Texas Real Estate Exam Study Guide PDF | 2026

If you’re getting ready for the Texas real estate exam, here’s the first thing to understand about this state. Texas asks for more than most states do before you even sit down to test.

You need 180 hours of classroom instruction, roughly double what many states require, spread across six required courses. This guide is built for the Sales Agent exam specifically, the entry-level license every new Texas agent needs before working under a sponsoring broker. It’s not written for the Broker exam, which has its own separate track.

Once you’ve put in those hours, the exam itself comes in two parts, national and state, administered by Pearson VUE under contract with the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC). Each part has its own passing score, and the state portion focuses entirely on Texas-specific rules: TREC’s contract forms, the Intermediary relationship, and disclosure requirements you won’t find in a generic textbook.

We built this guide, plus a free printable cheat sheet, to help you walk in ready. Before you start, it’s worth reading up on Texas’s license requirements, so you know exactly what you’re working toward.

Download the Free Texas Study Guide Cheat Sheet here.

What’s on the Texas Real Estate Exam

Texas’s Sales Agent exam is really two exams taken back-to-back: national and state. Here’s how the numbers break down:

	National	State	Both
Questions on screen	85	50	135
Scored questions	80	40	120
Time limit	150 min	90 min	240 min
Passing score	70% (56/80)	70% (28/40)	—

The gap between “on screen” and “scored” is pretest questions, unidentified items Pearson VUE is quietly trying out for future exams. They look exactly like the real ones, so answer every question as if it counts. 

Both portions need real preparation on their own, since a strong score on one doesn’t make up for a weak score on the other.

Regarding the topics with the greatest weight in the national section, “Real Estate Contracts and Agency” is the primary subject, accounting for 20% of the questions. In the state section, “Agency & Brokerage” and “Case Studies” share the top spot, each representing 20%. Rather than a standalone subject, “Case Studies” constitute an assessment format that tests your ability to apply rules regarding agency, brokerage, and contracts to a written scenario, using official forms approved by the TREC.

National – Topic Area(85 items on screen, 80 of them scored)	Items	Exam %	State -Topic Area (50 items on screen, 40 of them scored)	Items	Exam %
Real Estate Contracts and Agency	16	20 %	Agency & Brokerage	10	20%
Real Property Characteristics, Legal Descriptions, and Property Use	11	14 %	Case Studies	10	20%
Property Value and Appraisal	11	14 %	Standards of Conduct	9	18%
Real Estate Practice	10	13 %	Contracts	8	16%
Forms of Ownership, Transfer, and Recording of Title	9	11 %	Special Topics	6	12%
Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues	9	11 %	Licensing	4	8%
Financing and Settlement	7	9 %	Commission Duties & Powers	3	6%
Real Estate Math Calculations	7	9 %

One quick note on how these numbers are built. The national table only counts the 80 scored questions, since Pearson VUE’s own outline doesn’t break its 5 pretest questions out by topic. The state table includes all 50 questions you’ll see on screen because Pearson VUE spreads its 10 state pretest questions across every category without identifying them. 

Texas’ 180-Hour Pre-License Requirement

Before you can even schedule the exam, Texas requires 180 hours of classroom instruction, split across six required 30-hour courses. That’s Principles of Real Estate I and II, Law of Agency, Law of Contracts, Promulgated Contract Forms, and Real Estate Finance.

Compare that to the 60 to 90 hours most other states ask for, and it’s clear Texas takes a heavier approach to licensing from the start. Two of those six courses, Law of Contracts and Promulgated Contract Forms, exist specifically to prepare you for the parts of the exam that carry the most weight. That’s not a coincidence. Real Estate Contracts and Agency makes up 20% of the national exam on its own, and on the state side, Contracts and Case Studies together account for well over a third of the questions.

In other words, the hours you spend in those two courses map almost directly onto the parts of the exam most likely to determine whether you pass. If your coursework schedule gives you any flexibility in pacing, it’s worth treating Law of Contracts and Promulgated Contract Forms as priority material rather than something to get through quickly.

The other four courses build the foundation everything else sits on. Principles of Real Estate I and II cover property ownership, valuation, and real estate practice broadly. Law of Agency lays the groundwork for the Intermediary relationship you’ll need to understand for the state portion. Real Estate Finance rounds things out with financing and settlement concepts tested on the national side.

