PassProfessor’s Kansas program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog. The 19,988-question Kansas practice bank is built — 14,579 questions on the general portion’s outline and 5,409 on the Kansas portion’s — and enrollment opens soon. Join the notify list and we will email you when enrollment opens, then use this guide to plan your path to the exam.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
The Kansas salesperson exam, in one paragraph
The Kansas real estate salesperson exam is a two-portion, computer-based test administered by Pearson VUE for the Kansas Real Estate Commission (KREC). The general portion has 80 scored questions in 2.5 hours; the Kansas portion has 30 scored questions in 1.5 hours. Each portion is scored separately on a 0–100 scale, and you need a scaled score of 70 on each portion to pass. You become eligible by opening a pre-licensure application with KREC, completing the required education and fingerprint background check, and receiving an authorization to test — and after passing, your complete license application must reach KREC within six months.
Who can take the Kansas salesperson exam?
Kansas runs licensure as a sequence, and the exam sits in the middle of it. To be licensed as a Kansas salesperson, the Commission requires that you:
- Be at least 18 years old and hold a high school diploma or its equivalent — both are required before you start the pre-license requirements.
- Submit a pre-licensure application. Create an account in KREC’s Citizen Access portal, choose Apply for License, and select Salesperson Pre-Licensure. You pay a $15 application fee and a $70 background fee at this step, and KREC emails you a prelicense number you will use with your school and throughout the process.
- Be fingerprinted for a criminal background check by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the FBI. Fingerprints can be taken on a card provided by a police station, sheriff’s office, or the Commission (with the Fingerprint Instructions and Background Waiver, Form RE-150), and Pearson VUE offers digital fingerprinting at its Overland Park, Topeka, and Wichita test centers for a $16 fee. Fingerprinting may be done at any point in the pre-licensure process but must be complete before you submit your license application; the criminal history report is valid for six months from its issue date.
- Complete the 30-hour Principles of Real Estate course from a Commission-approved school. This course comes before the exam: it must be taken within the one year immediately prior to passing both portions of the exam, and your exam is not authorized until your completion is reported to KREC.
- Complete the 30-hour Kansas Practice Course from a Commission-approved school. Its timing rule is different: the course must fall within the six months immediately preceding the Commission’s receipt of your license application. Many candidates take it after passing the exam, while their application window is open.
- Pass both portions of the exam (this guide’s subject), then affiliate with and be supervised by a Kansas broker — an original license cannot be issued on inactive status, and you may not advertise or perform licensed activities until the Commission issues your license.
Two situations worth knowing:
- Licensed in another state? You must hold a current license in your state of residence, pass the Kansas portion, and file a non-resident form; the general portion may be waived. You still take the 30-hour Kansas Practice Course. You must also submit a certification of license history from every state where you now hold — or have ever held — a real estate license; each certification is valid for six months from its issue date.
- Disclosures are part of the application. The license application asks you to disclose arrests and pending or convicted charges, real-estate-related litigation, and any disciplinary action against any professional license you have held, with supporting documents. Under Kansas law the Commission may restrict or deny a license, and it will not process an incomplete application.
The exam, piece by piece
The salesperson exam is two separately scored portions, built from Pearson VUE’s published content outlines — the national/general outline (effective April 24, 2025) and the Kansas state outline (effective June 11, 2024). You may schedule the portions together or separately; the outlines below are the salesperson outlines, with the exact area titles and scored-item counts Pearson VUE publishes.
