I passed CA Broker Exam First Try
The CA Broker exam is famously difficult so I wanted to share my tips to pass (45% to 50% pass rate for first timers).
The key I think is to take practice exams that are at least as hard if not harder than the real exam. California Real Estate Broker Drill and Practice QBank Package from Kaplan was what I used. $69 when I bought it in March 2026.
I don't work for Kaplan nor do I know anyone who does but when I started with Compucram and Allied Broker exam prep I didn't feel like I was getting good prep for the exam as the practice exams were a little too easy. Another poster mentioned Kaplan so I decided to try that.
My first Kaplan practice quiz of 50 questions I scored a 48% and I have been licensed for 6 years and think I know more than the average licensee about real estate. The questions were pretty difficult and confusing - lots of scenarios with multiple players where you have to figure out the correct answer and it often seems like there is more than one correct answer from the multiple choice of 4.
After about a week to 10 days I was finally scoring 75%-80% consistently on the 50 question quizes (you can also opt to take full 200 question practice exams but this was too time consuming for me so I did my practice in 50 question chunks).
When I sat for the exam in Oakland 2 weeks ago I was thrilled that the questions actually seemed a little easier than the Kaplan prep questions and by the time I was 3/4 way through the exam I knew I was going to pass.
Good luck!