2026 Texas Buyer Representation Changes

Here’s something a lot of older Texas prep material won’t tell you, because it didn’t exist when they wrote it. Starting January 1, 2026, Texas changed how buyer representation works, and it’s fair game on your exam.

Senate Bill 1968 added two new sections to the Texas Real Estate License Act, Section 1101.562 (Real Property Showings Without Representation) and Section 1101.563 (Written Agreement Required). Together, they change what happens before you ever show a buyer a house.

Now, you need a signed written agreement with a prospective residential buyer before you show them a single property, or before you present an offer on their behalf if no showing happens first. That agreement can be a full representation agreement, or a non-representation, showing-only agreement for a buyer who doesn’t want you as their agent. The showing-only version comes with its own limits; it has to be non-exclusive and can’t run longer than 14 days.

There’s also a new, defined way to show property without representing anyone. Under the new rules, you can show a property without an agency relationship as long as you haven’t agreed to represent the buyer, you’re not giving opinions or advice, and you’re not performing other brokerage services. You can still share size, price, and terms; that’s information, not advice.

The Information About Brokerage Services, IABS form was rewritten to match, dropping outdated subagency language and adding sections that explain these new rules. Expect this to be tested under both Agency & Brokerage and Standards of Conduct.

Your Texas Real Estate Exam Study Plan

With 180 hours of required coursework, Texas asks for more studying than most states, so this plan runs 7 weeks instead of the 4-week plans built for lighter states. Rushing through Texas’s content doesn’t work well; there’s simply more of it, and more of it is state-specific.

• Weeks 1 and 2 focus on national basics: Real Property Characteristics, Forms of Ownership and Title, Property Value and Appraisal, and Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues. These four topics build the property-level foundation the rest of the national exam sits on, and they line up naturally with the Principles of Real Estate I and II courses you’ll likely be taking around the same time.
• Weeks 3 and 4 shift to the heaviest national material: Real Estate Contracts and Agency, which alone makes up 20% of the national exam, plus Financing and Settlement and Real Estate Math Calculations. This is where your Law of Agency and Law of Contracts coursework should be running in parallel, so the timing works in your favor. Give Contracts and Agency the most study time of any topic in this entire plan. It shows up again later in the state portion through Case Studies, so mastering it early pays off twice.
• Week 5 turns to Texas-specific practice: TREC’s promulgated contract forms and addenda, the Intermediary relationship, and IABS timing. This is where your Promulgated Contract Forms coursework becomes directly useful, since you’ll be working with the same forms tested on the state exam.
• Week 6 covers the rest of the state portion: Standards of Conduct, Licensing, Commission Duties & Powers, and Special Topics like community property, homestead protections, the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), and non-judicial foreclosure. Standards of Conduct in particular deserves real attention here; it’s built almost entirely around Texas-specific rules like trust accounts and advertising requirements that a generic textbook won’t cover.
• Week 7 is entirely about practice and review. Take full-length, timed practice exams for both the national and state portions separately, since that’s exactly how you’ll sit for the real thing. Texas only offers in-person testing, so there’s no remote fallback if you run out of time to prepare; budget this week seriously rather than squeezing it into a weekend. Use your practice results to find weak spots and revisit those specific sections instead of rereading everything from the start.

If you’ve already made solid progress in your coursework, you can compress this plan to 6 weeks by combining Weeks 1 and 2. Just don’t shorten Week 7. It’s your only dedicated week for timed practice and final review, and Texas’s in-person-only testing format leaves no room for a last-minute reschedule.

Texas-Specific Topics to Focus On

Beyond the topic weights, a handful of Texas-specific concepts show up across multiple parts of the exam and deserve focused attention on their own.

TREC itself is worth understanding early. The Texas Real Estate Commission sets licensing rules, disciplines license holders, and adopts the promulgated contract forms used throughout the state. Its powers and structure show up under Commission Duties & Powers, a small category by question count but one that’s entirely Texas-specific.

The Intermediary relationship is central to how Texas handles buyer and seller representation. Since Texas doesn’t allow dual agency, a broker representing both sides of a deal takes on Intermediary status instead, with its own disclosure and conduct rules. Pair this with the IABS notice, which you’re required to deliver before any substantive conversation with a party about a specific property, and you’ve covered a big share of what Agency & Brokerage tests.