The general portion — 80 scored questions, 2.5 hours (150 minutes)
| Area | Scored questions | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| I. Real Property Characteristics, Legal Descriptions, and Property Use | 11 | Real vs. personal property and fixtures; economic and physical characteristics; legal descriptions and survey; public and private land-use controls and encumbrances |
| II. Forms of Ownership, Transfer, and Recording of Title | 9 | Ownership forms, estates and leaseholds, liens; deeds, title transfer, recording, notice, and title insurance |
| III. Property Value and Appraisal | 11 | Concepts and principles of value; the appraisal process; sales comparison, cost, and income approaches; CMAs and broker price opinions |
| IV. Real Estate Contracts and Agency | 16 | Contract elements, performance, and breach; sales contracts, earnest money, and contingencies; agency creation, termination, and licensee obligations |
| V. Real Estate Practice | 10 | Broker responsibilities; brokerage agreements with sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants; fair housing; risk management and antitrust |
| VI. Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues | 9 | Hazardous substances, environmental law and site assessments; disclosure obligations and liability |
| VII. Financing and Settlement | 7 | Financing methods and loan programs; lender requirements (FHA, VA, USDA, conventional); federal financing regulations; settlement and closing |
| VIII. Real Estate Math Calculations | 7 | Area and valuation calculations; commissions; loan costs and amortization; closing costs and prorations; investment and property-management calculations |
| Total scored | 80 | Plus 5 unscored pretest questions = 85 questions on screen |
The Kansas portion — 30 scored questions, 1.5 hours (90 minutes)
| Area | Scored questions | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| I. Duties and Powers of the Kansas Real Estate Commission | 2 | The Commission’s powers and duties, its members, investigations and hearings, discipline (revocation, suspension, restriction, censure, civil fines), and criminal prosecution |
| II. Licensing Requirements | 4 | Activities requiring a license; renewal; education requirements; deactivation and reinstatement |
| III. Requirements Governing Activities of Licensees | 5 | Place of business and company names; records; reporting; advertising; commissions and referral/relocation fees; required residential contract language; supervision of affiliated licensees |
| IV. Prohibited Acts | 8 | The prohibited acts in Kansas license law — mishandling funds, misrepresentation, undisclosed commissions, and the rest of the statutory list candidates are tested against |
| V. Brokerage Relationships in Real Estate Transactions Act (BRRETA) | 11 | Agency and transaction brokerage under K.S.A. 58-30,101 et seq.: designated agency, the ban on dual agency, brokerage agreement requirements, and each relationship’s duties |
| Total scored | 30 | Plus 10 unscored pretest questions = 40 questions on screen |
The Kansas outline has a sixth area — broker-only topics (licensure exemptions, trust funds and accounts, office supervision, commercial and out-of-state cooperation) — but it is tested on the broker exam only. It does not appear on the salesperson exam.
Three structural facts that shape how you should prepare:
- Contracts and Agency is the general portion’s center of gravity — 16 of 80 scored questions, twice the weight of any other general area except the two 11-question areas (Property Characteristics and Appraisal).
- BRRETA is the Kansas portion’s center of gravity — 11 of 30 scored questions, and together with Prohibited Acts (8) it accounts for nearly two-thirds of the state exam. Both are pure Kansas statute: BRRETA’s transaction-brokerage system and designated-agency rules, including Kansas’s prohibition on dual agency, are tested nowhere else.
- There are two scores, not one. Each portion must reach its own passing standard. A strong general performance cannot offset a Kansas portion below the line — which is why the 30-question state portion, the part national study products cover thinnest, decides so many Kansas exam days.
Pretest questions. The general portion mixes in 5 pretest questions and the Kansas portion mixes in 10. They are tryout questions Pearson VUE is evaluating for future exams: indistinguishable from scored questions, unidentified, and without effect on your result. The only correct strategy is to answer every question as if it counts — and to pace for 85 and 40 questions, not 80 and 30.
The math conventions are published. The candidate handbook lists the facts that are not provided at the test center and must be memorized — including 43,560 square feet per acre and 5,280 feet per mile — and states that calculations are rounded to the nearest whole number where applicable. When a question requires a prorated amount, the question itself specifies whether the calculation uses a 360- or 365-day year and whether the day of closing belongs to the buyer or the seller. Knowing the conventions in advance removes a whole category of avoidable misses.
The passing standard, explained
You pass with a scaled score of 70 on the general portion and 70 on the Kansas portion — each on its own.
