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Pennsylvania Real Estate Salesperson Licensing Exam — Practice Test

What This Practice Exam Covers

The Pennsylvania Real Estate Salesperson Licensing Examination is a 40-question state law exam with a 60-minute time limit. A score of 75% or better — 30 correct answers out of 40 — is required to pass. The exam is administered by PSI Exams and covers five topic areas drawn directly from Pennsylvania statute and regulation.

This practice exam gives you two options:

• Free practice exam: 10 questions per attempt pulled from a limited question pool. You can retake it as many times as you like. It's the fastest way to get a feel for the question style, the way Pennsylvania regulations are tested, and where your knowledge currently stands — at no cost.

• Full practice exam (paid): A timed, 40-question exam that mirrors the real thing exactly, including the 60-minute clock. Questions are drawn from a pool of 259+ items based on the official exam topics, so every attempt presents a different mix. No two exams are identical, which means repeated attempts build broad coverage rather than pattern memorization.

Start with the free exam to get your bearings, then move to the full exam for serious preparation.

What You'll Be Tested On

Real Estate Commission — 5 items

These questions test your working knowledge of the Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission's authority: what it can and cannot do, how it investigates and prosecutes complaints, and how hearing and appeal procedures work. Expect questions on timelines, procedural steps, and the mechanics of the Real Estate Recovery Fund — including who can file a claim, the dollar limits per transaction and per licensee, and what happens to a licensee's license once a Recovery Fund payment is made on their behalf. These are detail-heavy questions where the specific dollar figure or procedural step is the answer.

Licensure — 8 items

This is one of the two most consequential topic areas for candidates early in their preparation. Questions cover:

• Qualifications for licensure, including age, education, and background check requirements
• Activities requiring a license — the line between what constitutes licensed real estate activity and what does not
• License renewal and reactivation, including the continuing education requirement, the difference between inactive and active status, and what reactivation requires
• Change of employment — the procedures and timing when a salesperson changes brokers
• Exemptions from licensure — who can perform real estate activities without a license (attorneys acting in certain capacities, certain property owners, etc.)

Pennsylvania's specific procedural rules govern most of these answers. Knowing the general concept is not enough; you need the correct timeline or category.

Agency and Disclosure — 10 items

The heaviest topic by item count, this section requires you to know exactly what each type of agency relationship obligates a licensee to do. The exam distinguishes between:

• General duties owed to all consumers regardless of representation
• Additional duties specific to buyer's agents, seller's agents, and dual agents
• Agency disclosure requirements — when disclosure must happen, what form it takes, and what "consumer notice" means under Pennsylvania law
• Compensation — who can pay whom, and whether compensation arrangements affect the agency relationship

Questions in this section often present a scenario and ask you to identify whether a specific action is required, prohibited, or permissible. Read each scenario carefully for the role the licensee is playing before selecting an answer.

Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees — 11 items

The largest topic on the exam, covering the day-to-day conduct rules that apply to all licensees:

• Advertising rules, including what must appear in any ad and the prohibition on blind advertising
• Broker/salesperson relations — supervision requirements, the broker's responsibility for salesperson conduct
• Funds and accounts — escrow requirements, commingling prohibitions, deadlines for depositing earnest money
• Prohibited conduct — a long list of specific actions that constitute violations, including misrepresentation, conflicts of interest, and discrimination
• Suspension and revocation — the grounds and process for disciplinary action, and the range of penalties including civil fines

Civil penalty amounts appear on this exam. Memorize the first-offense and second-offense penalty figures for the specific violations covered in Pennsylvania's fee schedule.

Miscellaneous — 6 items

Six items covering five distinct subtopics:

• Property disclosures under the Seller Disclosure Law — what must be disclosed, on what form, and by when
• Documents, contracts, and forms — what must be in a listing agreement, buyer agency agreement, and agreement of sale
• Pennsylvania Human Relations Act — protected classes, prohibited conduct in housing transactions, and enforcement
• Time-shares, planned communities, and condominiums — the specific statutory rights buyers have and the required disclosure periods
• Rentals, leasing, and property management — licensee requirements for managing property on behalf of owners

Worked Sample Questions

Question 1 — Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees

A broker or cemetery broker who fails to retain a copy of the written estimate of reasonably foreseeable expenses faces a first-offense civil penalty of $______.

