Statistical analysis of the Florida real estate remote proctoring licensing program

Abstract

This study examined whether the setting of the Florida real estate state licensure examination was associated with differences in monthly pass rates for qualified Sales Associate and Broker candidates during the period in which remote proctoring was available. An ex post facto analysis used publicly available monthly examination-performance records from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Test-center and remotely proctored pass rates were matched by month from August 2020 through February 2024, yielding 38 paired observations for each examination type. Paired-samples t-tests were used to compare the two examination settings, supported by descriptive statistics and graphical analyses. For the Sales Associate examination, the remotely proctored condition had a significantly higher mean monthly pass rate than the test-center condition (44.19% vs. 40.80%), t(37) = 7.95, p < 0.001, with a mean difference of 3.39 percentage points. For the Broker examination, the test-center and remotely proctored mean pass rates (44.14% vs. 42.96%) did not differ significantly, t(37) = 1.90, p = 0.066. The association between examination modality and pass rate therefore differed by examination type. These results caution licensing agencies and testing providers against assuming that remote proctoring produces a uniform effect across examinations. Modality-specific monitoring and additional candidate-level research are warranted before attributing pass-rate differences to the testing environment itself.