A scaled score is not a percentage of questions answered correctly. Pearson VUE administers multiple forms of each exam; forms differ slightly in difficulty because different questions appear on each, so a statistical procedure called equating corrects for those differences and raw results are converted to scaled scores ranging from 0 to 100. The handbook states this plainly: the scaled score reported to you is neither the number nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly, and a score below 70 shows how close you came to passing rather than an exact count of correct answers. Two consequences:
- “70%” study targets are misleading. Secondary sources often describe the Kansas standard as “70%,” but the published standard is a scaled 70, and no practice percentage converts precisely into it. The safe approach is to practice until your full simulations sit comfortably above the passing zone on each portion separately, with no outline area left weak.
- Your score report works differently depending on the result. Candidates who pass receive a report marked “pass” with information on applying for a license; numeric scores are reported only to candidates who do not pass, who also receive diagnostic information — the starting point for a retake plan.
The passing score itself was set by the Kansas Real Estate Commission in conjunction with Pearson VUE after a comprehensive study for each exam — it is a considered standard, not an arbitrary one, and it is the same for every candidate on every form.
Fees and registration, step by step
Keep the payments separate in your mind — they go to different places at different times.
| Payment | Amount | Paid to | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-licensure application fee | $15 | KREC | With your Citizen Access pre-licensure application |
| Background fee | $70 | KREC | With your pre-licensure application |
| Exam fee | $70 | Pearson VUE | When you reserve your exam |
| Digital fingerprinting (optional route) | $16 | Pearson VUE | When you reserve a fingerprint appointment at Overland Park, Topeka, or Wichita |
| License fee (salesperson) | $125 | KREC | With your license application, after you pass |
The sequence, in order:
- Open your pre-licensure application in Citizen Access. Create your account on KREC’s portal, choose Apply for License → Salesperson Pre-Licensure, pay the $15 application fee and $70 background fee, and note the prelicense number KREC emails you — your school needs it to report your course completions.
- Get fingerprinted. Submit fingerprints on a card from a police station, sheriff’s office, or the Commission (paper cards are mailed to KREC), or book digital fingerprinting through Pearson VUE at Overland Park, Topeka, or Wichita ($16). The background check runs through the KBI and FBI.
- Complete the 30-hour Principles of Real Estate course with a Commission-approved school, using your prelicense number. Schools report completions to KREC; your exam cannot be authorized until the Principles completion is reported.
- Receive your authorization and schedule with Pearson VUE. KREC tells Pearson VUE when you are authorized, and Pearson VUE emails your scheduling instructions. Create your profile from that email, then reserve online at Pearson VUE’s Kansas real estate page or by phone at (800) 274-4971 — at least 24 hours before your desired date; walk-ins are not available. Your registration name must match your identification.
- Pay the exam fee at reservation. The fee is $70, paid by credit card, debit card, or voucher — payment is not accepted at the test center, and fees are non-refundable and non-transferable except as the change/cancel policy allows. Scheduling both portions for the same day costs $70 total: select “Schedule this Exam,” then “Add another exam to take on the same day,” and make sure both portions are selected before checkout — the handbook’s fee table lists the salesperson combination exam at $70, the same price as one portion alone. To change or cancel, call Pearson VUE at least 48 hours before the exam; without proper notice the fee is forfeited.
- Take the exam (see Test day below). You leave the test center with an official score report.
- Complete the 30-hour Kansas Practice Course if you have not already — its certificate must be dated within six months before KREC receives your license application.
- Submit your license application online through Citizen Access when KREC invites you to, with the $125 license fee, your supervising broker’s company affiliation information, any required license-history certifications, and any required court or disciplinary documents. The complete application must reach KREC within six months of your exam date — if you passed the portions on different dates, the six months runs from the earlier one.
Retakes and score validity
- Retake only what you failed. If you pass one portion and fail the other, only the failed portion needs to be retaken. Candidates applying through requirements met in another state take only the Kansas portion in the first place.
- Wait 24 hours before scheduling a re-exam. You rebook through the normal Pearson VUE reservation process — reservations cannot be made at the test center — and you should have your failing score report available when you call. Its diagnostic information shows where the attempt was lost.
