The Illinois real estate broker exam has two parts, both taken on a computer. The national part has 100 questions, runs 150 minutes, and needs a 70% to pass. The Illinois part has 40 questions, runs 90 minutes, and needs a 75%. You have to pass both, and you get up to four tries inside a two-year window.

Most people who fail do not fail because the material is beyond them. They fail because they studied the wrong things, skipped the math, or let a few Illinois law questions slip. We have been bringing new agents into the business in Rockford since 1923, and we have watched plenty of smart people stumble on this test. Here is what is actually on it, how the scoring works, what happens on exam day, and how to study so you only have to take it once.

If you are still at the beginning and want the whole path from first class to first listing, start with our guide to getting your Illinois real estate license. This article is about the exam itself.

How The Illinois Broker Exam Is Built

The exam is run by a testing company called PSI under contract with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. PSI publishes a candidate information booklet that lays out the format, the fees, the rules, and a topic-by-topic outline of what each section covers. That booklet is the most reliable thing you can read before you study, and it is free.

The broker exam is split into two portions that you have to pass separately:

• The national portion has 100 scored questions, gives you 150 minutes, and requires 70%. It covers general real estate principles and practices that apply in every state.
• The Illinois portion has 40 scored questions, gives you 90 minutes, and requires 75%. It covers Illinois license law and the other Illinois rules that affect how you work.

A small number of extra questions, between five and ten, are mixed in as unscored test questions. You will not know which ones they are. They do not count toward your score, but they do count against your clock. If one question seems to come from nowhere, it may be one of those, so make your best guess and keep moving.

One detail trips up people who read older study guides. The booklet notes that the 70% passing score on the national portion is equivalent to the scaled score of 75 that older materials used to report. If a book or website says you need a 75 on the national exam, it is describing the same bar in the old scoring language.

What The National Portion Covers

The booklet gives a percentage weight for each topic on the national portion. Because there are 100 questions, those percentages translate almost directly into question counts. Here is the breakdown for brokers:

• Contracts: 19%, or about 19 questions. This is the biggest single topic. It covers what makes a contract valid, offers and counteroffers, contingencies, remedies for breach, and the difference between void, voidable, and unenforceable agreements.
• Agency: 13%, about 13 questions. Who you represent, the duties you owe, how agency relationships start and end, and the disclosures you have to make.
• Practice of real estate: 12%, about 12 questions. Fair housing, antitrust rules, do-not-call rules, handling other people's money, and how you may use social media and online advertising.
• Property ownership: 10%, about 10 questions. Legal descriptions, liens, easements, ways of holding title, and condominiums.
• Financing: 10%, about 10 questions. Loan types, mortgage terms, and the federal lending rules that apply to a transaction.
• Valuation: 8%, about 8 questions. Appraisals and the comparative market analysis.
• Property disclosures: 7%, about 7 questions.
• Real estate calculations: 7%, about 7 questions.
• Transfer of title: 6%, about 6 questions. Deeds, title insurance, and the closing process.
• Land use controls: 5%, about 5 questions. Zoning, taxes, eminent domain, and private restrictions such as covenants.
• Property management: 3%, about 3 questions.

Two things stand out in that list. First, contracts and agency together make up nearly a third of the whole national exam. If you only have limited study time, those two topics pay you back the most. Second, the math section is small at about seven questions, but it is the section that frightens people the most and the one they are most likely to skip. Seven questions is seven percentage points, and the national exam allows you to miss 30 questions in all. Skipping math entirely uses up nearly a quarter of your cushion.

What The Illinois Portion Covers

The Illinois portion is shorter, which means each question matters more. You can miss only 10 of its 40 questions and still pass, because the bar is 75%. The booklet breaks the broker version into four areas:

• The Illinois Real Estate License Act: 40%, or 16 questions. This is the heart of the state exam. It covers agency relationships, advertising rules, the relationship between a sponsored licensee and a sponsoring broker, listing and brokerage agreements, how compensation works, teams, handling of money and documents, and the penalties for unprofessional conduct.
• Additional Illinois laws and regulations: 25%, or 10 questions. Transfer taxes, real estate taxes and exemptions, the Plat Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Landlord and Tenant Act, and the other state laws that touch a real estate deal.
• Disclosures: 25%, or 10 questions. Designated agency, notices that go to buyers and sellers, the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act, and environmental disclosures such as radon, lead-based paint, and mine subsidence.
• Licensing requirements: 10%, or 4 questions. Which activities need a license, who is exempt, what the license types are, sponsorship, renewal, and post-license education.

Look at how heavily the Illinois test leans on one law. Sixteen questions come from the License Act alone, and the licensing and disclosure sections draw on it too. Students who treat the state portion as an afterthought, because the national portion is bigger, are the ones who walk out with a passing national score and a failing state score. We would study the two portions on separate days and give the Illinois material its own attention.

The Illinois outline also tells you something about the job. Questions about sponsorship, compensation, and the sponsoring broker relationship are on the test because they are how your career actually works. You will read those chapters again once you are licensed.

Signing Up: Fees, Format, And Rules

You schedule the exam through PSI after you finish your 75-hour course. You create an account on PSI's Illinois site and upload your course certificate, and PSI sends an email once you are approved. Your name on the account has to match your government-issued ID exactly.

The broker exam fee is $58, it is not refundable or transferable, and you lose it if you do not test within one year of PSI receiving it. You can book through the website or by phone. When you book, you choose between a test center and remote proctoring, where you take the exam on your own computer while a proctor watches through your webcam.

