This guide explains the national (general) broker portion of the Pearson VUE real estate licensing exam as used in Oklahoma and Idaho: its 80 scored items, the eight content areas, the cognitive levels behind the questions, and the math and document skills the outline singles out. It includes a complete proration exercise with both closing-day cases, a gross rent multiplier calculation, a supervision fact-pattern drill, and a Closing Disclosure walkthrough.
What the national portion covers and how it is scored
The national broker portion has 80 scored items plus 5 unscored pretest items, sits alongside a 50-item state exam, and tests knowledge, application, and analysis.
The national/general portion of the broker exam contains 80 scored items distributed across the content outline. It also contains five pretest items that do not count toward your score. Pretest items are trial questions the test developer uses to gather performance statistics; because they look exactly like scored items, you should answer every question on the exam.
Every item is classified at one of three cognitive levels. Knowledge items ask you to recall a fact or definition. Application items ask you to use knowledge in a situation. Analysis items ask you to examine a fact pattern and reach a conclusion or decision, which is why broker-level practice should go beyond memorization.
The national portion is only part of your licensing exam. In Oklahoma, the state-specific broker exam adds 50 scored items plus 5 to 10 pretest items; Idaho's state broker exam is also 50 scored items with 5 to 10 pretest items.
One scope note before you plan: this guide is built on Pearson VUE's content outlines for Oklahoma and Idaho. The broker national outline is effective June 1, 2025 for Oklahoma and April 1, 2025 for Idaho. If you are testing in another state, confirm with your own real estate commission which exam and outline version apply to you.
Sources: Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024; Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective April 1, 2025; Idaho state outline effective July 15, 2017
The eight national testing areas for brokers
Contracts and Agency is the largest area at 15 items; math and settlement areas reward calculation practice.
The broker outline distributes the 80 scored items across eight areas. The counts below come directly from the outline; they describe the blueprint, not a guarantee about the items on your individual form.
- Real Property Characteristics, Legal Descriptions, and Property Use — 10 items
- Forms of Ownership, Transfer, and Recording of Title — 8 items
- Property Value and Appraisal — 10 items
- Real Estate Contracts and Agency — 15 items
- Real Estate Practice — 12 items
- Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues — 9 items
- Financing and Settlement — 8 items
- Real Estate Math Calculations — 8 items
Sources: Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024; Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective April 1, 2025; Idaho state outline effective July 15, 2017
Contracts and agency: the heaviest broker area
Fifteen items test contracts and agency, weighted toward analysis, including the five elements of a valid contract and broker risk management.
Real Estate Contracts and Agency carries 15 of the 80 broker items, and the outline splits them into 3 knowledge, 6 application, and 6 analysis items. That is the most analysis-heavy split on the exam, so expect fact patterns rather than simple definitions.
The outline's required elements of a valid contract are worth committing to memory exactly as listed:
Contract topics also include express versus implied agreements, unilateral versus bilateral contracts, performance and breach, the Statute of Frauds, and sales contract mechanics such as offers, counteroffers, earnest money, equitable title, and contingencies. Agency coverage runs from creation and termination of the relationship to a licensee's obligations to the parties in a transaction.
Risk Management sits as a subsection of the Real Estate Practice area, not inside Contracts and Agency, and it covers supervision, compliance with federal regulations, and vicarious liability. The following drill uses stipulated facts to practice connecting those subtopics.
Practice exercise
Stipulated facts: an affiliated salesperson tells a buyer that a property has 2,400 square feet without verifying it; the actual figure is 2,000. The broker has no written oversight procedures and never reviewed the salesperson's representations. Which Risk Management subtopics from the national broker outline does this fact pattern draw on, and how do they connect?
Show answer
Supervision and vicarious liability are the core subtopics, and the misstatement itself also implicates the outline's treatment of fraud and misrepresentation.
The outline lists supervision, regulatory compliance, and vicarious liability under Risk Management. An analysis-level item expects you to link the licensee's unverified statement to the broker's duty of oversight and to the broker's exposure for the acts of affiliated licensees. Remember that the outline supplies the subtopics; the facts here are stipulated for practice and no state-specific rule is being applied.
- Voluntary
- Agreement / Promise
- Legally competent parties
- Lawful consideration
- Legal act / Purpose
Sources: Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024; Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective April 1, 2025; Idaho state outline effective July 15, 2017
Valuation: concepts, approaches, and broker calculations
Ten items cover value concepts and appraisal, and the math section adds broker-only multiplier calculations.
