PASSING YOUR FLORIDA REAL ESTATE EXAM FIRST TIME.

Whether you are taking an in-class course or the online course, these notes apply in all cases regardless of what school you are using.

THE COURSE EXAM.

As you have found out you have two challenges when getting your Sales Associate license.

First, is to get you through the course exam, either in class or online, and secondly, to get you through the state exam.

During the 63-hr. course there is a huge amount of material presented to you. Some of it you can remember parrot fashion, the rest must be learned as a concept, a way of thinking, you might say, of how this all works.

If you are doing the online course, then it is an absolute must to get the physical book that the course takes its material from to use as a reference as you are going through the course. This will greatly increase your chances of passing the course exam first time.

Go through each unit or chapter at least twice maybe three times.

Complete all the questions and make notes of the questions you have difficulty with and repeat them.

When looking at a question first read the whole question through, make sure you understand what the question is trying to ask you, formulate an answer in your mind, then look at all the answers and then choose the one that most matches closely that answer. If you cannot find an answer, see if you can eliminate some of the answers one by one. If all else fails, GUESS!

Should you, in class or online, have any problem areas which you just can’t understand, ask the school or instructor to explain, re-explain until you get it right. You owe this to yourself.

Try to get a grasp of the areas and chapters that you have a problem with and concentrate on those.

For those for whom math is a problem, try not to get too obsessed with it. It is only 10% of the questions and half of those will be easy. Concentrate, on other areas in the book that are easier to understand.

Resist the temptation, especially in the early stage, to look at other learning materials found online or on apps on your phone. This information may be out of date, not relevant to your course or the course questions and will distract from completing the course in the manner in which it is intended.

If you are using the online course, try and establish a disciplined schedule to complete the course.  Some find it very beneficial to go to the local library or somewhere remote, for a few hours a day to remove themselves from all the distractions at home.

If attending a class course, then do make sure that you arrive a bit early to class. Do not be one of those students who is always running late. It’s annoying for the instructor and distracting to the other students and creates a bad impression. Punctuality is very important in this industry so start off how you intend to continue.

If you do fail the course exam the first time, it is not the end of the world. You have failed things before in your life. Talk to your instructor to know what to do next.

Most students fail because they have either not done the required extra studying of the material as required, they have not been a few times through all the questions, or have just not made sure that they have cleared up any problem areas with the instructor.

Once you have passed the course exam, give yourself a pat on the back, take a few days break and then get yourself prepared to take the state exam.

THE STATE EXAM.

You should have, by now, completed your fingerprints, put in your application and been approved by DBPR and checked to see that you are entered into the Pearson Vue website ready to book your exam. You can check on this by going to your DBPR entry on MyFloridaLicense.com to see if you are “exam eligible”

If you want to make certain that you pass the state exam first time, then follow the instructions below religiously.

First, get yourself a copy of the Dearborn Florida Real Estate Exam Manual.  Make sure you get the latest edition. Do not by a used old one as laws change all the time.

Trust me, I really do know what I am talking about. I have reviewed, all the other available prep books, spoken to dozens of students from other schools and beyond all question of doubt, in my opinion, this is by far the most comprehensive study guide for preparing to take the state exam. It is updated every year, which most books are not. It has nearly 800 questions and a condensed summary of each unit and is well laid out and organized.  Even if the course you did was not the Dearborn course, get this book.

Also, the second biggest tip I can give you is to download a copy of the DBPR candidate handbook.

This will give you the individual syllabus topics and the percentage of questions that will be asked from each unit of the state exam.

You will see that 49 questions out of the 100 will come from only 5 chapters. Another 26 questions will come from 4 chapters. This means that 75% of the exam is based on only 9 chapters, therefore these are the chapters that you must thoroughly study and understand.

Work through the  Dearborn Florida Real Estate Exam Manual doing all the questions one by one, except for a few broker questions at the back, until you can answer any one of these questions without a problem. When you know you have fully understood a particular question, then mark it so as to know not to go back to that question. Then continue with the other questions until all have been marked at which time you will be ready to take the state exam and pass it the first time.

It will be a long, dedicated process but it will be well worth it. This is what I teach my students and almost without fail, those who adhere to it pass the state exam first time.

Good luck.