Exam information
A Realistic RES Exam Study Plan
Last reviewed 11 October 2026
Most RES candidates are studying around a job, and the course itself is only part of the preparation. The useful question is not how many hours to put in but where to put them, and the answer follows from how the examination is built: two papers of equal weight, four competency units of unequal size, and a case-study section worth double marks per question. What follows is a way of structuring revision around those facts rather than around the order of the course notes.
Start from the structure, not the notes
Each paper is two and a half hours and carries 100 marks, with the pass mark at 60 per paper (as at October 2026). Both papers must be passed and they are graded separately, so there is no point being excellent at Paper 1 and hoping it carries a weak Paper 2. Treat them as two targets with their own revision time.
Within each paper, Section A is 60 one-mark questions and Section B is 20 two-mark questions attached to case studies. Breadth therefore beats depth in Section A: 60 single marks across two competency units reward knowing something accurate about everything more than knowing one topic exhaustively. Section B rewards the opposite skill — following a factual scenario and applying rules in sequence — so it needs practice in a different format, not more reading.
The second planning fact is the deadline: your Certificate of RES Course Completion is valid for two years and cannot be extended, and the examination is held three times a year. Fix your target sitting at the start and work backwards from it.
How to split time across CU1 to CU4
CEA does not publish a mark weighting per competency unit, so any precise percentage split would be invented. What is published is the syllabus, and the number of units under each competency unit is a reasonable proxy for how much ground there is to cover.
Paper 1 is lopsided. CU1, Real Estate Agency Industry Overview and Basic Land Law Concepts, has eight units covering the market, market players and government intervention, and the foundations of land law. CU2, Dealings with Interests in Land, has thirteen units and is the largest single block in the examination: contract, agency, landlord and tenant, negligence, conveyancing, mortgage, gift, trust, succession, future interests, co-ownership, capacity to hold land, and planning and development. On volume alone CU2 deserves noticeably more time — and because CU1’s concepts are the vocabulary CU2 then uses, the sensible order is CU1 first and quickly, then CU2 at length.
Paper 2 is more even. CU3, Regulation of Real Estate Agency Industry and Real Estate Marketing, has eleven units; CU4, Property Transactions, has nine, covering sales and leases of private and HDB property, collective sales, foreign worker housing, taxes on property and property finance. CU4 is where the arithmetic lives, and arithmetic improves only by doing it.
A workable allocation is therefore roughly equal time to each paper; within Paper 1, about a third to CU1 and two thirds to CU2; within Paper 2, roughly even between CU3 and CU4, with CU4’s calculations given their own practice sessions rather than being read about.
Working through the law-heavy units
CU1 and CU2 are where candidates from non-legal backgrounds lose most ground, and the cause is usually vocabulary. Terms like estate, interest, tenure, easement, covenant and caveat each have a narrow technical meaning, and questions are routinely built on the distinction between two of them. Write your own one-line definition for every term the syllabus names, then test yourself on the distinctions rather than the definitions: joint tenancy against tenancy in common, lease against licence, easement against restrictive covenant.
A second habit pays off across Paper 1: for each rule, note who it binds and who it protects, because land law questions very often turn on exactly that. A rule learnt as “this protects X against Y” survives a timed paper in a way a memorised sentence does not. For statutory material, learn the shape before the section numbers.
Working through the regulatory and transaction units
CU3 is dense with rules that have precise edges: what counts as estate agency work, what must be disclosed, what must appear in an advertisement, what the prescribed estate agency agreements cover, what may be done with transaction monies, and where a commission dispute must go before it reaches a tribunal. These are not conceptually hard but they are easy to half-learn. Treat them as checklists and recite them, because a question asking which of four advertising practices is prohibited is testing whether you know the list.
CU4 is procedural and numerical. The procedural part is sequence: for each transaction type, write out the order of events — who does what, by when, with which document. For an HDB resale that is the chain from eligibility and the HFE letter through the Intent to Sell, the option, the resale application and completion. Section B questions often turn on a step taken out of order or a deadline missed.
The numerical part is where rote practice is unavoidable: loan-to-value limits and loan quantum, the debt servicing ratios, stamp duties, property tax, rental yield, commission and apportionment on completion. Set aside sessions where you do nothing but calculations, with your examination calculator, until the method is automatic — and keep the volatile numbers separate in your notes, because rates and ceilings change and the version in force on your examination date is what counts.
