Indiana Real Estate Exam Study Guide (Free PDF) | 2026

Indiana’s real estate exam does something a lot of states don’t. It scores each portion on a scaled score, and you need a 75 on both the national and the state portion. That 75 isn’t 75% correct, so we’ll show you how to think about it.

The exam has two parts, with 145 questions on screen and 240 minutes on the clock. Indiana also doesn’t have a salesperson license, so this is the broker exam.

We built this guide around Indiana’s two biggest trap topics: in-house agency and the three-part disclosure rule for psychologically affected properties. We also made a free printable cheat sheet with the plan and the key rules, so you can keep it next to your notes.

Download the Free Indiana Study Guide here.

What’s on the Indiana Real Estate Exam

Indiana’s broker exam has two parts: a national portion and an Indiana state portion. You take them in one sitting, with 240 minutes on the clock for the whole exam. You need a scaled score of 75 on each part, and a strong result on one part can’t rescue a weak result on the other.

On screen, you’ll see 145 questions. The national portion shows 85, and the state portion shows 60. Only 130 of them count toward your score (80 national and 50 state). The rest are pretest questions that Pearson VUE is trying out for future exams, five in the national portion and up to 10 in the state portion. Nothing marks them, so answer every question as if it counts. There’s no penalty for guessing either.

	National	State	Both
Questions on screen	85	60	145
Scored questions	80	50	130
Time limit	240 min
Passing score	A scaled score of 75 on each portion

On the national side, Real Estate Contracts and Agency is the heavyweight, with 15 of 80 scored items (19%). It’s one category, not two, so we study contracts and agency together. The state portion is where Indiana gets its personality. Statutes & Rules Governing Licensees is the largest at 17 of 50 items (34%), and it covers agency relationships plus how licensees are expected to behave. Statutory & Regulatory Requirements follows with 12 items (24%), and that’s where the three-part disclosure rule lives. 

Those two biggest state categories hold 29 of your 50 scored items. That’s why we lean on them so hard in the plan below.

National – Topic Area(80 scored items)	Items	Exam %	State -Topic Area (50 scored items)	Items	Exam %
Real Estate Contracts and Agency	15	19%	Statutes & Rules Governing Licensees	17	34%
Real Estate Practice	12	15%	Statutory & Regulatory Requirements	12	24%
Real Property Characteristics, Legal Descriptions, and Property Use	10	13%	Licensing	9	18%
Property Value and Appraisal	10	13%	Real Estate Office Procedures	7	14%
Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues	9	11%	The Indiana Real Estate Commission	5	10%
Forms of Ownership, Transfer, and Recording of Title	8	10%
Financing and Settlement	8	10%
Real Estate Math Calculations	8	10%

Source: Pearson VUE Indiana Real Estate State Content Outlines #091501, “National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers” and “Indiana Real Estate Broker Examination Content Outline”, both effective March 1, 2025.

Your 4-Week Indiana Exam Study Plan

Here’s how we’d spread the work over four weeks. Some weeks are heavier than others on purpose, because your hours should follow the points.

1. Week 1: national foundations. It takes about 15 hours. Start with property characteristics and legal descriptions, then forms of ownership, transfer, and recording of title. Save the middle of the week for Real Estate Contracts and Agency, the heaviest national category. It has 9 items on contracts and 6 on agency, so it earns the most time. Finish with a review day and a round of practice questions.
2. Week 2: national advanced. About 20 hours. This is where Real Estate Practice, Property Value and Appraisal, Financing and Settlement, Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues, and Real Estate Math Calculations get their turn. Math gets a full day. Memorize 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile now, because the test center won’t hand you either number. Proration questions do tell you whether to use a 360- or 365-day year and who owns the day of closing, so read those carefully.
3. Week 3: Indiana state content. At about 27 hours, the biggest week of the plan. Spend most of it on Statutes & Rules Governing Licensees, where agency relationships and in-house agency live, and on Statutory & Regulatory Requirements, where the three-part disclosure rule lives. Say that rule out loud until it sticks. Then cover Licensing, Real Estate Office Procedures, and The Indiana Real Estate Commission.
4. Week 4: timed practice and review. From 10 to 12 hours. Take one timed national practice exam and one timed state practice exam, and review them separately, since each portion needs its own 75. Pearson VUE’s official practice tests only cover the national portion, so lean on our practice exams for the state side. Spend the rest of the week on weak spots, with no new material on Friday.

