How to plan your Exam 1 study

Exam 1 tests Course 1, Real Estate Essentials. The course has seven modules and 41 lessons, and the exam is a two-hour invigilated multiple-choice paper. The modules are not equal. By length, Modules 6 and 7, which cover legislation, make up just over half of the course. A plan that gives every module the same week will leave you short exactly where most of the marks are.

Start from the weight

Our estimate of each module's share of the course, based on the length of the current course material, is: Module 1, 10%; Module 2, 9%; Module 3, 11%; Module 4, 10%; Module 5, 8%; Module 6, 29%; Module 7, 23%. These are not official exam weightings, but they are a reasonable guide to where your time should go. If you have four weeks, give the last two modules two of them.

Work in lessons, not modules

A module such as Module 6 has fourteen lessons. Nobody absorbs fourteen lessons in one sitting. Plan one or two lessons per session. Read the study notes, then answer the practice questions for that module in study mode, and read every explanation, including the ones you got right.

Use the learning objectives as a checklist

Course 1 has 123 learning objectives. Each one is a sentence that starts with a verb: define, describe, distinguish, identify. If you can do what the sentence says without looking at your notes, you have covered that objective. If you cannot, that is the next thing to study.

Practise under exam conditions before the real thing

At least twice before your exam date, sit the timed practice exam in one go: no notes, no pausing. The score matters less than the breakdown by module. Whatever module scores lowest is where you spend the next session.

Keep the 24-month window in mind

You have 24 months from the start of Course 1 to finish the whole program, which includes four theory exams and two simulation sessions. Exam 1 is the first of those milestones, so set a date for it early and work back from it.