attempt at the written exam. The license application afterward is $65 for a salesperson and $185 for a broker, and renewal is the same as the application in each case.
Where do I take it?
At one of the Department's exam sites: Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Franklin Square, Hauppauge, New York City, Plattsburgh, Pomona, Rochester, Syracuse or Utica. Which are running on a given date changes, so check when you book.
How do I register?
Through an eAccessNY account on the Department of State's site. From the Main Menu choose Apply to Take an Exam, pick a site and date, and pay the fee. The same account is where the result appears.
Do I really have to sit two exams?
Yes. The Department's own FAQ says a school-administered proctored examination is required in addition to the qualifying examination the Department gives. They are set by different people and taken at different places.
Can I take the broker exam without being a salesperson first?
Only by another route. A broker needs 152 hours of qualifying education and either two years as a licensed salesperson or three years of general real estate experience, or a combination of the two, with the required points.
How long does a pass last?
A passed broker exam result is valid for two years. The Department publishes no equivalent period for the salesperson exam, so confirm your own position with them rather than with a prep site.
Every figure on this page comes from the Department of State's own salesperson, broker and exam-site pages. Fees and sites change; confirm current requirements with the Department before you book.
Ready?
Ten free questions first, no account needed. A full practice exam is 5 credits, and you can sit it one section at a time.