MD-RES Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

Understanding the Two-Score Structure Behind MD-RES Results

When people search for a "pass rate" on the Maryland Real Estate Salesperson Exam (MD-RES), they're usually hoping for a single headline percentage. The Maryland Real Estate Commission and PSI Services LLC, which administers the exam, don't publish a rolling public pass-rate statistic the way some national licensing boards do. What they do publish - and what actually matters for your preparation - is the scoring structure itself, which tells you far more about your real chances than a vague percentage ever could.

The MD-RES is a computer-based, multiple-choice exam split into two independently scored portions. The national portion has 80 scored questions and a 90-minute time limit. The Maryland-specific portion has 30 scored questions and a 30-minute time limit. Both portions also include 1 to 10 unscored experimental items woven into the time you're given, meaning the clock keeps running even on questions that don't count toward your score. To pass, you need 70% correct on each portion independently - that's 56 of 80 on the national side and 21 of 30 on the Maryland side.

Why the National and Maryland Portions Are Scored Separately

The dual-portion design is the single most important structural fact for anyone trying to interpret MD-RES outcomes. It means your preparation strategy has to be split, too. A candidate who spends 90% of their study time on national real estate principles and treats the Maryland-specific rules as an afterthought is setting up a predictable failure pattern: passing the 80-question national section comfortably while falling short of 21 out of 30 on the Maryland portion.

This is precisely why our MD-RES Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 17 Content Areas breaks preparation into national and Maryland tracks rather than treating the exam as one undifferentiated pool of questions. Understanding the passing thresholds in detail - and what they mean for how many questions you can afford to miss - is covered further in our MD-RES Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass resource.

The 17 Domains and Where Candidates Typically Lose Points

The MD-RES draws from 17 defined domains - 11 on the national side and 6 on the Maryland side. Each domain carries a specific weight on the national portion, and understanding those weights is the closest thing to real "data" a candidate can use to prioritize study time before results are ever generated.

Notice that Property Management sits at just 3% while Contracts sits at 19% - a candidate who studies both equally is misallocating time. A full breakdown of what each domain actually tests, including sample topics within Contracts, Agency, and Financing, is available in our MD-RES Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 17 Content Areas.

The Maryland state portion doesn't carry the same published percentage breakdown, but it draws from six domains: Duties and Powers of the Real Estate Commission, Licensing Requirements, Brokerage Relationships, Supervision, Business Conduct, and Ethics. Among these, Brokerage Relationships is the largest Maryland domain, meaning it deserves disproportionate attention relative to the other five.

Contracts and Brokerage Relationships: The Heaviest-Weighted Risk Areas

If you're trying to reason through where "pass rate risk" concentrates, the math points squarely at two domains: Contracts on the national side and Brokerage Relationships on the Maryland side. These are the topics most likely to determine whether a marginal candidate clears 56/80 or 21/30.

Registration, Fees, and Timing Rules That Shape Outcomes

Pass rates aren't only about content knowledge - administrative rules quietly shape outcomes too. The MD-RES costs $44 per attempt through PSI, and it's a distinct cost from the $98 original salesperson license fee (with a $78 renewal fee) that applies after you pass, effective April 27, 2026. Candidates who don't budget for both the exam fee and the licensing fee sometimes delay applying, which matters because of Maryland's strict timing windows.

• You must be at least 18 years old and demonstrate good character and reputation.
• You must complete 60 hours of approved prelicensing education before sitting for the exam.
• You must pass both exam portions within one year of completing that coursework.
• You must apply for your license within one year after passing both portions.
• To practice actively, you must affiliate with a licensed Maryland broker.

Miss any of these windows and you may need to retake coursework or reapply - a procedural failure that has nothing to do with content mastery but affects overall completion statistics all the same. A full cost breakdown, including what happens if you need to retest, is covered in our MD-RES Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown guide, and the exact eligibility rules are detailed in MD-RES Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

How Study Sequencing Affects First-Attempt Success

Generic study techniques only matter if they're mapped onto the specific weight of MD-RES content. A candidate has limited weeks between finishing the 60-hour prelicensing course and sitting for the exam, and how those weeks are sequenced against domain weight is a bigger lever than any individual study technique.

This kind of domain-first scheduling, rather than a generic flashcard-and-repeat routine, is the backbone of the approach detailed in our MD-RES Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. Pairing it with full-length timed drills on our MD-RES practice test platform gets you used to the pacing pressure of 80 questions in 90 minutes before exam day.

What the Available Numbers Actually Tell Prospective Licensees

Without an official published pass-rate percentage, the most reliable "data" available to candidates is structural: two separately graded portions, a 70% bar on each, heavier weighting toward Contracts and Brokerage Relationships, and strict one-year windows for testing and licensing. Read together, these facts suggest that most avoidable failures come from imbalance - over-preparing for one portion while under-preparing for the other - rather than the exam being uniformly difficult across the board.

That imbalance is exactly what our How Hard Is the MD-RES Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 analysis explores in more depth, looking at where the exam's difficulty actually concentrates rather than treating it as evenly hard throughout. If you're still deciding whether the licensing path is worth the time and fees involved, our Is the MD-RES Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 piece and MD-RES Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis can help frame the decision alongside the exam mechanics covered here.

Ultimately, the most actionable takeaway is this: treat the national and Maryland portions as two separate exams that happen to share a testing appointment. Study Contracts and Agency until they're second nature, give Brokerage Relationships the attention its weight demands, and use full timed practice on our practice test site to confirm you can hit both the 56/80 and 21/30 thresholds under real time pressure before you ever sit down at a PSI testing center.

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