DE-RE-S Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

The Exact Passing Score You Need

The Delaware Real Estate Salesperson Exam (DE-RE-S) uses a scaled score of 70 as the passing threshold - and that requirement applies separately to each of the exam's two portions. Pearson VUE, which administers the closed-book, computer-delivered test on behalf of the Delaware Real Estate Commission, does not average your national and state results together. You must clear 70 on the national/general portion and 70 on the Delaware-specific portion. Missing the mark on either half means you did not pass the exam, even if your combined performance looks strong on paper.

A scaled score is not the same as a raw percentage of questions answered correctly. Pearson VUE converts your raw number of correct answers into a scaled figure using a standardized formula tied to that specific exam form. This is why two candidates who each miss a different set of questions can both land on a 70 - the scaling process, not simple arithmetic, determines the final number reported to the Delaware Real Estate Commission.

How the Two-Section Scoring System Works

The DE-RE-S is split into a national (general) portion and a Delaware state portion, each scored independently against the same 70-point scaled threshold. This structure comes directly from the candidate handbook dated January 2026, which aligns the national outline (effective April 1, 2025) with the Delaware-specific outline (effective June 1, 2020).

• National/general portion: covers real property fundamentals, contracts, financing, and practice concepts tested across many states.
• Delaware state portion: covers Commission authority, licensing law, and statutory duties unique to Delaware licensees.

Because the two sections are graded separately, your study time should not be split evenly by question count alone. The state portion carries far fewer questions but concentrates an outsized share of legally dense, Delaware-specific material - something we break down fully in the DE-RE-S Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 12 Content Areas.

Scored vs. Unscored Questions

The full exam contains 135 total questions delivered over a four-hour window, but not every question counts toward your scaled score:

Unscored items are indistinguishable from scored ones on screen - Pearson VUE uses them to evaluate future exam questions, and they never count for or against your score of 70. Since you cannot tell which questions are unscored, the only reliable strategy is to treat every item on screen as if it counts, which it very well might.

Domain Weighting and Where Points Come From

Your scaled score is built from performance across twelve content domains - eight within the 80 scored national items, and four within the 40 scored state items. Percentages are calculated from Pearson VUE's official item counts, so heavier domains simply appear more often on your screen.

Notice that Domains 11 and 12 together account for 82.5% of the scored state questions. A candidate who is strong on national contract law but weak on Delaware statutory duties can still fail the state portion outright, since that section's score of 70 depends heavily on just these two domains. For a full breakdown of what each domain actually tests, see the DE-RE-S Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 12 Content Areas.

What Happens If You Fail One Section

If you fail either the national or the state portion, you retake only the failed section - you don't need to redo a portion you already passed with a scaled score of 70 or higher. However, Delaware imposes real time pressure on retakes:

• You must complete any failed portion within one year of finishing your 99-hour prelicensing course.
• You are allowed no more than three attempts at a section before you're required to repeat the prelicensing course entirely.
• Your overall application to the Delaware Real Estate Commission must be submitted within 12 months of completing your prelicensing education, regardless of exam attempts.

These deadlines interact in ways that catch candidates off guard. Someone who delays scheduling their first attempt for several months leaves themselves very little runway to fail, restudy, and retest before the one-year clock and three-attempt limit collide. For a deeper look at how these constraints affect real candidates, read DE-RE-S Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.

Registration, Fees, and Retake Mechanics

Passing the exam is only one piece of becoming licensed, but the financial mechanics affect how candidates approach retakes. Each exam attempt carries an $88 fee paid to Pearson VUE. Separately, the state application fee is $149, and Delaware's Real Estate Guaranty Fund fee adds another $25 - both due as part of the licensing process, not the exam itself.

Because a failed section means paying the $88 exam fee again, candidates have a strong financial incentive to hit that scaled 70 on the first attempt rather than treat the test as a low-stakes trial run. For the complete cost picture across prelicensing, testing, and licensing, see DE-RE-S Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Eligibility to sit for the exam requires being at least 18 years old, completing the approved 99-hour Delaware salesperson prelicensing course, and ultimately lining up a sponsoring Delaware broker before licensure is finalized. The full eligibility checklist is covered in DE-RE-S Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, and testing windows are detailed in DE-RE-S Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.

Calculator Rules and Test-Day Format

Domain 8, Real Estate Math Calculations, makes up 8.75% of the national portion - a modest but non-trivial slice of your scaled score. Delaware permits a silent, handheld, nonprinting calculator without an alphabetic keypad, but financial calculators are explicitly prohibited. That means preprogrammed real-estate finance calculators with amortization or mortgage functions are off the table; you'll be working proration, commission splits, and loan-to-value math with a basic calculator instead.

The exam itself is closed-book and computer-delivered at a Pearson VUE test center, with all 135 questions - scored and unscored combined - administered within a single four-hour appointment. There's no option to return to a completed section once you move past it in most configurations, so pacing across both portions matters as much as raw content knowledge. For a broader sense of how demanding the test feels in practice, see How Hard Is the DE-RE-S Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

Building a Study Plan Around the Passing Threshold

Since Domains 11 and 12 alone drive 82.5% of your state-portion score, and Domain 4 alone drives 20% of your national-portion score, your prep schedule should mirror that imbalance rather than treat all twelve domains equally.

This is one reasonable sequencing, not the only valid path - for a more complete week-by-week framework and first-attempt strategy, see the DE-RE-S Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. Running full-length practice exams on our practice test platform before test day is one of the most direct ways to confirm you're consistently clearing the scaled score of 70 on both portions, not just on the national side.

After passing, note that licensure isn't the finish line for education: new salespersons must complete 12 additional hours within 90 days of licensure, and ongoing renewal on April 30 of even-numbered years requires 21 continuing-education hours per biennial cycle. Neither requirement affects your exam passing score, but both are part of the same regulatory framework tested under Domains 9 and 10. You can also review a condensed summary of these numbers in the DE-RE-S Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts, and use our full practice test bank to check readiness domain by domain before scheduling with Pearson VUE.

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