The Property Value and Appraisal area (10 broker items) starts with the distinction between market value, market price, and cost, then covers the appraisal process and the main estimating methods: the sales comparison approach, the cost approach with its treatment of depreciation, and the income approach with gross rent and gross income multipliers.
Within the cost approach, know the three depreciation categories: physical deterioration, functional obsolescence, and economic obsolescence. The outline also lists comparative market analysis, broker price opinions, and assessed value in this area.
The math section separately names gross rent multiplier and gross income multiplier as broker-only calculation topics, but the outline does not print a formula. For practice below, use the common convention that the gross rent multiplier (GRM) equals sale price divided by annual gross rent — treat this as an assumed definition for the exercise, not a rule printed in the outline.
Worked example: a property sells for $360,000 and produces $60,000 in annual gross rent. GRM = 360,000 ÷ 60,000 = 6. Reversed: if comparable properties trade at a GRM of 7.5 and a subject property earns $48,000 in annual gross rent, an indicated value is 7.5 × 48,000 = $360,000. Practicing the calculation in both directions mirrors how multiplier questions are typically built.
Prorations: the calculation the outline explains in detail
The outline specifies that questions state the day-count basis and who owns closing day, and that two conversion constants must be memorized.
The math notes in both state outlines are unusually explicit. For any proration question, the question itself will tell you whether to compute on a 360-day or 365-day year and whether the day of closing belongs to the buyer or the seller. Where rounding applies, use standard rounding rules.
The notes also flag two constants that are not available at the test center and must be memorized: 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile.
The exercise below works both closing-day conventions from one set of stipulated facts, so you can see exactly where the day counts diverge.
Practice exercise
A property closes on March 15 in a non-leap year. Annual property taxes of $14,600 are unpaid at closing and will be paid in arrears by the buyer. The question tells you to use a 365-day year. Case A: the buyer owns the day of closing. Case B: the seller owns the day of closing. For each case, how many days does the seller own the property, and how much does the seller owe the buyer for taxes at closing?
Show answer
Case A: 73 seller days, so $2,920. Case B: 74 seller days, so $2,960.
Daily rate: 14,600 ÷ 365 = $40 per day. Days from January 1 through March 14 equal 31 + 28 + 14 = 73. Because the taxes are unpaid and the buyer will pay the full bill in arrears, the seller credits the buyer for the seller's share of ownership. Case A: the buyer owns March 15, so the seller owes 73 × $40 = $2,920, and the buyer owns the remaining 292 days. Case B: the seller owns closing day, so the seller's count becomes 74 days and the amount owed is 74 × $40 = $2,960. Work each case from its own day count; recounting the days against the stated convention, rather than adjusting one case from the other, is an optional double-check habit worth building.
Sources: Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024; Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective April 1, 2025; Idaho state outline effective July 15, 2017
Fair housing: protected classes and prohibited conduct
HUD lists seven protected classes under the Fair Housing Act, and the outline adds advertising compliance and the ADA as tested subtopics.
HUD states that it is illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing, including mortgage-related activities, because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. Those seven classes are the backbone of the fair housing items.
HUD's fair lending guidance gives concrete examples of prohibited lending conduct, including steering a borrower to a loan with less favorable terms because of a protected characteristic, refusing to consider disability-related income such as SSI or SSDI, and denying a mortgage because of the neighborhood where the property is located. These examples are useful analysis-level fact patterns.
The national outline's Fair Housing subtopics include equal opportunity in housing, protected classes, fair housing laws, illegal practices and penalties, prohibited advertising, HUD, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Note that outline coverage is federal; state fair housing law beyond this is outside the national portion.
Sources: Fair Housing: Rights and Obligations | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — Protected classes and fair lending examples; Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024
Reading a Closing Disclosure under exam conditions
The CFPB requires lenders to provide the Closing Disclosure three business days before closing, and its sample form is ideal document-reading practice.
The Financing and Settlement area includes TRID and the Closing Disclosure among its federal regulation topics, and settlement and closing items reward fluency with transaction documents. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that lenders must provide the Closing Disclosure three business days before the scheduled closing, so problems can be resolved in advance.
The CFPB publishes a completed sample form you can use to practice locating line items quickly. The exercise below works from that sample.
Practice exercise
Using the CFPB's completed sample Closing Disclosure, find: (1) the seller credit amount, (2) the prepaid interest per-day charge and the dates it covers, (3) how property taxes are prepaid, and (4) the line showing the total amount the borrower must actually bring to closing.
