GAGeorgia

Real estate exam prep

At a glance

The exam, in numbers.

Questions: 152 multiple-choice (100 national + 52 state, plus a small number of unscored pretest items)
Time: 240 minutes (4 hours)
Passing score: scaled score of 72 (functionally equivalent to roughly 75% raw)
Pre-license education: 75 hours, GREC-approved Salesperson Pre-License Course at an approved Georgia real estate school
License type: Real Estate Salesperson (entry-level; brokers take a separate longer exam under different prerequisites)
Administered by: PSI Services LLC on behalf of GREC
Format: computer-based testing at PSI centers in Georgia (in-person only)
Result: issued at the testing center; pass/fail with the scaled score
License fee: $170 (paid to GREC after passing)
Exam fee: $121 per attempt, paid to PSI at scheduling
Retake wait: none; reschedule with PSI as soon as a slot is available
Score validity: single integrated exam (one section; passes don't roll forward)

Georgia real estate exam: format, score, what to expect in 2026

Georgia codified its brokerage representation rules into a single statute in 1994, called BRRETA, the Brokerage Relationships in Real Estate Transactions Act (O.C.G.A. § 10-6A-1 et seq.). BRRETA defines five distinct brokerage relationships a Georgia licensee can have with a buyer or seller (single agency, dual agency, designated agency, transaction brokerage, and no brokerage relationship), specifies the duties owed under each, and requires a written brokerage engagement before the licensee provides client-level service. The act is unusually thorough by national standards: most states have agency rules scattered across general license law plus case law; Georgia has them in one statute that the exam tests directly. Reading BRRETA cover-to-cover before sitting for the salesperson exam pays for itself.

The Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC) regulates the license. PSI Services LLC administers the exam at PSI centers across Georgia. The format is 152 multiple-choice questions over 240 minutes, scored as 100 national items + 52 state items. The state portion is one of the heaviest in the country (most state portions are 40 items). The passing standard is a scaled score of 72 across the exam, which corresponds to roughly 75% raw correct.

This guide walks through the GREC-published exam content, how to study, and what exam day looks like at a PSI center.

Written by

Chris Reese

May 8, 2026

§ 01 What's tested

Georgia's exam runs in two scored sections, with the national portion (100 items) covering general real estate principles and the state portion (52 items) covering Georgia-specific licensing law, agency, and regulations. The state portion is one of the largest in the country at 52 items, reflecting GREC's view that Georgia's BRRETA, license law, and trust account rules require thorough testing.

National portion (100 scored items)

The national portion follows PSI's standard national outline used in many other PSI jurisdictions. Topics include real property characteristics, ownership and title, value and appraisal, contracts and agency, real estate practice, disclosures and environmental issues, financing and settlement, and math. Georgia candidates should know that BRRETA's specific brokerage-relationship language influences how agency questions read on the national side; even a question framed as national content can require Georgia-specific knowledge to answer correctly.

State portion (52 scored items)

The state portion is anchored on the Georgia License Law (O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40), BRRETA (O.C.G.A. § 10-6A-1 et seq.), and the GREC rules. The major topic areas:

Georgia License Law and the Real Estate Commission. O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40, the structure of GREC, license issuance, renewal, suspension, and revocation, and the GREC investigation and disciplinary process. GREC has a published-violations bulletin and an active enforcement record; the exam tests the procedural steps from complaint through disciplinary action.
BRRETA and brokerage relationships. All five brokerage relationships defined by the statute (single agency, dual agency, designated agency, transaction brokerage, no brokerage relationship), the duties owed under each, the written engagement requirement, the timing of disclosures, and the consequences of operating outside BRRETA's scope. This is the largest single state-portion content cluster.
Trust accounts and brokerage operations. Georgia's trust account rules are detailed and tested directly. The exam covers handling of earnest money, the timing of deposits, commingling prohibitions, the broker's responsibility for trust account compliance, and the recordkeeping standards.
Property disclosures and Georgia-specific contracts. The Georgia Property Disclosure Statement, the standard Georgia Association of REALTORS (GAR) forms commonly used in residential transactions, the lead-based paint disclosure for pre-1978 housing, and the Georgia-specific timeline rules for inspection contingencies and earnest money releases.
Fair housing in Georgia. The Georgia Fair Housing Act (O.C.G.A. § 8-3-200 et seq.) layered on top of the federal Fair Housing Act. State-level enforcement runs through the Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity.
License law violations and the Real Estate Education, Research, and Recovery Fund. Grounds for disciplinary action under O.C.G.A. § 43-40-25, the Recovery Fund's role in compensating consumers harmed by licensee misconduct, and the licensee consequences when a Recovery Fund claim is paid.

Standout state-specific content

Two Georgia content areas almost always confuse candidates who studied from generic national materials:

The five-relationship BRRETA model. Most state statutes list two or three brokerage relationships and treat the rest as case-law variants. Georgia has all five codified by statute, with specific duties and disclosure rules per relationship. The exam tests the distinctions in scenario form and rewards candidates who can quote which relationship applies in a given fact pattern.
GREC's enforcement posture. Unlike some commissions that operate primarily reactively, GREC publishes a violations bulletin and pursues active enforcement. The exam reflects this with a relatively heavy weight on license law violations and disciplinary procedure compared to many other state portions.

