Almost nobody reads the content outline. It is a dull PDF on a testing vendor's website, and it happens to tell you exactly how many scored questions each topic is worth. We charted it — for both national outlines in use — alongside how many practice questions our bank carries in each area, out of 18,924 released.
80
Scored items, Pearson VUE national portion
8
Content areas it is split into
48%
Share carried by the top 3 areas
100
Scored items, PSI national portion
Key findings
- Real Estate Contracts & Agency is the heaviest area at 16 of 80 scored items (20% of the portion). Real Estate Math is the lightest at 7. Study time split evenly across topics is study time misallocated by a factor of 2.3.
- Three areas carry 48% of the portion — Real Estate Contracts & Agency, Property Characteristics, Legal Descriptions & Land Use, Property Value & Appraisal. If you have one week left, that is where it goes.
- The two national outlines are not interchangeable. Pearson VUE splits the national portion into 8 areas over 80 items; PSI uses 11 over 100. Materials written to one outline leave visible gaps against the other.
Pearson VUE national portion — scored items per area
PSI national portion — the same law, cut differently
| Content area | Scored items | % of portion |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts | 19 | 19% |
| General Principles of Agency | 13 | 13% |
| Practice of Real Estate | 12 | 12% |
| Property Ownership | 10 | 10% |
| Financing | 10 | 10% |
| Valuation and Market Analysis | 8 | 8% |
| Property Disclosures | 7 | 7% |
| Real Estate Calculations | 7 | 7% |
| Transfer of Title | 6 | 6% |
| Land Use Controls and Regulations | 5 | 5% |
| Leasing and Property Management | 3 | 3% |
How to use this
Weight isn't the same as difficulty, and the two point in different directions. An area can be heavy and easy — you want those points banked early. An area can be light and brutal; past a point, further study there is a poor trade. The pairing that actually tells you where to spend an evening is weight against youraccuracy, which is what a diagnostic gives you and a topic list can't.