A few rules from the booklet are worth knowing before you book:

• You can cancel or reschedule without losing your fee if PSI receives your notice at least two days before the appointment. A voicemail does not count as notice.
• If you miss the appointment, cancel late, show up after the start time, or arrive without the right identification, you forfeit the fee.
• At a test center, PSI says to arrive 30 minutes early for sign-in and identification.
• You need one valid, unexpired ID with your photo and signature, such as a state driver's license, a state ID card, or a passport. The name has to match the name you registered with.
• For a remote exam, you can start your test up to 30 minutes before your booked time, and if you do not start within 15 minutes after it, you forfeit your fee or eligibility.

What Exam Day Looks Like

The exam is taken on a computer with a mouse and keyboard. Before the timer starts, you get a tutorial of up to 15 minutes that does not count against your time, followed by a few practice questions so you can get used to the screen.

At a test center, you are not allowed to bring reference materials, phones, smart watches, bulky jackets, hats, food, or drinks into the room. The center gives you scratch paper and a pencil and collects them when you leave. Physical calculators are allowed at test centers but not for remote exams. Once you sit down, you may leave the room only to use the restroom with the proctor's permission, and you do not get extra time.

Remote testing has its own rules. You may not have scratch paper. You have to keep your hands where the camera can see them, stay in view, and stay in the same space on the same computer for the whole exam. Breaks are not allowed. PSI says that if you think you cannot finish without a break, you should not register for the remote format. That is a real consideration for a 150-minute national section, so think about which format fits you before you pay.

When you finish, your score shows on the screen and PSI emails you a score report. If you fail either portion, the report includes a diagnostic breakdown of your strengths and weaknesses by topic. Keep that report. It tells you where to spend your next round of study time.

How Many Times You Can Take It

A broker candidate gets up to four attempts during a two-year eligibility period. If you fail the fourth attempt, you have to retake the full 75-hour pre-license education before you can try again. Your pre-license education is also valid for only two years from the day you finish it, so the clock starts when your class ends, not when you sign up for the exam.

Passing is not the last deadline. After you pass, you have one year to apply to the state for your license. If you let that year go by, your passing score no longer counts and you take the exam again.

How To Study So You Only Take It Once

Nothing here is a trick. It is a plan that matches the way the exam is built.

Start With The Outline, Not The Textbook

Print the content outlines from the PSI booklet. Rate yourself on each line as strong, shaky, or never heard of it. Your study time should go to the shaky and never-heard-of lines, weighted by how many questions each topic carries. Spending a week on property management, which is about three questions, while contracts sit untouched is the most common planning mistake.

Give Contracts And Agency The Most Time

Those two topics are around 32 of the 100 national questions. Learn the vocabulary until you can tell the difference between a void contract and a voidable one without thinking. Learn who owes what to whom in each kind of agency relationship. Many questions describe a short situation and ask what an agent should do, so practice reading the scenario and asking who the agent represents before you look at the answer choices.

Do The Math Early And Often

The calculation topics include seller net proceeds, the cash a buyer needs at closing, property tax and other prorations, estimating a monthly payment that covers principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, loan-to-value, and discount points. Do a handful of problems every day for two weeks instead of cramming them the night before. Math is the one area where repetition beats reading.

Treat The Illinois Portion As A Separate Exam

Read the License Act sections that match the outline and make your own short summaries. Pay special attention to advertising, sponsorship, compensation, brokerage agreements, and the handling of money. On a 40-question test you cannot afford many misses, so consider scheduling your Illinois review for the final days before the exam, when it is freshest.

Use The Official Practice Exam

PSI offers a practice exam online. You can take it as many times as you want, but you pay each time. PSI also says plainly that a good practice score does not guarantee a pass, and that the practice exam is not a substitute for real study. Use it the way a coach uses a scrimmage. Take it once early to find your weak spots and once near the end to check your timing.

Watch The Clock

The national portion gives you 150 minutes for 100 questions, which is about a minute and a half per question, and some of those minutes go to the unscored questions you cannot identify. Do not get stuck. Mark a hard question, move on, and come back. The Illinois portion allows 90 minutes for 40 questions, which is more generous, so use the extra time to reread scenario questions.

Schedule The Exam While The Course Is Fresh

Book it as soon as your course certificate is in hand. The longer you wait, the more you forget, and the fee is the same either way. You can still reschedule for free if you give PSI two days of notice, so booking early costs you nothing and gives you a date to work toward.

What To Do While You Wait For Your Results

Passing the exam does not let you start working. Illinois law says you cannot do any licensed activity until a sponsorship is registered with the state, which means a brokerage has to sign on to you. We suggest you pick a brokerage before your exam date, not after it, so your application can go in the same week you pass.

The license teaches you the law and the vocabulary. It does not teach you how to find your first client. At Gambino Realtors, a new agent is paired with a personal business coach, and we pay that coach for each sale their new agent makes, so the coach has every reason to help you get that first sale. We hold classes every week and sales meetings twice a month. A mentor goes with you on your first few appointments, and we bring leads to our agents. That is the part of the business your exam will not prepare you for, and it matters as much as your score.

The Bottom Line

The Illinois broker exam is a 100-question national test at 70% and a 40-question Illinois test at 75%, both on a computer, with up to four attempts in two years. Contracts and agency carry the most national questions, and the Illinois License Act alone supplies 16 of the 40 state questions. The people who pass the first time study by the outline, do their math every day, give the Illinois material its own days, and book the exam while the course is still fresh. Do those four things and the exam is a hurdle, not a wall.

If you are getting ready to take the exam in the Rockford area, these are the questions we hear most.

Frequently Asked Questions