§ 03 How to study

Georgia's 75-hour Salesperson Pre-License Course covers the national and state outlines, but the exam tests applied judgment in scenario questions that pull from BRRETA, contracts, and trust account rules simultaneously. The course teaches each topic in isolation; the exam wants integration.

What works in Georgia is volume on practice questions tied to both the national outline and the GA state outline, with extra reps on BRRETA's five relationships and trust account compliance. Most who pass have worked through somewhere in the low thousands of practice questions before sitting.

Passd's Georgia question bank is organized by both national and state content areas, with per-area accuracy tracked so you know whether your weak spot is BRRETA, trust accounts, license law violations, or finance before booking the exam. Your Passd Score updates as you answer and gives a single read on whether the test is in reach yet. Tier details are on the pricing page.

A few specific things help in Georgia:

Read BRRETA in full. It's a single statute that fits in a single sitting. The exam tests its specifics; reading the statute end-to-end beats reading three different study guides that summarize it.
Drill the trust account rules. Georgia's trust account compliance is tested directly: deposit timing, commingling prohibitions, broker responsibility, and recordkeeping. The questions are mechanical once you have the rules; they're easy to lose if you haven't memorized them.
Plan for 4 hours of focused work. The Georgia exam is on the longer side. Practice timed mocks at the full 4-hour length at least twice; pacing on the 52-item state portion is faster-paced than the 100-item national portion at the same per-question rate.

§ 04 What to expect on exam day

The Georgia salesperson exam is administered at PSI testing centers in Georgia (Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah, and additional locations). Georgia requires in-person testing; remote online proctoring is not currently offered for this exam. You schedule directly through PSI after GREC has approved your pre-license course completion.

On exam day:

Arrive at least 30 minutes before your scheduled appointment. Late arrivals can be turned away.
Bring two forms of valid signature identification, one of them government-issued with photo (driver's license, state ID, passport, or military ID). Names must match the GREC application exactly.
Personal items go in a locker. Phones, smart watches, study materials, food, and bound notes stay outside the testing room.
Calculators are permitted with restrictions: silent, battery-operated, non-printing, and without an alphabetic keypad.
The exam is closed-book.

Results print at the testing center after the exam, showing pass or fail with the scaled score. Candidates who pass move into the licensure phase: GREC application, fingerprint requirements, and the $170 license fee. Candidates who fail can register for a retake, paying the per-attempt exam fee each time.

§ 05 Common mistakes

Georgia candidates who fail the exam tend to fail in a handful of specific ways:

Underestimating the 52-item state portion. Most other states have a 40-item state portion; Georgia's 52 items is one of the heaviest. The state portion carries proportionally more pass weight, and skimming Georgia-specific content reliably produces failures.
Studying BRRETA from a summary instead of the statute. Summaries flatten the distinctions between the five brokerage relationships. The exam asks scenario questions that turn on the specific duties under each. Reading the statute itself is faster than re-reading three study guides.
Treating designated agency and dual agency as interchangeable. Georgia recognizes both, but the consent rules and the broker's role differ. Candidates who imported a national agency model without the BRRETA-specific variants miss the scenario questions.
Skimming trust account rules. Trust account compliance is a recurring exam topic with mechanical answers (deposit timing, commingling, broker responsibility, recordkeeping). Memorizing the rules is high-yield study time.
Not knowing GREC's disciplinary process. Georgia's enforcement posture is more active than several other states. The exam tests the procedural steps from complaint through disciplinary action; candidates who skipped license-law violations chapters in study materials lose points reliably.
Showing up without an in-state ID match. Names on the IDs must match the GREC application exactly. Candidates who applied with one name and present an ID with a different format (married name, hyphenation, middle initial) can be turned away.

§ 02 Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the Georgia real estate salesperson exam?

152 multiple-choice questions: 100 on the national portion and 52 on the Georgia state portion.

How is the exam scored?

A scaled score of 72 is required to pass. Functionally, this corresponds to roughly 75% raw correct, but the scaling is applied across the exam, not per section. PSI publishes the scaled-scoring methodology in the GREC Candidate Information Bulletin.

How long is the exam?

240 minutes (4 hours) total.

Where do I take the exam?

At a PSI testing center in Georgia. Locations include Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah, and additional cities. Georgia requires in-person testing; remote online proctoring is not currently offered.

What pre-license education do I need before the exam?

75 hours of GREC-approved coursework, completed at a Georgia-approved real estate school before submitting the salesperson application.

What's the license fee?

$170, paid to GREC after passing the exam. Paid by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover), cashier's check, or money order made payable to the Georgia Real Estate Commission.

Can I retake the exam if I fail?

Yes. PSI allows retakes with a per-attempt fee. The state metadata note in the GREC bulletin specifies the cooling-off period between attempts; check the current bulletin before scheduling the retake.

Why is Georgia's state portion so much larger than other states'?

GREC requires testing on the full BRRETA statute, the License Law, GREC rules, trust account compliance, the disciplinary process, and the Recovery Fund. The depth of the state law content justifies the larger state portion; the exam expects candidates to know Georgia-specific rules in detail, not just at a summary level.

How much is the Georgia exam fee?

$121 per attempt, paid to PSI when you schedule. Each retake is the same amount.

How long must I wait between retakes?

There's no statutory waiting period in Georgia. You can reschedule with PSI as soon as a slot is available.

How long is my passing score valid?

Georgia runs a single integrated exam, so there's no "passed section" to roll forward. You either pass the whole exam or take it again.

Ready to see how prepared you are?

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