Show answer
(1) $2,500. (2) $17.44 per day from 4/15/13 to 5/1/13. (3) Six months of county property taxes, $631.80, listed under Prepaids. (4) The 'Cash to Close' line, $14,147.26 in the sample.
The sample also shows an $80 prorated HOA dues adjustment for 4/15/13 to 4/30/13 in the transaction summaries — a real example of the prorated-item lines the outline's settlement subtopics describe. Drilling these locations builds the document-reading speed that settlement and closing items demand, and it reinforces the difference between total closing costs and the cash actually due at closing.
Sources: Closing disclosure explainer | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — Three-business-day requirement and form review guidance; Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024
A practical preparation plan
Memorize the two math constants, drill both proration conventions, and practice analysis-level fact patterns; broker-specific state sections deserve their own study block.
The steps below are study advice, not official requirements. Order them around the outline's own emphasis.
- Memorize 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile before test day, since the outline states they are not available at the test center.
- Practice prorations under both the 360-day and 365-day bases, with each closing-day convention, because the question always specifies the convention.
- Drill analysis-level fact patterns for Contracts and Agency and Math, since the broker outline weights those areas heavily toward application and analysis items.
- Reserve separate study time for the broker-only state sections: Oklahoma's outline includes Broker Management (8 items) and Trust Accounts (6 items) for brokers only, and Idaho's state outline assigns Brokerage Management 20 percent of the broker exam.
- Treat the publisher resource list in the outline as optional background only; Pearson VUE states it does not endorse any particular pre-licensing provider or study materials.
Sources: Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024; Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective April 1, 2025; Idaho state outline effective July 15, 2017
Common mistakes to avoid
Most avoidable errors involve day counts, pretest items, value terminology, and assumed test-center resources.
These patterns follow directly from the outline's math notes and scoring structure.
- Recounting days incorrectly when the closing-day ownership convention changes, instead of computing each case from scratch.
- Skipping questions that look unfamiliar, which is costly because pretest items are indistinguishable from scored items.
- Confusing market value with market price or cost when answering valuation concept items.
- Assuming a formula sheet or reference material will be available, when the outline states the two area constants must be memorized.
Final checklist before test day
Confirm your state's outline version, memorized constants, proration conventions, contract elements, and protected classes.
Run through this list in the final week of preparation.
- Confirm your state administers the Pearson VUE national broker portion and which outline version applies: June 1, 2025 for Oklahoma, April 1, 2025 for Idaho.
- Memorize 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile.
- Practice at least one proration under each combination of day-count basis and closing-day ownership.
- Recite the five required elements of a valid contract from memory.
- List the seven federal protected classes without prompting.
- Walk through the CFPB sample Closing Disclosure and locate seller credits, prepaids, prorations, and Cash to Close.
Sources: Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024; Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective April 1, 2025; Idaho state outline effective July 15, 2017
Official documents and what remains unverified
The outlines and CFPB/HUD pages cover content and scoring structure; eligibility, fees, passing scores, and scheduling are not in these documents.
The primary sources for this guide are the Pearson VUE content outlines for Oklahoma and Idaho, plus HUD's fair housing page and the CFPB's Closing Disclosure explainer and sample form. Two HUD documents — the Fair Housing Act PDF and the Fair Lending Guide — could not be retrieved during research, which is an access limitation rather than evidence they do not exist.
The retrieved outlines do not state eligibility requirements, prerequisites, exam fees, passing scores, or scheduling procedures. Those rules come from your state licensing authority: the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission or the Idaho Real Estate Commission. Contact them directly before you register, and check their sites for the current outline version in case either has been updated since this guide was written.
- Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines (Pearson VUE)
- Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines (Pearson VUE)
- Fair Housing: Rights and Obligations (HUD)
- Closing disclosure explainer (CFPB)
- CFPB completed Closing Disclosure example
Sources: Oklahoma Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective June 1, 2025; Oklahoma state outline effective April 2, 2024; Idaho Real Estate Content Outlines — National/General Exam Content Outline for Brokers, effective April 1, 2025; Idaho state outline effective July 15, 2017; Fair Housing: Rights and Obligations | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — Protected classes and fair lending examples; Closing disclosure explainer | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — Three-business-day requirement and form review guidance; CFPB completed Closing Disclosure example — Sample form line items: seller credit, prepaid interest, prorated HOA dues, Cash to Close
Sources
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