Nebraska Real Estate Pass Rate 2026: 36% State Portion

The Nebraska real estate salesperson exam is graded as two separate portions, and they do not pass at anything like the same rate. On the state portion, 36% of first attempts passed — 39 of 109 graded sittings. On the national portion, 65% of first attempts passed — 71 of 109. Both figures come from the Nebraska Real Estate Commission's "Exam Performance Summary by School", prepared for the Commission by Pearson VUE and covering 01-Jul-2025 to 30-Sep-2025, the most recent quarter for which Nebraska data is posted. Neither number is "the" Nebraska pass rate on its own, and any page that quotes one figure without naming the portion and the attempt basis behind it has told you almost nothing.

Every official Nebraska salesperson figure

Nebraska publishes these tables quarterly under License Examination Performance by School. Unusually, the Commission reports first-time takers and repeaters as separate cohorts rather than blending them. Every rate it publishes for salesperson candidates in the July–September 2025 quarter appears below.

Portion	Attempt basis	Graded	Passed	Pass rate	Period
National (80 scored items)	First-time takers	109	71	65.1%	Jul 1 – Sep 30, 2025
National (80 scored items)	Repeaters	56	28	50.0%	Jul 1 – Sep 30, 2025
National (80 scored items)	All attempts	165	99	60.0%	Jul 1 – Sep 30, 2025
State (50 scored items)	First-time takers	109	39	35.8%	Jul 1 – Sep 30, 2025
State (50 scored items)	Repeaters	130	46	35.4%	Jul 1 – Sep 30, 2025
State (50 scored items)	All attempts	239	85	35.6%	Jul 1 – Sep 30, 2025

The published report carries no statewide total row. It lists eight approved education providers — Cooke Real Estate School, Colibri Real Estate, Larabee School of Real Estate, Metropolitan Community College, Randall School of Real Estate, the University of Nebraska–Omaha, Reesults Coaching and 360training/Van Education Center — each with its own table, so the six statewide figures above were computed by summing those eight provider tables. The arithmetic checks against Nebraska's own structure in both portions: first-time plus repeat sittings equal the total, for graded and passed alike.

What this number does and does not count

It counts one portion, not the exam. Nebraska grades the national and state portions independently, and the Commission reports them as separate lines. There is no published figure for candidates who passed both portions, so 36% is not the share of people who walked out license-eligible. It is the share of graded state-portion sittings that cleared the standard.

It counts sittings, not people. A candidate who sits the state portion three times contributes three graded records, one to the first-time column and two to the repeater column. This is why the state portion shows 239 graded sittings while the national portion shows 165 in the same quarter: candidates were coming back for the state portion far more often.

The first-time and repeater columns are genuinely separate. Most states that publish anything publish a single blended rate. Nebraska's table splits them, which is why the 65.1% national figure and the 60.0% national figure both exist and both are correct — one is first attempts only, the other includes retakes.

It covers approved-provider candidates. The report is organized by education provider, so a candidate who does not map to one of the eight listed schools does not appear in it.

It is a quarter, not a year. These are three months of testing, and the counts are small enough that a single provider's cohort moves the total. Treat the portion gap as the durable signal and the decimal places as noise.

One currency note, verified against the source on August 16, 2026: the July–September 2025 quarter is genuinely the latest Nebraska data available. No fourth-quarter 2025 report is posted, and the file currently linked as the 2026 first-quarter report is a Colorado Broker summary listing Denver and Boulder schools rather than a Nebraska one. Anyone quoting a "2026" Nebraska figure from that link is quoting Colorado.

The exam behind the numbers

Nebraska delivers the salesperson exam through Pearson VUE in a single four-hour appointment covering both portions:

• National portion — 80 scored items, 2.5 hours.
• State portion — 50 scored items, 1.5 hours.
• Five to ten unscored pretest items may also appear.

The passing standard is 75% on each portion, scored separately. The Commission states the same requirement in raw terms on its report cover: 60 of 80 correct on the national exam, 38 of 50 on the state exam. Passing one portion does not carry the other. The examination fee is $150 per exam, and a retake within one year of application costs $150 again. Candidates must be at least 19, must complete 96 hours of pre-license education, and may retest within six months or three attempts during the authorization period.

What the split says about what to study

A low state-portion rate alongside a healthy national-portion rate is a specific diagnosis, and Nebraska's is about as clear as this data ever gets. Candidates arriving at the test center are broadly competent on general real estate principles — roughly two in three clear the 80-item national portion first time. They are failing Nebraska.

The retake columns sharpen it further. On the national portion, repeaters passed at 50.0% against 65.1% for first-timers: the usual pattern, where the people coming back are the ones who struggled. On the state portion, repeaters passed at 35.4% against 35.8% for first-timers — effectively flat. Sitting the Nebraska state portion again, on this quarter's evidence, did not improve anyone's odds. That is the signature of a content gap rather than a nerves-or-timing problem, and it is the argument against treating the first attempt as a reconnaissance run at $150 a go.

Where those 50 state items come from is published in the Commission's content outline, effective September 1, 2023:

• Agency — 17 to 18 items
• Statutory requirements governing the activities of licensees — 15 items
• Licensing — 7 to 8 items
• Duties and powers of the Real Estate Commission — 5 items
• Additional topics — 5 items

Agency plus statutory requirements is 32 to 33 of the 50 scored items — close to two-thirds of the portion, and the material covered by the 30-hour Nebraska Real Estate License Law course rather than by general principles. On a 38-of-50 standard, you cannot absorb a weak performance across those two blocks with strength anywhere else on the state portion.

The bottom line

In the quarter ending September 30, 2025, 36% of first attempts at Nebraska's state portion passed and 65% of first attempts at the national portion passed. Both are official, both are first-attempt, and quoting either alone misrepresents the exam. The gap between them — 29 points — is the whole story: Nebraska candidates are not failing real estate, they are failing Nebraska real estate law, and the repeater columns say a second sitting does not fix that by itself. Budget your preparation toward agency and licensee statutory duties, and be aware that the national portion's comfortable-looking 65% still means one in three first-timers has to come back for that half too.

The useful next move is to find out which portion is your weak one before Nebraska charges you $150 to find out for you. Work through a free Nebraska Real Estate Salesperson practice exam and check your state-law items separately from your general principles items, because that is exactly how the Commission is going to score you.