You will know if you passed or failed before you leave the Pearson testing center. They will hand you a piece of paper. If you pass, it says PASS. If you fail, it says FAIL. If you fail, it also breaks down how you performed in each area. There are 19 areas. It’s no coincidence that most approved textbooks have 19 chapters. The areas listed on the fail report are probably the titles of the chapters in your textbook. It tells you how many questions you were asked and how many you answered correctly for each area. Now you know exactly what you need to study before you retake it.
If you got 5/6 on Chapter 2 and 2/12 on Chapter 11, where should you spend your time studying? It seems obvious to me that you should focus on Chapter 11. But often that student will spend more additional time on Chapter 2 rather than Chapter 11. Why? Because it is easier and more fun to review what you know than to struggle through something you don’t know.
Let’s say you play basketball. You are good at three-pointers, but you aren’t very good at foul shots. You practice three-pointers more often than foul shots because it’s more fun to make the baskets. That’s all fine and good for your ego, but then when you are playing a game, your team is down by one, and you have two foul shots, do you really think you are going to hit them? If you are unsure, I’ll tell you – you will not hit them.
The state exam is the same way. If you spend all of your time studying the chapters you know instead of the more difficult areas that you need work on, you will end up taking the exam multiple times. So if you fail the exam, focus your time on the chapters where you missed the most questions.
Please note that neither I, nor anyone in the Climer family, have any affiliation with Climer School of Real Estate. My father, Ron Climer, sold Climer School of Real Estate in 2014. You can find me at Demetree School of Real Estate.