The Minnesota Department of Commerce is offering an online option for licensing candidates to take their pre-license examinations in real estate or insurance. The online examination makes licensure more accessible and helps to add more licensed professionals to provide real estate and insurance services in Minnesota, state officials said.
“The Department of Commerce is expanding how Minnesotans can take real estate and insurance licensure examinations safely and securely. This new ability to take pre-licensing examinations online benefits those seeking to do business in these fields while continuing to give Minnesota consumers confidence that licensed real estate and insurance professionals have the training and knowledge to serve their needs well,” Commerce Temporary Commissioner Grace Arnold said.
The online examination option will help expand access and capacity for real estate and insurance professionals to serve Minnesotans. Over the past year, pandemic restrictions have limited the number and size of in-person licensing examination sites. At the same time, the Department of Commerce has experienced an exponential increase in the number of people seeking to take the pre-license examination required for licensure in Minnesota as a real estate salesperson, or agent. Salesperson examinations increased by 51 percent, from 1,330 in the first 8-week period of 2020 to 2,014 in the same 8-week period for 2021.
Online testing allows licensing candidates to choose from many more testing times, day or night, from their home or office. The technology offered by Pearson VUE, which administers the Department of Commerce’s licensing examinations, allows for online testing monitored by a live proctor through a webcam and microphone to safeguard the integrity of the exam.