Examination format
The RES Examination, Paper by Paper
Two papers, sat separately, each of 80 questions and 100 marks. What each section is worth, how long you get, and how Freehold decides the mix of a practice paper.
Built for the RES examination syllabus that applies from 1 January 2027. CEA has published a revised syllabus for examinations from that date. Examinations held in 2026 and earlier use the RES Examination Syllabus 2017 instead. The remaining 2026 papers are sat on 31 October 2026 and 1 November 2026; if that is your sitting, treat this as revision of the law rather than as a rehearsal of your blueprint, because the two syllabuses examine the same statutes under a different structure.
What changed between the two syllabuses · CEA's own statement of which syllabus applies
Structure of each paper
Section A questions stand alone. Section B questions hang off a shared case study and are worth double.
| Paper | Units | Section A | Section B | Total | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | Units 1 and 2 | 60 questions × 1 mark | 20 questions × 2 marks | 100 marks | 150 min |
| Paper 2 | Units 3 and 4 | 60 questions × 1 mark | 20 questions × 2 marks | 100 marks | 150 min |
Marks, not questions
The single arithmetic point that decides most borderline results.
Two candidates each answer 60 of the 80 questions correctly. The first got every Section A question right and every Section B question wrong: 60 marks, a pass exactly on the line. The second got 40 of Section A and all 20 of Section B: 80 marks, a comfortable pass. Identical question counts, 20 marks apart.
Freehold's practice papers are scored on marks for that reason, and the results screen shows you the two figures side by side so the gap between them is visible before examination day rather than after it.
How Freehold weights a practice paper
Read the caveat below before you treat these percentages as the examination's own.
| Unit | What it covers | Share of practice |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 — Paper 1 | The industry and how it is regulated: who may act, what a licence and a registration each permit, and how the market is segmented and measured. | 14.86% |
| Unit 2 — Paper 1 | Land and property law: contract, agency, leases, mortgages, trusts, succession, co-ownership and the limits on who may hold land. | 32.43% |
| Unit 3 — Paper 2 | Agency practice: the prescribed agreements, the codes of conduct, advertising rules, anti-money-laundering duties and dispute resolution. | 32.43% |
| Unit 4 — Paper 2 | The transaction: stamp duties, financing, the sale process, strata management, collective sale and the rules on foreign ownership. | 20.27% |
These are not published examination weights, and no such weights exist. CEA publishes a recommended number of teaching hours against each syllabus topic, not a number of questions or a percentage of marks. Teaching time is an input and examined items are an output, so treating one as the other is a modelling choice, and we would rather record it as one than present it as authority we do not have.
What supports it: the two papers' hour shares land close to the structural 50/50 split the marks already imply, which is at least consistent with teaching time tracking examination emphasis. That is the only corroboration there is. Anyone telling you they know the RES paper's exact topic weights is telling you something CEA has not published.
Examination format FAQ
What is the pass mark for the RES examination?
60 marks out of 100 on each paper, sat separately. Because Section B questions are worth two marks each, the pass mark is not 60 per cent of the questions: answering all 60 Section A questions correctly and every Section B question wrongly is exactly 60 marks, a pass on the line, from 75 per cent of the paper.
How long is each paper?
150 minutes for 80 questions, which is a little under two minutes a question. Section B questions take longer because they hang off a case study you have to read first, so the working average on Section A is tighter than it looks.
How many case studies are there in Section B?
One or two per paper. That is a ceiling on the number of scenarios, which makes it a floor on how deeply each one is examined - a single scenario can carry ten or more questions walking through its facts in sequence.
Free practice, no account needed
Every RES question cites the Act, regulation or CEA page it comes from, with the section and the date we checked it. No ads, no subscriptions.
RES practice runs here in your browser today. Freehold RES is also available on the App Store with the same bank, the same citations and offline practice.