TREC’s promulgated contract forms come up constantly, both directly under Contracts and indirectly through Case Studies, which test your ability to apply those forms to real scenarios. You’re required to use the promulgated form when one exists for a transaction, and drafting your own contract language crosses into the unauthorized practice of law. Knowing which form applies to which situation matters more here than memorizing every clause.

Standards of Conduct pulls in trust account rules, commission and fee-splitting rules, rebate disclosure requirements, and advertising standards, all built around Texas Occupations Code and TREC rules rather than general real estate principles.

A handful of Special Topics round things out: community property law, which affects how married couples hold and transfer title in Texas, homestead protections, the DTPA, landlord-tenant law, non-judicial foreclosure, mechanic’s liens, the Veterans Land Board program, and HOA regulations. None of these carry huge individual weight, but together they make up a meaningful share of the state exam, and they’re exactly the kind of content a national prep course won’t cover in depth.

Treat all of this as connected rather than separate facts to memorize. Intermediary status, IABS timing, and the 2026 buyer representation changes all describe the same relationship from different angles, and the exam tests that relationship from more than one direction.

Texas Real Estate Exam Study Tips

A few things about this exam are worth knowing before you sit down to study.

Both portions pass at the same 70% threshold, so you don’t need to weigh one against the other the way you might in states where the national and state scores differ. What does differ is how much of a generic textbook actually prepares you. National content overlaps with what other states test, but the state portion depends almost entirely on Texas-specific rules a general study guide won’t cover well.

Pearson VUE’s own official practice materials only cover the national portion, so don’t assume they’ll prepare you for the state exam too. Seek out Texas-specific practice questions, particularly ones built around Case Studies and TREC’s promulgated forms, since that’s where a lot of candidates lose points.

Speaking of those forms, read them; don’t just read about them. Understanding a form by name isn’t the same as knowing which provision does what when you’re working through a Case Studies scenario under time pressure.

Remember that Texas only offers in-person testing at a Pearson VUE test center; there’s no remote or online-proctored option here. Plan your test date and travel with that in mind, and don’t leave your exam scheduling until the last minute.

Ready to see where you stand? Take a free Texas real estate practice exam.

Texas Real Estate Exam Requirements

Before you can sit for the exam, Texas expects you to meet a short list of requirements. Here’s the quick version:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Be a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted alien
• Meet TREC’s standard for honesty, trustworthiness, and integrity
• Complete 180 classroom hours across six required courses
• Submit your application and pass a fingerprint-based background check
• Pass both portions of the Pearson VUE exam ($58 per attempt, including retakes)
• Find a sponsoring broker before you can start practicing, since your license stays inactive until then
• Know that Texas has no reciprocity with any state, though the national portion may be waived if you hold an active license elsewhere and already passed an ARELLO-approved national exam.

For the full, current list straight from the source, check TREC directly or our Texas real estate license requirements page.

Download Your Free Texas Real Estate Exam Study Guide PDF

Everything in this guide is also available as a free, printable cheat sheet, built for quick reference in the days before your exam. It includes the national and state exam breakdowns side by side, the 7-week study timeline condensed into a single page, a visual breakdown of Texas’s agency and representation rules (IABS, Intermediary status, non-representation showings, and the written buyer agreement requirement all in one place), and the essential math formulas you’ll need on exam day. Print it, mark it up, and keep it with you during your final review.

Download the Free Texas Real Estate Exam Study.

Or start with a free Texas real estate practice exam and find out where you stand before you open the first topic section. If you want deeper practice with full answer explanations, our Texas real estate exam prep plans pick up right where this guide leaves off.

Conclusion

Texas doesn’t make licensing easy; 180 hours of coursework is more than most states ask for, and the exam that follows reflects that same weight. But it’s a manageable exam once you understand how it’s built: two portions, each with its own 70% passing score, and content that leans heavily on Contracts and Agency on both sides.

Add in the 2026 buyer representation changes, which a lot of older study material still doesn’t cover, and generic national prep alone won’t get you across the finish line here.

Download the free study guide cheat sheet, work through this guide section by section, and when you’re ready to test yourself under real conditions, try a free Texas practice exam and see exactly where you stand before test day.