- The six-month clock governs everything. The failed portion must be passed in time for KREC to receive your complete license application within six months of your earlier exam date. Miss that window and the exams must be retaken — a passed portion does not bank indefinitely.
- Score validity is six months, and so is most of your paperwork. The passing score, the KBI/FBI criminal history report, the Kansas Practice Course certificate, and any license-history certification each carry a six-month validity measured as the handbook’s Documentation Deadlines table specifies. An application that arrives with an expired component is incomplete.
Test day
- Arrive at least 30 minutes early and check in with the test center administrator. Your identification and documentation are reviewed, you are photographed for your score report, and you review and sign a Candidate Rules Agreement before testing. A short tutorial on the testing computer is offered first, and it does not reduce your exam time.
- Bring two forms of identification. The primary ID must be government-issued, photo-bearing, and signed (a driver’s license, passport, or military ID, for example); the secondary ID must carry a valid signature. Both must be current and in English, and the name must match your registration — Pearson VUE recognizes no grace periods on expired ID.
- Nothing goes in with you. Cell phones, watches, wallets, purses, hats, bags, coats, books, and notes are prohibited in the testing room and must be stored in the secure area provided, with electronic devices turned off. The administrator provides the materials for notes and calculations; you may not write on them before the exam begins or remove them afterward. Pearson VUE provides calculators if necessary.
- Pace for everything on screen. You have 2.5 hours for the general portion’s 85 questions and 1.5 hours for the Kansas portion’s 40 — roughly a minute and three-quarters per general question and a little over two minutes per Kansas question. Breaks are allowed by raising your hand, but the clock does not stop, and leaving the floor or building ends your exam.
- Results are immediate. The exam ends automatically when time expires, and you receive your official score report before you leave. Exam material is not available for review afterward, for security reasons.
How to study for this exam
The outlines are the syllabus — Pearson VUE publishes exactly what the exam covers, area by area, and the weights above are question counts, not suggestions. A plan built on that structure:
- Give BRRETA and Prohibited Acts their combined weight. At 19 of the Kansas portion’s 30 scored questions, these two areas decide the state exam. Learn BRRETA as a system — seller’s agent, buyer’s agent, transaction broker, designated agency, and the rule that a Kansas licensee may not act as a dual agent — and learn the prohibited acts as the concrete list Kansas law actually enumerates, not as general ethics.
- Respect the two-pass rule in your practice. Because each portion must reach a scaled 70 independently, run two readiness checks — one per portion — rather than trusting one blended score. A blended average can hide a Kansas portion sitting below the line.
- Weight Contracts and Agency on the general side. At 16 of 80 questions it is the largest general area; agency creation and termination and licensee obligations inside it also reinforce the Kansas portion’s relationship rules.
- Learn the math conventions, not just the math. Memorize the constants the handbook says will not be provided (43,560 square feet per acre; 5,280 feet per mile), practice rounding as the handbook directs, and read each proration question for its stated day-count and closing-day assumptions — the exam tells you which convention to use; the skill is noticing.
- Practice at full length, against the clock. 85 questions in 150 minutes and 40 in 90 minutes are pacing skills separate from knowledge. Full generated practice exams at the real weights build both; short quizzes build only one.
- Use your diagnostics if you have a failed attempt. A failing score report’s numeric score and diagnostic information tell you which portion — and how far below the line — before you spend another fee. Rebuild around the areas it names.
This program’s Kansas practice bank (19,988 questions — 14,579 on the general outline and 5,409 on the Kansas outline, including 1,985 on BRRETA) is built area by area on these same outlines, with fresh blueprint-weighted practice exams and drills for every area. The Kansas Real Estate Exam Prep program page shows the full coverage table — and the notify list there will email you when enrollment opens.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the Kansas real estate exam? 110 scored questions: 80 on the general portion and 30 on the Kansas portion. Another 15 unscored pretest questions are mixed in — 5 general and 10 Kansas — so you will answer 125 questions in total, and you cannot identify the pretest items.
