California DRE salesperson licence
The exam has published weights. Almost nobody studies to them.
California is unusual: DRE publishes how much of the examination each content area is worth. That turns study priority from an opinion into a number. Everything here is organised around those seven numbers, and every fee and deadline carries the DRE page it came from.
No account, no email, and complete results on every question. That is a product rule here, not a trial.
Official examination weights
100%
- Practice and Disclosures25%
about 38 of 150 questions
- Agency and Fiduciary Duties17%
about 26 of 150 questions
- Ownership and Land Use15%
about 23 of 150 questions
- Valuation and Analysis14%
about 21 of 150 questions
- Contracts12%
about 18 of 150 questions
- Financing9%
about 14 of 150 questions
- Transfer of Property8%
about 12 of 150 questions
The examination, in the numbers that matter
150
questions
Four options each, no penalty for guessing
3 hrs
to complete it
About 72 seconds a question
70%
to pass
105 of 150 correct
5
examination centres
In person only, no remote option
Why the weights change how you should study
The three heaviest areas are 57% of the examination between them. If your study time is not roughly 57% spent there, it is misallocated, and no amount of extra hours fixes a bad allocation.
Priority is published, not guessed
Most study material orders topics by the course syllabus, which follows the order they are taught rather than the order they are tested. DRE tells you which areas carry the marks. Ordering by that is the single cheapest improvement available to a candidate.
Every number carries its source
Fees changed on July 1, 2024, the first increase since 1997, and the old figures are still republished widely. Every fee, deadline and rule here links to the DRE page it came from and the date we checked it, so you can verify rather than trust.
The arithmetic is practised, not skimmed
Valuation and financial analysis is 14% and carries most of the exam's maths. Every calculator here is backed by a tested fixture, so the number you see is the number the test asserts.
Where to start
Four routes, depending on where you actually are right now.
What is on this site
What this site deliberately does not publish
No pass rate. Figures near 50% circulate widely and are attributed to DRE, but we have not located the DRE page that states one, so we publish none. No continuing education hour requirement, for the same reason. And no real examination questions, because reproducing them is a misdemeanour under Business and Professions Code section 123 with damages to $10,000. Unverified means unpublished here, not hedged into the prose. How we decide what to publish