Everything You Need to Know for Your First OREA iPad Exam

As you might already know:

As of May 1, 2019, OREA Real Estate College closed admissions and ceased accepting new applicants for The Salesperson Registration Education Program. The college will continue to deliver the Program for all currently enrolled students.

If you’re in the process of completing your pre-registration coursework, odds are you’ve already written your exam for Real Estate as a Professional Career (course one) by now.

If, on the other hand, you haven’t, I am republishing a thread (below) that I created in My OREA Community, which outlines everything you need to know.

I hope you find this post helpful.

I wrote the Real Estate as a Professional Career exam (on an iPad) on March 6 in Don Mills.

I’ve noticed quite a number of threads around this forum with questions about what to expect (and what’s provided) for the first exam. I’m going to try to provide you with as much detail as I can here:

a. Aim to arrive thirty minutes ahead of time. Upon arrival, you will be asked to present photo identification. You’ll then be given an iPad and told to sit down. You will be given two blank sheets of paper for rough work, as well.

b. If you didn’t bring your own pen (or pencil) and calculator, they will be given to you. Frankly, I was embarassed at seeing how many people showed up for the exam without a calculator. I mean, honest to God, if you can’t even bring your own supplies, real estate is not the career for you. Period.

c. You’re allowed to have the iPad in front of you, the sheets of blank paper, a calculator (so long as it does not store text), and writing instruments (pens and pencils), but nothing else. The rest of your personal items — such as a coat or a bag — must be placed under the table.

d. You will be asked to sign in on your iPad using your last name and birth date, then read through a couple of pages of instructions. Basic stuff, like how to use an iPad and that cheating is prohibited. This is why you’re asked to arrive a half hour early, so that everyone can start on time.

e. When the exam begins, the first question will populate on your screen automatically. All questions are multiple choice (four options) with the first ten questions being worth one point each, and the remaining forty-five questions being worth two points each, for a total of one hundred points. You need seventy-five points to pass.

f. There was only one question on the exam that required calculating compound interest on a loan (without the use of a mortgage factor chart). You could use any basic calculator to solve for this question. In other words, if you didn’t purchase a financial calculator for Real Estate as a Professional Career, that’s fine. You (most likely) won’t need it for the exam, although it might make things easier for one or two questions.

g. You can move back and forth between questions and change your answers as many times as you want. You can end the exam by pressing a big red button at the bottom of the screen (and leave early) or simply wait for your time to run out.

h. At the top of the screen, you will find a timer, which will show you the balance of the three hours you have remaining. There will also be a button that says Resources. Tapping on Resources will bring up a PDF that will give you all the formulas, mortgage factor charts, and equations that you need. I know this is a big concern for most people writing the exam. Don’t worry. All the information is provided.

i. If you studied (and understood) the sample questions at the end of Real Estate as a Professional Career (eLearning), or did the mock exam via Passit, you will find the content of the actual exam very similar. There are no exact duplicate questions, of course, but the structure of many of the questions on the exam seemed to follow a similar format.

j. Results are posted within a half hour of finishing. I was shocked. My exam was scheduled for 1 pm. I had left the building by 2:30 pm. By 3 pm, I had my results — I got 96 — and I was able to register and pay for the second course. This might not be typical of all iPad exams, but it certainly was the case for mine.

Nothing to stress about here, honestly. If you’ve been studying (and paying attention) and you know how to do basic math, you’ll be fine.

I hope that helps.

After publishing this thread, a number of community members asked me to clarify whether or not conversion charts would be included. This was my response:

I apologize if I wasn’t clear:

h. At the top of the screen, you will find a timer, which will show you the balance of the three hours you have remaining. There will also be a button that says Resources. Tapping on Resources will bring up a PDF that will give you all the formulas, mortgage factor charts, and equations that you need. I know this is a big concern for most people writing the exam. Don’t worry. All the information is provided.

Yes, you are given the conversion charts by tapping on Resources.