Maine Real Estate Cheat Sheet.
The night-before summary, built like the exam.

The numbers to remember

• National/general portion: 80 scored items + 5 pretest items, 2.5 hours
• Maine Law portion: 40 scored items + 5-15 pretest items, 1.5 hours
• Passing score: 75% (scaled 0-100, 75 passes)
• Exam fee: $88; License fee: $100; Criminal records check: $21 (combined application total: $121)
• Extension fee if you miss a deadline: $100
• Retake wait: 24 hours; retakes unlimited before certificate expires
• Test locations: Westbrook and Bangor, via Pearson VUE
• Pre-license course: minimum 55 hours, includes 3 quizzes and a final exam, 75% minimum final grade, certificate valid 1 year
• License term: 2 years, non-renewable; minimum age 18
• Governing body: Maine Real Estate Commission

Content domains and weights

• Maine Law portion (40 items total):
• Maine Laws and Rules Governing Activities of Licensees — 15 items
• Law of Agency/Brokerage — 10 items
• Maine-Specific Principles and Practices — 8 items
• Maine Land-Use Law — 5 items
• Maine Real Estate Commission — 2 items
• National portion (80 items total): Real Property Characteristics, Legal Descriptions, and Property Use — 11 items (6 knowledge, 3 application, 2 analysis)

High-yield review areas

• Licensee conduct rules and agency law together cover 25 of the 40 law-portion items — review these last, right before the exam.
• Real property characteristics and legal descriptions blend recall with applied scenarios, so don't just memorize definitions — practice the application-level questions too.
• Real estate math (proration, commission math, area calculations) recurs across several content areas rather than living in one section, so drill it broadly instead of in one sitting.
• Don't neglect the small-weight areas (Land-Use Law, Real Estate Commission) — they're still 7 combined items you can lock in quickly with a short focused pass.
• Run at least one full-length timed practice test that mirrors both sections' item counts and time limits before test day.

Top traps

• Treating the exam as one test: it's two separately timed sections (2.5 hours + 1.5 hours) with different clocks and different content — pace each section on its own.
• Forgetting the two one-year deadlines: pass the exam within a year of finishing the course, and apply for the license within a year of passing the exam.
• Assuming the license renews automatically — the Sales Agent license is a 2-year, non-renewable term, so plan your next step before it lapses.
• Confusing the $88 exam fee (paid to Pearson VUE) with the $100 license fee and $21 records check (paid to the Maine Real Estate Commission) — budget for all three separately.
• Waiting less than 24 hours to rebook after a failed attempt — the reservation system won't allow an earlier retake.
• Missing a deadline and assuming you have to restart the course — a $100 extension application may be the actual fix.