Illinois Real Estate Exam

[Mark Doyle]

As an investor, I've decided to take the Illinois Real Estate Broker Exam so I can view properties on my own (among other reasons). I'm an attorney, so I don't have to take any courses or anything. I can just sit for the exam. I registered to take the exam 30 days out in a Chicago suburb. I went to start studying and am finding it difficult to come up with a study plan. They sell books/flashcards for national questions, but it appears they contain a bunch of irrelevant information. They also sell books for what appears to be the Illinois portion, but I can't tell if they cover what you need to know for the national portion as well.

When non-attorneys take the real estate courses, I'm sure you get a pretty good idea of what you need to study, and probably already have the material outlined. So I'm assuming that is where I am at a disadvantage. Can anyone recommend good study materials that will be the easiest to cram enough information into my head to pass the exam - more importantly, cram the RIGHT information into my head.

I'm down to 29 days, and I work full time, so I have to figure this out pretty quickly!

[Bill S.]

@Mark Doyle Buy "Modern Real Estate Practice in Illinois 7th edition" published by Dearborn. This is the book I was given for the 90 hour course. Some of the material (contract law) you are probably already familiar with and the amount of material to cover is massive.

The most effective time management strategy I found was to take the practice exams at the end of each chapter (23 total chapters, 20 questions each chapter) and record your scores on a spreadsheet. This will give you an idea of where to focus your study time. If you can dedicate 2 hours of your time each day you can finish the practice exams in 5-6 days.

Review your test scores and set a benchmark to determine what material to review further (e.g. any score less than 80%). Any score below your benchmark focus on reading the chapter to get a better understanding of the material. Take the comprehensive review tests in the back of the book during your last study week to get an idea of where you are at.

Check out page 596 that gives you a percentage breakdown of the material covered on the test to help develop your study plan. No sense in spending all your time reviewing material that only represents a small portion of the test.

This is what I did and it work for me. Good luck.