How long is the Kansas real estate exam? 2.5 hours (150 minutes) for the general portion and 1.5 hours (90 minutes) for the Kansas portion — 4 hours of testing if you take both on the same day, with the pretest questions inside that time.
What is the passing score for the Kansas real estate exam? A scaled score of 70 on each portion, separately. Per the Pearson VUE candidate handbook, scaled scores range from 0 to 100 and are adjusted across exam forms so every version demands the same knowledge; a scaled 70 is not the same as answering 70% of the questions correctly.
How much does the Kansas real estate exam cost? The exam fee published in the current candidate handbook is $70, paid to Pearson VUE when you reserve — and scheduling both portions for the same day costs $70 total under the handbook’s combination price. Elsewhere in the process, KREC charges a $15 application fee and a $70 background fee with your pre-licensure application, and a $125 license fee with your license application after you pass. Digital fingerprinting at a Pearson VUE center costs $16.
Does Kansas require pre-licensing education before the exam? Yes — in part. The 30-hour Principles of Real Estate course must be completed before the exam (within the year before you pass both portions), and KREC will not authorize your exam until the school reports it. The second required course, the 30-hour Kansas Practice Course, is timed to your license application instead: within the six months before KREC receives it. Together the two courses are Kansas’s 60 hours of pre-licensing education.
How do I register for the Kansas real estate exam? First submit your pre-licensure application to KREC through Citizen Access and complete your fingerprinting and Principles course. KREC then authorizes your exam and Pearson VUE emails scheduling instructions; you reserve online on Pearson VUE’s Kansas real estate page or by calling (800) 274-4971, at least 24 hours ahead. Walk-in exams are not available.
Can I take the Kansas real estate exam online? The current candidate handbook describes testing at Pearson VUE test centers — including centers in Hays, Overland Park, Topeka, and Wichita and additional Kansas testing locations — and its procedures are written for test-center delivery. Check Pearson VUE’s Kansas real estate page for the current delivery options when you schedule.
What happens after I pass the Kansas exam? KREC invites you to submit your license application online through Citizen Access. You provide your supervising broker’s affiliation information, any required license-history certifications and documents, and the $125 license fee. The complete application must reach KREC within six months of your exam date (the earlier date, if you passed the portions on different days).
How long is my Kansas exam score valid? Six months. Your passing score, your KBI/FBI criminal history report, your Kansas Practice Course certificate, and any license-history certification all operate on six-month validity windows, and your license application must be complete inside them.
If I fail, how soon can I retake the Kansas exam? You must wait 24 hours before scheduling a re-exam, and you retake only the portion you failed. The retake must leave time for your complete license application to reach KREC within six months of your earlier exam date, or the exams must be retaken.
I am licensed in another state. Do I have to take both portions? No. Non-resident applicants must hold a current license in their state of residence, file a non-resident form, and pass the Kansas portion; the general portion may be waived. The 30-hour Kansas Practice Course is still required.
What Kansas-specific topics does the exam cover? The 30-question Kansas portion covers the Duties and Powers of the Kansas Real Estate Commission (2), Licensing Requirements (4), Requirements Governing Activities of Licensees (5), Prohibited Acts (8), and the Brokerage Relationships in Real Estate Transactions Act — BRRETA (11). BRRETA alone is more than a third of the state portion.
Are calculators allowed on the Kansas exam? Pearson VUE provides calculators if necessary, and the test administrator provides the materials permitted for notes and calculations. Personal items — including your own calculator, phone, and watch — are not allowed in the testing room. Memorize the handbook’s published constants (43,560 square feet per acre; 5,280 feet per mile) before test day.
Does PassProfessor’s program satisfy the pre-licensing education requirement? No. PassProfessor is exam preparation only and provides no pre-licensing education credit. The 30-hour Principles of Real Estate course and the 30-hour Kansas Practice Course must be completed with Commission-approved education providers.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider and is not affiliated with the Kansas Real Estate Commission, Pearson VUE, or any state agency or exam vendor. This guide is general information about the Kansas licensing exam, current as of October 2026; Kansas Real Estate Commission and Pearson VUE publications govern if anything here differs from them.