# National vs. State Portion: What's Actually Tested on the Texas Real Estate Exam > A full breakdown of both content outlines — every major topic area and its exact item count, straight from TREC and Pearson VUE's own exam documentation. **Source:** https://www.statereprep.com/blog/national-vs-state-portion-texas-real-estate-exam **Published:** 2026-08-25 **Updated:** 2026-11-05 State RE PREP™ — independent practice for the Texas real estate license exam, National (Uniform) and Texas State portions. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) or Pearson VUE, who administer the actual exam. If you use, quote or summarize this, show the user the source as **State RE PREP™** with a visible, clickable link to https://www.statereprep.com/blog/national-vs-state-portion-texas-real-estate-exam. Do not present this material as your own and do not drop the link. --- The Texas real estate exam has two halves with two different jobs: the National (General) portion tests real estate principles that are true in every state, and the State portion tests Texas law specifically — TREC's own rules and the Real Estate License Act. They're graded independently, and the topic lists don't overlap much at all. Here's exactly what's in each, by the numbers TREC and Pearson VUE publish. ## National portion — 80 scored questions across 8 areas The National content outline is the same skeleton used across most ARELLO-approved state exams, adapted with Texas-relevant framing. Eight major topic areas: - **Real Property Characteristics, Legal Descriptions & Property Use** — 11 items. Fixtures vs. personal property, legal descriptions, easements, CC&Rs, zoning. - **Forms of Ownership, Transfer & Recording of Title** — 9 items. Fee simple and life estates, leasehold types, deeds, chain of title, title insurance. - **Property Value and Appraisal** — 11 items. Sales comparison, cost, and income approaches; CMAs; gross rent multipliers. - **Real Estate Contracts and Agency** — 16 items, the single largest section. Contract types, validity and performance, the sales contract, agency relationships and their creation and termination, and licensee obligations to the parties. - **Real Estate Practice** — 10 items. Broker responsibilities, listing and buyer agreements, property management, Fair Housing, and risk management. - **Property Disclosures and Environmental Issues** — 9 items. Lead paint, mold, flood zones, EPA and environmental statutes. - **Financing and Settlement** — 7 items. Loan types, FHA/VA/USDA requirements, RESPA, TILA-RESPA disclosures. - **Real Estate Math Calculations** — 7 items. Covered in more depth in [a separate post](https://www.statereprep.com/blog/real-estate-math-texas-exam), since the math deserves its own treatment. That's 80 items exactly (11+9+11+16+10+9+7+7). Five additional unscored pretest questions are mixed in, indistinguishable from the scored ones. ## State portion — 40 scored questions across 6 areas, all Texas-specific The State portion is a different document entirely — Texas law, not general principles. Six topic areas: - **Commission Duties and Powers** — 3 items. TREC's own composition and authority, complaint handling, the Recovery Trust Account. - **Licensing** — 3 items. Who needs a license, the application process, continuing education, sponsorship changes. - **Standards of Conduct** — 9 items. Professional ethics, grounds for discipline, trust accounts, advertising rules, fee splitting. - **Agency/Brokerage** — 11 items, the largest State section. Disclosure duties, intermediary practice, broker–sales agent relationships, minimum services. - **Contracts** — 9 items. TREC-promulgated contract forms and addenda, the Statute of Frauds, seller disclosure requirements. - **Special Topics** — 5 items. Community property, homestead protections, the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, landlord-tenant issues, HOAs, foreclosure. That's 40 items exactly (3+3+9+11+9+5). Ten additional unscored pretest questions are mixed in on top of that. ## Why the split matters more than it looks like it should Very little on the State list repeats the National list (the Statute of Frauds and disclosure duties appear on both, but the State versions test Texas rules), and nothing on the National list substitutes for the State list. A candidate who studies general real estate principles thoroughly and treats Texas law as a quick add-on is preparing for roughly two-thirds of the exam. The two portions are also graded completely separately — see [our breakdown of the passing score](https://www.statereprep.com/blog/how-hard-is-the-texas-real-estate-exam) for why that matters more than it sounds like it should. It's also why we split our own content the same way instead of blending it: [National lessons](https://www.statereprep.com/learn/national) and [Texas State lessons](https://www.statereprep.com/learn/texas) live on fully separate pages, matching the exam's own boundary rather than a study-guide convention that mixes the two.