If you fail the Illinois broker exam, you retake only the portion you missed, and you get up to four attempts in a two-year eligibility period. Fail four times in a row and Section 5-35(c) of the Real Estate License Act of 2000 sends you back through the full 75 hours of pre-license education before you can sit again.

That is the short version, and it is more forgiving than most people expect after a bad score. The rules do have edges, though, and each one is tied to a clock or a fee. This guide covers what the Act, the state's rules at 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1450 and the testing company's candidate booklet say about failing, how the deadlines stack, and what to do with the score report before you book again. Gambino Realtors has been a Rockford brokerage since 1923. If you are still deciding where to hold your license once you pass, how to choose your first brokerage is worth reading while you study.

What Happens After a Failing Score

The exam is given by PSI Services LLC under contract with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The broker exam has a national portion and an Illinois portion, and you have to pass both. Our guide to what is on the Illinois real estate exam covers the content. This article covers what comes after a result you did not want.

You repeat the failed portion, not the whole exam

PSI's candidate booklet is plain about this. If you fail any portion of the broker or managing broker exam, your score report includes diagnostic scoring information and instructions for reapplying. The booklet then says you will only be required to repeat the portion or portions you failed.

That matters because the two portions are different tests. The national portion has 100 scored questions, gives you 150 minutes and needs 70 percent. The Illinois portion has 40 scored questions, gives you 90 minutes and needs 75 percent. A candidate who clears the national portion and misses the Illinois portion by a few questions does not have to sit through 100 national questions again. The reapplication is for the part that needs work.

The booklet also says your score appears on the screen at the end of the exam and that PSI emails you a score report. If you fail, that emailed report carries the breakdown of strengths and weaknesses by exam type. Keep it.

Four attempts, then the course again

Two documents set the limit, and they say the same thing in slightly different words. The PSI booklet says a broker candidate is allowed up to four attempts to pass during a two-year eligibility period. The Act is more specific about what happens next. Under Section 5-35(c), if an applicant has failed an examination four consecutive times, the applicant must repeat the pre-license education required to sit for that exam. The same section adds that the fifth attempt is treated the same as the first, and the applicant must complete a new application for examination.

The state's rule repeats the point. Section 1450.420(b) says a person who fails the examination four consecutive times must repeat the pre-license education requirement before taking the examination again, and must file a new application for examination.

For a broker candidate, the education that has to be repeated is the 75-hour course. The PSI booklet lists the figure for each license, and the numbers differ:

• Residential leasing agent: the 15-hour pre-license course.
• Broker: the 75-hour broker pre-license course.
• Managing broker with an active Illinois broker license: the 45-hour managing broker pre-license course.
• Managing broker without an active Illinois broker license: the 165-hour managing broker pre-license course.

After the fourth failed attempt the booklet says you must retake the education and the entire examination. The word entire is worth noticing. At that point passing one portion earlier no longer saves you anything. You start over with the course, the application and both portions.

One group is outside this requirement. Under Section 5-27(b) of the Act, the 75-hour requirement does not apply to an applicant who is currently admitted to practice law by the Supreme Court of Illinois and is in active standing, and the PSI booklet says education-exempt candidates do not have to complete the courses listed above.

Is there a waiting period between attempts?

The Act's exam section, the state's broker exam rule and the PSI booklet do not state a waiting period between attempts. What they do describe is a process. You get a score report with reapplication instructions, you follow those instructions, and you schedule through PSI. If you want to know the earliest date you could rebook, the people who can tell you are at PSI, and the booklet lists their number as (855) 340-3893.

The sources also do not say how a failed portion is counted toward the four attempts. A candidate who fails the Illinois portion twice and the national portion once might have three failures or two, depending on how PSI tallies them, and the documents do not spell it out. Ask PSI how many attempts your account shows before you book a third or fourth sitting. It is a short phone call, and the answer decides how carefully you need to prepare.

The Clocks That Run While You Retake

Failing the exam is not the only way to lose time. Three separate clocks run around it, and a candidate who retakes slowly can run into one of them without ever failing a fourth time.

Two years from the end of your course

Section 5-35(a) of the Act says approved pre-license education is valid for 2 years after the date you satisfactorily completed all of the required education. The state's rule says the same thing in Section 1450.400 for the 75-hour broker course, and Section 1450.420(c) points back to the Act for the two-year period.

The clock starts the day the course ends, not the day you book the exam. A candidate who finishes the 75 hours, waits several months to feel ready and then fails twice can find that most of the window is gone. The PSI booklet gives the same two-year length for the exam eligibility period, so the two periods point the same way. Count two years from your course completion date, write the date down, and treat it as the outside edge of your retake plan.

One year on the exam fee

The booklet lists the broker exam fee at 58 dollars. It says exam fees are not refundable or transferable, and that your fee is forfeited if you do not test within one year of the date PSI receives it. Section 5-35(a) of the Act is written along similar lines. Failure to appear on the scheduled date, after your application for examination has been acknowledged, results in forfeiture of the exam fee.

Two practical rules follow from that. First, a booked appointment is not a suggestion. The booklet says you forfeit the fee if you do not cancel at least two days before the exam date, do not appear, arrive after the start time, or arrive without proper identification. Second, a voicemail does not count as cancellation. The booklet says to use the PSI website or call and speak to a customer service representative. If you are not ready, reschedule inside the two-day notice window and keep the fee.

One year after you pass

The last clock starts when you pass, and it matters if you retook one portion and passed late in your eligibility period. Under Section 5-35(b) of the Act and Section 1450.430(b) of the rules, you have one year from the date of a passing score to submit your application and meet every requirement for licensure. The PSI booklet repeats it. If you let that year go by, credit for the exam terminates and you may make a new application for examination.

