Important Things to Know About Scheduling Your NMLS Exam!

You’ve finally finished studying and you’re ready to scheduling your NMLS exam. Great! But now you need to make a choice. Would you prefer to take the exam at an in-person testing center or online?

Regardless of your preferred modality for taking the exam, the registration process is practically the same. Either way, you must go to either the

NMLS’ website at: https://mortgage.nationwidelicensingsystem.org/profreq/testing/Pages/default.aspx or to Prometric’s at www.prometric.com/nmls (they both ultimately produce the same results). Once on the NMLS’ website, the next step is to create or log onto your NMLS account. Before you can schedule your exam, you will be required to pay the $110 registration fee plus any applicable service fees.

Once you’ve paid for the exam, you will be required to accept the candidate agreement and, as soon as you’ve done that, you will be permitted to choose a testing center, date, and time that works best for you. You will have 180 days from the date that you paid for the exam to take it. If you opt to take it online, please pay close attention to the following important information.

I regularly encounter individuals who attempted to take their NMLS exam online only to be forced into canceling their exam on the exam day and rescheduling it for weeks out. Not a fun thing to happen at all! The reason why this typically and frequently happens is due to one of two reasons. Either:

On the day of their exam, the test candidate realized that they lacked the appropriate hardware and/or software to access the exam; or
When the proctor arrived to start their exam (because all exams are monitored by a live proctor), the proctor observed that the test candidate was situated in a prohibited environment and refused to allow them to proceed.

Now how in the world were they supposed to have known about the appropriate hardware, software, and location parameters? Well, I’m glad that you asked! Upon registering for their online NMLS exam, the test candidate was e-mailed a confirmation e-mail advising them of all of the requirements and restrictions. But, like many people so often do, they neglected to read the content of that e-mail. As such, and since actions have consequences, they were unprepared and unable to take the exam and were forced to reschedule it out for weeks down the line.

The lesson to be learned here is that, when registering for your online exam (or even for the live testing center exam for that matter), be absolutely certain to read everything that you’re sent by the NMLS and/or Prometric to ensure that you will not have a problem on the day of your NMLS test.

Additionally, and since so many peoples’ online exams have had to be canceled due to test taker ignorance of the prerequisites, effective September 24, 2022, NMLS policy now prohibits any third party or entity (such as an employer, sponsor, friend, or family member) from registering another person for the NMLS exam’s online version. Third parties may still register test takers for live testing center exams. Online test takers, however, must now register themselves and, in doing so, they are assured receipt of the prerequisites necessary for compliant and successful test taking.

If you have any additional questions about registering for your NMLS exam, please feel free to contact the NMLS directly at 855-665-7123 and/or Prometric at 877-671-6657.

Good luck to you on your exam and your future mortgage career!