• A. 125
• B. 250
• C. 500
• D. 1,000

Correct Answer: B — $250

The civil penalty schedule under 49 Pa. Code § 43b.8 sets the first-offense penalty for failure to retain the written estimate of reasonably foreseeable expenses (required under 49 Pa. Code § 35.334) at $250, rising to $500 for a second offense. This tests your knowledge of the penalty table, not just the underlying obligation. On the exam, options like $125 and $500 are designed to catch candidates who confuse first- and second-offense amounts or misremember the specific figure.

Source: Pennsylvania Title 49, Chapter 43b.8, Page 43b-18.1

Question 2 — Agency and Disclosure

Which of the following is an additional duty that a buyer's agent owes beyond the general duties owed to all consumers?

• A. Providing a comparative market analysis to the seller
• B. Making a continuous and good faith effort to find a property for the buyer/tenant
• C. Disclosing the buyer's maximum price to the seller
• D. Acting as a subagent of the listing broker

Correct Answer: B

Per § 35.313(a)(3), a buyer's agent must make a continuous and good faith effort to find a property, except when the buyer is already under an existing contract. This is an additional duty layered on top of the general duties all licensees owe under § 35.292. Options C and D describe conduct that would actually violate the buyer's agent's obligations. Option A belongs to a listing agent's scope, not a buyer's agent's.

Source: Pennsylvania Title 49, Chapter 35, § 35.313(a)(3)

Question 3 — Licensure (True/False)

A reciprocal licensee whose principal place of business moves to Pennsylvania may continue practicing under the reciprocal license indefinitely, provided the licensee notifies the Commission.

Correct Answer: FALSE

Under Section 602(g) and § 35.255(c), once a reciprocal licensee's principal place of business relocates to Pennsylvania, the reciprocal license will not be renewed. The licensee may continue only through the end of the current renewal period and must then obtain a standard Pennsylvania license. Notification alone does not preserve the reciprocal license. This is a classic "almost true" question — the notification detail makes the false version sound reasonable.

Source: Pennsylvania Real Estate Licensing Act, Section 602(g)

How to Read Your Score

The passing threshold is 75% — 30 out of 40 questions correct. On the practice exam, treat your first score as a diagnostic, not a verdict. Most candidates discover on their first attempt that one or two topic areas are significantly weaker than others. That's exactly what the practice exam is designed to surface.

A score of 85% or above across multiple full-length attempts suggests solid readiness. A score in the 70–80% range — close to passing — typically means your knowledge is uneven: strong in familiar areas, thin in one or two others. Passing practice near the minimum usually means more targeted review is needed before the real exam.

Use the topic-by-topic breakdown after each full practice attempt. If you're losing points consistently in Agency and Disclosure (10 items) or Regulations Governing the Activities of Licensees (11 items), those two areas alone account for more than half the exam. Focused review there will move your score faster than reviewing topics where you're already performing well.

Where Candidates Lose Points

Confusing penalty amounts. The civil penalty schedule under Pennsylvania Title 49 is a recurring source of errors. Candidates know a violation exists but cannot recall whether the figure is $250, $500, or $1,000 — and the exam offers all three as choices.

Misidentifying agency duties. The distinction between general duties owed to all consumers and the additional duties specific to buyer's agents, seller's agents, and dual agents is tested repeatedly across the Agency and Disclosure section. Candidates who treat all duties as interchangeable consistently miss these questions.

Exemptions and qualifications details. In the Licensure section, questions about who is exempt from licensure and what specific qualifications are required hinge on precise statutory language. "Generally exempt" is not a useful answer when the exam is asking about a specific category.

Procedural timelines. Questions on the Real Estate Recovery Fund, license renewal, and change of employment all involve specific deadlines. Missing the number of days or the correct sequence of steps costs points.

Running out of time. At 60 minutes for 40 questions, you have 90 seconds per question. Candidates who read slowly or second-guess heavily on the Regulations section — the longest at 11 items — sometimes run short on time before finishing. Practicing with the timed full exam builds the pacing instinct you need.

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