Section B is 20 of a paper's 80 questions and 40 of its 100 marks. That arithmetic is the whole strategy, and it is the part a percentage score cannot show you.
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.
Two candidates answer the same number of questions correctly and finish 20 marks
apart. Only one of them passes comfortably.
What they got right
Questions correct
Percent of questions
Marks
Verdict
All of Section A, none of Section B
60 of 80
75%
60
A pass, exactly on the line
40 of Section A, all of Section B
60 of 80
75%
80
A comfortable pass
59 of Section A, none of Section B
59 of 80
73.75%
59
A fail
A product that scores you as a percentage of questions reports 75% for
the first two rows and cannot tell them apart. The examination separates them by 20 marks.
Freehold scores by marks for that reason, and shows both numbers so the gap is visible
rather than inferred.
A real shared scenario
One stem, then several linked decisions
This is a public three-question preview from one Freehold case. The full case continues in practice.
Scenario
Mr Tan, a Singapore Citizen who already owns one residential property, agrees to buy a completed condominium unit in District 15 for S$2,400,000. He intends to hold the unit jointly with his wife, Mdm Lim, who is a Singapore Permanent Resident and who owns no other residential property. The option to purchase is granted on 12 August 2026 and the couple exercise it within the option period. The unit sits in a development that obtained its temporary occupation permit in 2011. Some months after completion Mr Tan is posted overseas and the couple begin considering a sale in March 2028. Separately, an acquaintance of Mr Tan who holds neither Singapore citizenship nor permanent residence has asked whether he could buy every unit in the same development as an investment.
Every Freehold question shows why the right answer is right — and cites its source.
Mr Tan and Mdm Lim buy the unit jointly. What rate of additional buyer's stamp duty applies to the purchase?
5%
None
20%
30%
Show answer & explanation
20% — Where joint buyers have different profiles, the highest rate applicable to any of them governs the whole purchase, so 20% is charged. None would follow only if both were citizens buying a first home, which is not the position. 5% is a Singapore Permanent Resident's first-property rate and fits neither buyer. 30% is the citizen rate for a third or subsequent property, a step beyond what this purchase reaches.
What is the buyer's stamp duty payable on the purchase at S$2,400,000?
S$69,600
S$80,600
S$84,600
S$89,600
Show answer & explanation
S$89,600 — The first S$1,000,000 carries S$24,600, the next S$500,000 carries S$20,000 at 4%, and the last S$900,000 carries S$45,000 at 5%, totalling S$89,600. S$80,600 taxes the entire balance above S$1,000,000 at 4% and never reaches the 5% band. S$84,600 and S$69,600 come from misplacing the S$1,500,000 boundary, so the higher rate starts too late or bites on too little.
Mr Tan's acquaintance asks about buying every unit in the development. What should the salesperson tell him?
That acquiring all the units requires the prior approval of the Minister
That no approval is needed for units of this kind, whatever the number taken
That the purchase may proceed if each unit is bought on a separate option
That a foreign person may take at most half the units without approval
Show answer & explanation
That acquiring all the units requires the prior approval of the Minister — The exemption for individual condominium units falls away once the whole development is taken, and the Act catches a series of purchases as readily as one.
Freehold has authored 25 case-study scenarios across the two
papers, carrying 135 Section B questions between them.
Paper
Scenarios
Section B questions
Deepest scenario
Paper 1
10
61
10
Paper 2
15
74
10
Scenarios run from 108 to 192 words, typically around
141. You can practise any single scenario end to end from the
practice page — including the shorter ones, which a
full paper never reaches because it draws its twenty questions from at most two.
How to work one
Read the scenario once, before the questions. The questions walk its
facts in sequence, so a candidate who re-reads it per question is doing an exercise the
examination does not set — and spending time they need.
Mark the facts that carry consequence. Dates, sums, who holds what,
what was signed and when. A scenario that names a date is naming it because a period
runs from it.
Answer in order. Later questions usually build on the finding the
earlier ones establish, which is also why leaving one blank costs more here than in
Section A.
Never leave one blank. There is no penalty for a wrong answer on this
examination, and a Section B blank costs two marks rather than one.
Section B questions
How many case studies are 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 is examined: a single scenario can carry ten or more questions walking through its facts in sequence. It is why reading the scenario once, properly, is worth more than re-reading it per question.
Is Section B harder than Section A?
It is worth more, which is not the same thing. Each Section B question carries two marks against Section A's one, so 20 questions decide 40 of the paper's 100 marks. The questions themselves apply the same law; what differs is that they apply it to facts you have to hold in your head.
Can I pass on Section A alone?
Exactly, and only exactly. All 60 Section A questions correct and every Section B question wrong is 60 marks - the pass mark, on the line, from 75% of the paper. Get one Section A question wrong and no amount of Section A can recover it. That is the single strongest argument for practising Section B rather than avoiding it.
How should I read the scenario?
Once, before looking at any question, and with an eye for the facts that carry legal consequence - dates, sums, who holds what, and what was signed. The questions walk the scenario in sequence, so a fact that looks decorative in question one is usually the hinge of question four.
Free practice, no account needed
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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.