Using mock papers properly
A mock paper is a diagnostic instrument, and most candidates waste it by using it as a scorecard. Three rules make the difference.
First, sit it under examination conditions at least some of the time: full paper, two and a half hours, no notes, the calculator you will actually bring. Pacing is a real skill here — 80 questions in 150 minutes, 20 of them attached to case studies that need slower reading — and it cannot be rehearsed in ten-question bursts. Move briskly through Section A so that a meaningful block of time is left for the two-mark questions.
Second, do your mocks in the right order: untimed topic-by-topic sets while you are still learning, then full timed papers in the final stretch, when the aim is pacing and stamina.
Third, read the explanations on the questions you got right as well as those you got wrong. A correct guess is a future wrong answer: if you cannot say why the other three options are wrong, you did not know the question.
Reviewing wrong answers so they stop recurring
The highest-yield activity in RES revision is the review of wrong answers, and it is the one most often skipped.
Keep a running log of every question you get wrong, recording the topic, the correct answer, why the option you chose was wrong, and a one-word cause. The cause matters more than the question. Almost every error is a knowledge gap, a confusion between two similar concepts, a misread of the question or case study, or an arithmetic slip — and each has a different remedy. Knowledge gaps send you back to the syllabus topic. Confusions are fixed by writing the two concepts side by side and listing the differences. Misreads are fixed by changing your method on the day: underline the operative words, note who the parties are, and watch for “not”, “except” and “least”. Arithmetic slips are fixed by writing the working out.
Revisit the log, not the questions, in the final two weeks; if one cause keeps appearing, that is your revision plan regardless of what your schedule said. Re-attempt wrong questions a week or two later rather than immediately, since answering correctly straight after reading the explanation tests only your memory of it.
One last point: results take four to six weeks and are given only as Pass or Fail, so no score breakdown will tell you what to fix for a re-sit. Your wrong-answer log is the only diagnostic record you get.
Terms to know
- Section A
- The first part of each paper: 60 standalone multiple-choice questions worth one mark each.
- Section B
- The second part of each paper: 20 multiple-choice questions set on one or two case studies, worth two marks each.
- Wrong-answer log
- A running record of questions answered incorrectly, with the cause of each error, used to direct revision at recurring weaknesses.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I study for the RES exam?
There is no official guidance on study hours, and no published pass rate to calibrate against, so any specific number would be invented. What is fixed is the framework: the course itself runs to dozens of contact hours, the examination is held three times a year, and your course completion certificate is valid for two years. Pick a target sitting, work backwards from it, and allow enough margin inside the two-year window for one re-sit.
Should I study Paper 1 and Paper 2 at the same time?
They are examined on consecutive days in a full sitting, so both have to be ready at once. Most candidates find it easier to work through the material in syllabus order, finishing CU1 and CU2 before CU3 and CU4, then revise all four in rotation in the final weeks so that neither paper goes cold.
Which competency unit should I spend the most time on?
CEA does not publish mark weightings, so judge by volume. CU2 has thirteen syllabus units, more than any other competency unit, and it builds on the land law concepts in CU1 — so Paper 1 time is usually best split roughly a third to CU1 and two thirds to CU2. In Paper 2, CU3 and CU4 are closer in size and deserve roughly equal time.
How many mock papers should I do?
No official number exists. What matters more is the mix: untimed topic-based question sets while you are still learning the material, and full two-and-a-half-hour timed papers in the final stretch to rehearse pacing across 80 questions, including the slower case-study section.
Will knowing my score help me plan a re-sit?
You will not have a score. Results are released as Pass or Fail per paper within four to six weeks, with no marks shown and no scripts returned, even on appeal. That is exactly why a wrong-answer log kept during revision is worth maintaining: it is the only diagnostic record you will have if you need to re-sit.
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Disclaimer: All questions on this portal are created to aid candidates in preparing for and passing the Real Estate Salesperson (RES) Examination. They are not official examination questions and are not representative of, endorsed by or affiliated with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) or NTUC LearningHub. Laws, rates and policies change — always verify against official sources.