Nevada Real Estate Salesperson Exam Study Guide

The Nevada salesperson licensing exam is delivered by Pearson VUE in two separate portions that are scored independently, so it helps to think of it as two short tests back to back rather than one long exam.

• National (General) portion: 80 scored questions plus 5 unscored pretest items, 150 minutes, $100 fee
• State-specific portion: 40 scored questions plus 5-10 unscored pretest items, 90 minutes, $100 fee
• Combined sitting: 240 minutes total, with a two-for-one combo discount bringing the combined price to $100 when both portions are taken together instead of paying for each separately

You must score at least 75% on each portion to pass — the two scores are not averaged together, so a high national score cannot rescue a failed state portion. Candidates must be at least 18 years old to sit for the exam. Because the pretest items are mixed in with scored items and look identical, do not try to guess which questions do not count — treat every question as if it is scored, since you have no way of knowing which five (or five to ten, on the state side) are the unscored ones. Pace yourself against each portion's own time limit rather than assuming the two portions move at the same speed, and leave a buffer to flag and revisit anything you are unsure of before submitting.

The national content outline (effective April 1, 2025) breaks the general portion into eight domains, each weighted differently for salesperson candidates than for broker candidates. Knowing the weights that apply to your salesperson exam tells you where your study hours pay off the most, instead of spreading review time evenly across topics that carry very different shares of the scored questions.

• License Practice — 24%
• Contracts — 23%
• Agency and Duties Owed — 20%
• Disclosures — 20%
• Special Topics — 5%
• Duties and Powers of the Commission — 2%
• Licensing Requirements — 3%
• Record Keeping — 3%

Notice that License Practice, Contracts, Agency, and Disclosures together account for the large majority of the national portion — that is where day-to-day transaction knowledge such as listing agreements, purchase contracts, fiduciary duties, and required property disclosures lives, and where most of your practice-question time should go. The smaller categories, including Special Topics, Licensing Requirements, Record Keeping, and Duties and Powers of the Commission, still show up on every form of the exam, so do not skip them entirely just because each one carries a smaller share of the total score — a handful of easy points left on the table in a low-weight category can be the difference between passing and falling just short of 75%.

Before you can sit for the exam and eventually apply for your license, Nevada requires completion of prelicense education totaling 120 hours, split across four subjects. Plan your course schedule around these four blocks rather than treating prelicense education as one undifferentiated pile of hours.

• Real Estate Principles — 45 hours
• Real Estate Law — 45 hours (must include 18 hours specifically on Nevada law)
• Contracts in a real estate transaction — 15 hours
• Agency — 15 hours (must include 3 hours of foundation)

Once you pass both exam portions, you have 12 months to submit your license application and fee to the Nevada Real Estate Division — do not let that clock run out after all the work of passing. The salesperson license fee is $140.00 (a broker license runs $160.00, reflecting the added scope of that credential). Note that fingerprints submitted on different forms expire on different schedules — 2 months on Form 501 versus 6 months on Form 549 — so time your fingerprinting to line up with your application submission date, not your exam date, to avoid having to redo the fingerprinting step and losing time waiting on new results.

A handful of administrative rules trip up otherwise well-prepared candidates, so build them into your plan rather than discovering them the week of your test.

• Your exam authorization is valid for 1 year from the date of payment, so register once you are actually ready to schedule
• Book your reservation at least 24 hours before your desired date, and call to cancel or reschedule at least 48 hours ahead of your appointment
• Arrive at the test center at least 30 minutes before your start time to allow for check-in and identification
• Passing results are valid for 12 months from the date you pass
• If you pass one portion and fail the other, you only need to retake the failed portion, and you have 12 months from your passing score to do so before both scores expire and you must start over on both
• Retake fees are identical to the original exam fee, and all registration fees are final and nonrefundable once paid, so confirm your schedule before submitting payment
• Credit card payments carry a 2% convenience fee, which can add up if you retake a portion more than once

If you have held a real estate license in any state in the past 10 years, you will also need to provide a certified license history dated within 90 days of your application submission date — request it early since certified histories can take time to arrive.

Because the national and state portions are scored separately, treat them as two distinct study projects rather than one blended review. Start with the national portion since it carries more scored items and more of the exam's total weight — build a study block around each weighted domain, spending the most time on License Practice, Contracts, Agency, and Disclosures, then circle back for the smaller categories like Special Topics, Licensing Requirements, Record Keeping, and the Duties and Powers of the Commission so nothing is left completely untouched.

For the state-specific portion, focus on Nevada statutes, the powers of the Real Estate Commission, and state licensing procedures, since these rarely overlap with the national content and are easy to underprepare for if you assume general real estate knowledge transfers directly to Nevada's rules.

In the final week, shift from reading to active recall: take timed practice questions that mimic each portion's length and question count, review every miss by re-reading the underlying rule rather than just memorizing the correct letter, and repeat weak domains until you are consistently clearing the 75% bar with margin. A narrow pass on a practice test does not leave room for exam-day nerves, unfamiliar question phrasing, or a bad guess on a tricky pretest-style item, so aim for comfortably above the minimum rather than right at it.