Passing does not make you licensed on the spot. The booklet says a pass brings a score report with instructions for applying at the IDFPR Online Services Portal. The rule at Section 1450.430(a) lists what the application contains: a signed application, the required fee, proof that you passed the exam, proof of sponsorship if you want an active license, and a transcript if one applies. The initial broker application fee in Section 1450.130(b) is 150 dollars.

Sponsorship has a deadline of its own. Section 5-27(c) of the Act says no applicant may engage in any activity covered by the Act until a valid sponsorship is registered with the Department. Under Section 1450.110(b), a sponsoring broker may sponsor an applicant only after receiving the exam pass score report, and within 24 hours after the sponsorship is established, the applicant submits the transcript, the pass score report, the application and the fee. The brokerage needs your pass report before it can sponsor you, so the work of picking one belongs to the weeks before the exam rather than the days after it.

A Worked Example With the Clocks Running

The following is an illustration, built only from the rules above. It is not a prediction and it does not describe any real candidate.

Suppose a candidate finishes the 75-hour course on the first of a month. The two-year education clock starts that day. She schedules the exam a few weeks later, pays the 58-dollar fee, and sits both portions. She clears the national portion and falls short on the Illinois portion, where 75 percent of 40 questions is the line.

Her score report arrives by email with a breakdown by topic. Because the Illinois portion is the only one she failed, the booklet says she repeats only that portion. She spends two weeks on that material, rebooks through PSI, and sits the Illinois portion again.

Now suppose she misses again, by fewer questions. That is the second attempt. She still has two attempts left inside her two-year period, and she still has more than a year and a half on her pre-license education. The rule does not prevent a third attempt from coming soon. What it does is make each remaining attempt a limited resource. A third failure would leave exactly one attempt before the course has to be repeated.

This is the point where the numbers argue for patience. The cost of a fourth failure is not the 58-dollar fee. It is 75 hours of coursework, a new application and both portions of the exam, because the booklet is explicit that the entire exam must be retaken. Spending an extra month on study before the third attempt costs a month. Spending the fourth attempt unprepared can cost the whole path back.

Now run the example the other way. Suppose she passes the Illinois portion on the second attempt. The one-year clock under Section 5-35(b) starts on that passing date. She has to have a sponsoring brokerage, submit the pass score report with her application and the 150-dollar application fee, and meet every other requirement for licensure inside that year. If her sponsoring broker is already chosen, the 24-hour submission window in Section 1450.110 is a matter of paperwork. If not, she is starting a search for a brokerage with the application clock already running.

Using the Score Report Before You Book Again

The diagnostic report is the most useful piece of paper a failed attempt produces. The booklet says it shows strengths and weaknesses by examination type, and the booklet's content outlines show what each topic holds. Put the two side by side before you open a study guide.

Match the weak topics to the weights

The Illinois portion draws 16 of its 40 questions from the License Act. On the national portion, the booklet's outline gives contracts 19 of 100 questions and agency 13. If the report shows a weak topic that carries few questions, a week of study there barely moves the score. If it shows a weak topic with a heavy weight, that is where the hours go.

The booklet makes one more distinction that helps. Between five and ten questions on the exam are unscored experimental questions. They count against your clock but not your result. A candidate who stalled for minutes on a question that did not count may have lost time on the questions that did.

Decide whether you need the practice exam

PSI offers an online practice exam. The booklet says you pay each time you take it, and it adds that a good practice score does not guarantee a pass and that the practice exam is not a substitute for study. The honest way to use it after a failure is as a measuring tool. Study the weak topics first, then take the practice exam once to see whether the work shows up, and book the real exam only when it does. Using it as a replacement for the real one, over and over, adds cost without changing what you know.

Ask for what you need on test day

The booklet says PSI examination centers are equipped to provide access in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and that candidates who would otherwise have difficulty taking the exam should request alternative arrangements. If something other than knowledge held your score down, that is a request to make through PSI before the next booking. The booklet also notes that a remote proctored format is available along with test centers, and that remote testing does not allow breaks or scratch paper, so the format you pick is part of your retake plan.

Sort the retake from the restart

Before you book, write down four dates. The date your 75-hour course ended, which sets the two-year education limit. The date PSI received your fee, which sets the one-year forfeiture date. The number of attempts PSI shows on your account. And, if you have already passed one portion, the date you passed it. Those four facts tell you whether you are in a retake, which is a short job, or heading for a restart, which is a long one.

The Bottom Line

Failing the broker exam costs you the portion you missed, a new booking, and one of four attempts. It does not cost you the portion you passed, and no sentence in the Act, the state's rule or the PSI booklet sets a waiting period you have to sit out. What it can cost, if you drift, is time. Pre-license education is good for two years from the day the course ended. The exam fee is forfeited if you do not test within one year of PSI receiving it. And a passing score lasts one year before you have to be licensed, so a sponsor is something to line up early.

The fourth failed attempt is the one to plan around. After it, the 75-hour course, a new application and the entire exam are back on the table. The practical rule is to treat attempt three as the last one you are willing to spend unprepared. Use the score report, match it to the question weights, and book only when the weak topics are fixed.

When you reach the other side of the exam, you will want a sponsor ready to register you with the state. Gambino Realtors, in business since 1923 in Rockford, gives each new agent a personal business coach, weekly classes and sales meetings twice a month, sends a mentor on first appointments and brings leads to its agents. That is the kind of list worth asking any brokerage for, and how to choose your first brokerage shows how to compare the answers. The full path from course to license is laid out in how to get your Illinois real estate license, and every other career guide is listed in the Illinois Real Estate Guide.

Questions about retakes come up in the same few forms, so here are the ones most worth having answers to before you rebook.

Frequently Asked Questions