Exam Content Guide
National Portion Subject Areas: Full Outline
Question counts, time allowances, passing standards and the exact weight of each subject area are set by the testing vendor under contract to your licensing authority, and they are revised periodically. Pull the current candidate handbook or content outline that vendor publishes for your state and your license track, and treat it as the authoritative list.
The general portion covers principles that hold across jurisdictions: ownership interests, land use, valuation, finance, agency, contracts, conveyance, and professional practice. The state portion handles everything written locally.
This page walks the subject areas and names what lives inside each. It does not assign question counts or percentages, because those belong to the vendor your state contracts with and are published in a document you can read directly.
How the General Portion Is Built
A licensing exam is usually delivered as two graded sections in one appointment. One section tests principles that are substantially the same everywhere. The other tests the license law, rules and practices of a single jurisdiction. They are ordinarily scored against separate standards, so a strong result on one does not rescue a weak result on the other.
The general section is assembled from a published outline. That outline names the subject areas, lists the tasks or knowledge statements inside each, and states how many items each area contributes. It exists precisely so candidates do not have to guess, and it is the single most underused document in exam preparation.
Weighting is not uniform across areas, and it is not the same from one vendor or track to the next. Broker-track outlines tend to shift weight toward supervision, brokerage operations and trust handling. Because of that variation, any page that hands you a fixed percentage for a subject is describing one snapshot of one outline, and possibly not yours.
Use the outline as a coverage checklist rather than a study schedule. Every heading it lists should be something you can explain unprompted before you book an appointment. Headings you cannot explain are your study order, ranked by the weight the outline actually assigns them.
Subject Areas and What Sits Inside Them
Interests in land and how they are held
The line between realty and personalty, fixtures and the tests that identify them, the physical and economic characteristics of land, freehold and leasehold estates, concurrent ownership forms and their survivorship consequences, common interest communities, and appurtenant rights to water, air and subsurface resources.
Restrictions on use
Public controls through zoning classifications, variances and conditional permits, uses that predate a rule, building and safety codes, and the taking of property for public purpose with compensation. Private controls through recorded covenants. Environmental considerations affecting whether and how a parcel may be developed.
Valuation and pricing analysis
What value means as distinct from price and cost, the principles that drive it, the comparison, income and replacement approaches, adjustment logic when comparables differ, forms of depreciation and obsolescence, and the difference between a broker's pricing analysis and a licensed appraiser's assignment.
Financing the purchase
The separation between the debt instrument and the security instrument, lien and title classifications, standard clauses and what triggers them, lien priority and subordination, conventional and government-backed program families, fixed and adjustable structures, points and equity ratios, and the federal disclosure regime around settlement costs and credit terms.
Agency and the duties it creates
How an agency relationship forms and ends, the duties owed to a principal and the narrower duties owed to others in the transaction, single and dual representation, designated representation, non-agency or facilitator arrangements, disclosure timing, and the difference between an agent's authority and a cooperating licensee's role.
Agreements and their enforceability
The elements required to form a binding agreement, the validity spectrum from void through voidable to unenforceable, offer, acceptance and counteroffer mechanics, conditions and their satisfaction or waiver, representation agreements on both sides, options and rights of first refusal, assignment, and the remedies available when a party fails to perform.
Conveyance and settlement
Deed categories and the assurances each carries, the requirements for a valid and recordable instrument, methods of legal description, recording and constructive notice, evidence of title and title insurance coverage, transfer at death, adverse possession, the settlement process, closing statement entries, and proration arithmetic.
Practice, disclosure and professional conduct
Federal fair housing protections, prohibited conduct including steering, blockbusting and redlining, advertising standards, the obligation to disclose material facts about condition, hazards such as lead-based paint in older housing, accessibility requirements, trust account handling, property management fundamentals, and the calculation of compensation.
Turning the Outline Into Study Order
The outline tells you what is tested. It does not tell you what to do about it. This sequence does.
Retrieve the current document. Identify the vendor your licensing authority contracts with, download the handbook for your track, and check the revision date on it rather than working from a copy someone posted years ago.
Copy the headings into a checklist. Use the vendor's own wording, including the sub-topics, so nothing quietly drops out because your outline was shorter than theirs.
Score yourself cold. Sit a full-length practice attempt before studying and record results by subject area, not as one aggregate. A single overall number hides the area that is going to end your sitting.
Rank by weight times weakness. An area the outline weights heavily where you scored poorly outranks a light area where you scored poorly, and both outrank anything you already handle well.
Keep the state section on a separate track. The general areas here do not cover license law, commission structure, trust handling rules, required forms, or local timelines. Those come from your own statutes and rules and are scored on their own.
Re-measure rather than re-read. Return to full-length timed attempts on a schedule and compare the area breakdown against the last one. Movement in the breakdown is evidence; a feeling of familiarity is not.
Questions About the General Portion Outline
Which subject area carries the most weight?
It varies by vendor, by state and by license track, and it changes when an outline is revised. The heavier areas are commonly contracts, professional practice and disclosure, agency and finance, but the only reliable answer is the table of weights printed in the current handbook for your own examination.
Is every item on the exam counted toward my score?
Not necessarily. Testing programs commonly embed unscored trial items to gather performance data before those items enter the scored pool. They are not identified while you are taking the exam and they are indistinguishable from scored items, so the only workable approach is to answer everything as though it counts. Whether your exam includes them, and how many, is stated in the handbook.
Can I use a calculator?
A basic calculation tool is commonly made available on screen at the testing station. Policies on bringing your own device, on scratch materials, and on what may enter the testing room are set by the vendor and the site. Read the current policy for your appointment and practice with a plain four-function tool so the exam conditions are familiar.
Does the general portion cover my state's license law?
No. That material is deliberately placed in the separate state section, which is scored against its own standard. Candidates who prepare only from nationally produced material regularly clear the general section and lose the sitting on the state one.
How current does my study material need to be?
Current enough to match the outline in force on your test date. Outlines are revised, federal disclosure requirements change, and state rules are amended between legislative sessions. Check the revision date on anything you study from, and check the handbook for your own exam before you commit to a plan.