Then confirm your appointment. Walk-ins aren’t available; you’ll want to arrive 30 minutes early, and the name on your ID has to match your registration exactly.

That adds up to about 62 hours of new content over three weeks, plus a final week of practice.

Indiana-Specific Topics to Focus On

Two topics trip up Indiana candidates more than anything else, so they get their own spotlight.

The first is in-house agency. Picture Maria and Dan, who both work at the same brokerage. Maria represents the buyer, and Dan represents the seller. That’s in-house agency, and each of them represents only their own client. The managing broker doesn’t represent either side unless the managing broker has a personal agency relationship with one of them. It sounds like dual agency, but it isn’t.

Indiana’s version of dual agency is called limited agency. It happens when one licensee represents both sides, and it needs the written and informed consent of everyone involved. So count the licensees. Two at the same firm means in-house agency. One licensee for both sides means limited agency. The exam loves to swap these on you.

The second is the three-part disclosure rule for psychologically affected properties, like a home where someone died or where a felony took place. First, an owner or agent doesn’t have to disclose that a property is psychologically affected. Second, if a buyer asks directly, they can’t intentionally misrepresent the facts. Third, they can refuse to answer. Staying quiet is legal, and lying is not. If a buyer asks whether anyone died in the house and the agent says no when the answer is yes, that’s the violation.

Finally, keep two Commission topics on your radar. The Indiana Real Estate Commission can suspend or revoke licenses, add civil penalties, and order restitution. The Recovery Fund is a last stop for consumers who win a judgment against a licensee for things like embezzlement, and it comes with tight limits.

Indiana Real Estate Exam Study Tips

Contracts and Agency is the biggest national category at 19% of the scored items, so give it real time. On the state side, Statutes & Rules Governing Licensees is the heaviest topic, with 17 of 50 items.

The three-part disclosure rule trips up most candidates, so practice it with short scenarios. Ask yourself one thing every time. Did the agent stay silent, or say something false? Silence is fine. A false answer isn’t. Know the difference between in-house agency and limited agency cold, and remember you can count licensees to tell them apart.

Keep an eye on the scoring, too. A scaled 75 isn’t 75% correct, so aim for a comfortable cushion on your practice exams instead of barely passing.

And respect the clock. If you fail one portion, you only retake that portion, but the 1-year window keeps running from the day you finished your pre-licensing course. Don’t let a retake drift.

That’s the plan. Now let’s see how it feels in real life. Take our free Indiana real estate practice exam, check your score, and let your weak areas tell you where to spend your next study session.

Indiana Real Estate Exam Requirements

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Complete 90 hours of pre-licensing education.
• Have a high school diploma or equivalent.
• Pass a background check.
• Pass both the National and Indiana State portions of the Pearson VUE exam ($55).
• Apply for your license within 1 year of completing your pre-licensing course.
• If you hold an active broker license in another state, you may apply to the Indiana Real Estate Commission for licensure by endorsement and take the state portion only; this isn’t automatic.

For current forms, fees, and steps, check the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency’s real estate page, and see our Indiana real estate license requirements guide for the full walkthrough.

Download Your Free Indiana Real Estate Exam Study Guide PDF

Want all of this on one printable page? The star is the three-part disclosure rule as a simple numbered list (exempt from disclosing, can’t misrepresent, can refuse to answer), one of the biggest trap questions on the exam. It also covers the exam structure and scaled scoring, the 4-week timeline, topic weights with item counts, math formulas, and key Indiana terms like IPLA, IREC, in-house agency, and the Recovery Fund.

Ready to lock in? 

Download the Free Indiana Real Estate Exam Study.

You can also take our free Indiana practice exam to see where you stand. When you want more practice and a way to track your weak areas, our Indiana real estate exam prep has a full question bank waiting for you.

Conclusion

Indiana’s exam becomes easier to approach once you understand the scoring structure and know where to focus your study time. Understand that the scaled score of 75 isn’t a percentage, give extra time to Contracts and Agency and to Statutes & Rules Governing Licensees, and get the three-part disclosure rule so solid you could recite it in your sleep. It’s one of the most common trap questions on the exam, so it’s worth the effort.

Download the study guide, take the free practice exam, and go show that test who’s boss. You’ve got this.