RES Exam October 2026: What Candidates Said

Reported by candidates after the 31 Oct–1 Nov 2026 sitting · page updated 12 Nov 2026

The October 2026 sitting was the last on the 2017 syllabus. Results are due from about late November, so if you are waiting to hear, or already planning for March 2027, this page sums up what candidates said the two papers felt like and which topic areas came up. Use it to aim your practice, not to guess the next paper.

The short version

• Mostly theory. Candidates who sat the October 2026 papers said very few questions needed a calculation, and stamp duty was barely tested, if at all, in Paper 1.
• Paper 1 felt harder. The difficulty was the English as much as the law: dense legal and contract wording in both the questions and the options.
• Paper 2 felt easier to many, and heavy on a salesperson's duties under the Estate Agents Act.
• Time was tight. Some candidates said they did not finish. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave one blank.

The style traps candidates described

• Long one-sentence options. Some options ran to several lines with no commas. Break each one into its parts and test every part: one wrong detail makes the whole option wrong.
• Two options that both look right. Usually one is true but does not answer the question asked. Re-read the stem, and watch for words like NOT and EXCEPT or most appropriate.
• Case-study details that are easy to misread. In a family case, note who is who before you answer: who is married to whom, who holds which share, and which rules of succession apply to which person.
• Date wording. “On or before” a date includes that date; “before” does not. Our note on reading dates covers this and what happens when a completion date lands on a public holiday.

If legal English is what slows you down, the exam glossary explains the property and legal terms in plain English, with the trap in each.

Topic areas candidates mentioned

These are the areas candidates named. Each links to our lesson or glossary entry on it. All of them are in the 2027 syllabus too.

Paper 1

• Estates and tenure, including the wording of old estates: fee simple, fee tail and life estate. Lesson: freehold, leasehold and estates.
• Co-ownership and inheritance: joint tenancy and survivorship, and how an estate passes for Muslim and non-Muslim owners. Lessons: co-ownership and trusts, gifts and succession.
• Licence or lease, when someone pays to live in a property: lease and licence, and lease wording such as demise.
• Residential Property Act disposal timelines. Lesson.
• Industrial use and change of use, and use classes such as commercial school. Lesson.
• REITs and macroprudential measures, including their effect on households. Lesson.
• Defects: latent and patent defects and caveat emptor.
• Market segments: CCR, RCR and OCR, and how they differ from the Master Plan regions.

Paper 2

• A salesperson's duties under the Estate Agents Act, described by several candidates as the heaviest area. Lesson.
• Hidden defects and the duty to disclose on a resale. Lesson.
• HDB resale steps in order, from the intent to sell to the option and marketing. Lesson.
• Executive condominium loans: MSR against TDSR. TDSR and MSR explained.
• Key Executive Officer requirements. KEO and the licensing lesson.
• Contract date wording, such as “on or before”, and completion.
• Recent policy changes. Candidates were unsure which ones could be tested. CEA's rule: you are not tested on government policy changes announced or implemented within one month before the exam.

What to do now if you are sitting in March 2027

CEA releases results within four to six weeks of the exam, so for this sitting expect them between about 28 Nov and 13 Dec 2026. The results guide covers appeals, and the re-sit guide covers re-sitting one paper or both.

Every exam from 1 January 2027 follows CEA's 2027 syllabus. The format is the same, but Paper 2 gains three new units. See what changes in 2027.

The March 2027 dates, as published on CEA's exam page (updated 12 Nov 2026) and read on 12 Nov 2026:

• Finish your RES course by Tue 19 Jan 2027.
• Stage 1, indicate interest on GovEntry: Wed 20 Jan 2027, 9am to 12 noon.
• Stage 2, register and pay on NTUC LearningHub's portal if shortlisted: Fri 12 to Mon 15 Feb 2027.
• Paper 1: Sat 13 Mar 2027. Paper 2: Sun 14 Mar 2027. Both 9.30am to 12pm.

Dates can change, so check the exam schedule and CEA's page before you plan around them.

A simple plan: sit a free timed mock to see where your marks went, read the glossary entries for any Paper 1 term you could not explain in a sentence, then practise the topic areas above under time. You can start practising free, with the first questions of every topic open on a free account.