How to Pass Your Ontario Real Estate Exams | Realtor Exam Prep

You settle down to write your Ontario real estate exam and you’re feeling nervous… ‘Am I ready?’ You’re not alone.

Stepping into the world of real estate requires more than just knowledge; it demands strategy, especially when you have to pass 6 exams just to get your license.

Here, I’ll breakdown the insider tips that have helped me and hundreds of my students to pass their Ontario real estate exams and finally get their real estate license.

Should I Do My Real Estate Exam In-person or Online?

When booking your Humber College Real Estate exam, you’ll be able to choose whether to book your exam in person or online. Taking your Ontario real estate license exam in person will help you avoid tech issues and any chances of distraction from your dog barking to your husband snoring.

This is best for those who get anxious or distracted easily since you won’t have to worry about anything other than the exam. You’ll also get to take washroom breaks which can be great to release some of that exam pressure.

How to Pass Your Ontario Real Estate Exams

Depending on your exam, you’ll have anywhere from 50-115 questions, with the Simulation exams being the easiest and Courses 3 and 4 being the hardest. For the Course 1 exam, you’ll have only 2 hours to complete it, however, the rest of the courses will give you 3 hours instead. This means there is lots of time to answer the questions, but also a lot of room for error.

There’s a lot of strategies to pass your exam, many of which I go through in my video explaining How I Passed my Course 1 Exam in 5 days.

However, one of the best strategies is using bookmarks. Bookmarks allow you to keep your momentum on the exam without getting discouraged or doubtful about confusing or hard questions. They’re not just a navigational tool; they’re a tool that helps you get through your Ontario real estate exam without getting stumped or panicking.  They allow you to flag a question to make sure you can go back and review it again later.

By bookmarking the hard questions, you can use your time more wisely by focusing on questions you’re more confident in. This will help you give your energy towards the questions that you’re more likely to get correct. This not only saves you time but also gives you the best chance of scoring highly since it also takes away the element of last-minute entire test reviews that usually leave people with a few marks short of the passing grade.

Don’t Review Your Real Estate Exam Questions

Trust your initial answers on your exam. With 6 exams, getting your real estate license in Ontario means you have to be decisive.

I’ve tutored a lot of students who come looking for help after failing an exam, despite studying really hard. Most times it’s because they double-checked all the answers at the end of the exam, changing 20-30 answers last minute. Usually, they end up with a score slightly below passing.

My advice: Trust your instinct. Don’t jump into an answer, but once you’ve spent a minute or two on it and you’re confident, then move on. This makes sure you keep the momentum going, your confidence stays intact, and you don’t get distracted.

How Much Time to Spend Per Question

Find the right balance between speed and accuracy and you won’t have trouble passing your Ontario real estate exam. This means keeping a pace that helps you to thoroughly read and understand each question without spending too much time and overthinking.

The best strategy that has worked for the hundreds of students I’ve tutored is 1-2 mins per question. Anything that exceeds the 2 minutes should be bookmarked so you don’t waste your time and energy and break your momentum.

The total exam itself shouldn’t take longer than 2 hours and even less for most people, but don’t be afraid to take your time. Just remember that the longer you take, the more fatigued you’ll get.

Practice under timed conditions so you can gauge how long you should spend on any one question. From there, look to improve your speed through the questions.

Some things I do to increase my speed is skimming for keywords, skipping unnecessary info, and thinking of my own answer before reading the multiple-choice answers.

All in all, passing your Ontario real estate exam can be difficult and might seem impossible. Truth is, all it takes is a little dedication and commitment.