United States
Hong KongThe NMLS exam content outline
Five content areas: Federal Mortgage Related Laws at 24%, Uniform State Content at 11%, General Mortgage Knowledge at 20%, Mortgage Loan Origination Activities at 27% and Ethics at 18%. The weights are published; the question counts are not.
NMLS publishes a content outline for this exam, and it is worth reading before you decide what to study.
The weights it gives are not what most candidates expect.
The five areas
| Content area | Weight | Questions on our estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage Loan Origination Activities | 27% | 32 |
| Federal Mortgage Related Laws | 24% | 29 |
| General Mortgage Knowledge | 20% | 24 |
| Ethics | 18% | 22 |
| Uniform State Content | 11% | 13 |
The weights are NMLS's own and sum to exactly 100%. The question counts are ours, worked from those weights against the 120 questions on the form using largest-remainder apportionment. NMLS does not publish counts.
The surprise
Federal law is not the largest area. Origination activities is.
Candidates arrive expecting a regulations exam because that is what the 20-hour course emphasizes and what the reputation says. In fact the largest single block is about doing the job: taking an application, ordering an appraisal, analyzing income, underwriting and closing.
Add ethics at 18% and you have 45% of the paper in two areas that most study plans treat as secondary.
Federal law tells you what the rules are. Origination activities asks whether you can apply them to a real file. The second is harder to fake and it carries more questions.
What the state content is
Not state-specific, despite the name. The Uniform State Content was folded into this single national test, so it covers the SAFE Act framework that every participating state adopted rather than the rules of any one of them.
It is the smallest area at 11%, and the most self-contained. Four subtopics, a short list of definitions and processes, and comparatively little to confuse.
How to use this
Allocate study time to the weights rather than to your comfort. If your plan gives federal law half your hours and ethics none, it is misaligned with a paper where those two are 24% and 18%.
Common questions
What is on the NMLS exam?
Five areas: origination activities at 27%, federal law at 24%, general mortgage knowledge at 20%, ethics at 18% and uniform state content at 11%.
What is the biggest area on the NMLS exam?
Mortgage Loan Origination Activities at 27%, ahead of federal law at 24%.
Does NMLS publish how many questions per area?
No. It publishes percentage weights. Question counts quoted anywhere, including here, are derived from those weights.
Is the Uniform State Content specific to my state?
No. It covers the SAFE Act framework adopted across participating states rather than any single state's rules.
Which area do people under-prepare?
Ethics and origination activities, which together are 45% of the paper and are often assumed to be intuitive.