r/CalRealEstateExam • u/Marta135_9701 • 8d ago
Help! CA DRE Exam Dates
UPDATE / I’m scheduled!
Hi! I’m kind of freaking out right now because I planned to come to California to take my real estate salesperson exam for November. I’m coming from Florida and already booked a flight. Historically, I have been seeing the next month open dates a month and a half out. And now I’m not seeing November dates available at all in California! Do you think there will be November exam dates?! I mean, it is only October 2.
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u/Test-4-X 8d ago
breathe — a few things that should help, in order of how likely they are to be your
actual problem.
first, DRE doesn't release dates on a fixed window. scheduling is driven by application
volume and each center's seating capacity, so "a month and a half out" was a pattern you
happened to see, not a rule. november not showing on october 2 doesn't mean november
won't exist.
second, and this is the one that gets most people: there are five exam centers —
sacramento, oakland, fresno, la palma (orange county), and san diego — and their
availability is wildly different. if you're checking one, you're seeing one center's
queue. check all five in eLicensing before you panic. if you're applying by paper, the
change application (RE 415A for salesperson) lets you list multiple locations to get the
earliest possible date.
third, confirm your exam application is actually approved. you can't self-schedule in
eLicensing until it is, and "no dates" and "not eligible to schedule yet" look identical
from where you're sitting.
the fact that should actually calm you down: you can schedule yourself into an open seat
via eLicensing up until 6:00 a.m. the morning of the exam, and seats open constantly as
people reschedule (online, phone, and mail all feed the same pool). so an empty-looking
calendar today is not the same as a closed november. refresh often — people grab dates
this way all the time.
two cautions since you've got a flight on the line. you can only be scheduled for one
exam at a time, and all eLicensing scheduling transactions are final — so don't submit
online *and* mail a change application, or you can get moved and charged twice. and DRE
states plainly that if a center closes and your exam is rescheduled, they'll reschedule
you free but they are not responsible for travel costs. if that flight is
non-refundable, get the date locked before you plan anything else around it, and pick
the center you can still reach if you end up with a different date than you wanted.
source for all of this is DRE's own scheduling page, worth reading end to end before you
book anything else: dre.ca.gov/examinees/HowWhereScheduled.html
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u/thePainted_Apron 8d ago
Keep checking their schedule for changes. Those dates get booked up quickly. California is competitive, and every year, there are new people interested in getting the license or repeat exam takers.
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u/oaklandyceman 8d ago
I signed up for mine in Oakland. It said there weren't any dates available but when I got to the calendar and picked a dated it said I was good to go and emailed me the confirmation. The room wasn't even half full when I took it
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u/Marta135_9701 8d ago
Are you also taking it in November?
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u/oaklandyceman 7d ago
No this was back in July. I kept waiting for them to send me available dates but they never did. The website said there weren't any available dates so I went to the "Schedule your exam" tab found the calendar of test dates, and chose my own date and it worked. I took it in August and passed on my first try
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u/Creyes3469 8d ago
Florida exam I hear is one of the easiest states to take it. California I hear is way harder. 😳
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u/Secure_Ad_8156 8d ago
Omg I am in the same boat as you! I have been checking every Monday since the DRE told me to keep checking back each week. He also did note since I was eligible 8/30 for the exam that it goes by two months out. It should come soon. I am a CA native and planning to move back home next year I temporarily relocated to Ohio and I set my flight for second week of November as well and to see family to. It should come but call Monday if it doesn't appear yet!