FAQ - OACIQ certification examination

There is no deadline to register for a certification exam.

Note that the Education Department is responsible for the registration for the OACIQ certification exams. For any questions regarding exams, please check out the Examination registration procedure page or contact the Education Department.

Yes, you have 12 months from the date you receive your examination’s result letter to apply for a licence. If you exceed this period, you will have to rewrite the OACIQ certification examination. 

This exam is intended for real estate brokers from other Canadian provinces. It was implemented as part of the mutual recognition agreements of professional skills concluded between Québec and other Canadian provinces.

These agreements aim at promoting the mobility of workers between Canadian provinces. Registration applications for this exam are assessed to ensure that they respect its purpose and spirit.

To be eligible for this exam, you must show–by providing the required documents–that you are qualified and authorized to engage in real estate brokerage activities in another province and that you have practised real estate brokerage in that province. A proof of residency may also be requested to assess your eligibility.

For more information about the interprovincial challenge exam, please check this page.

No. You may write your examination in English without first demonstrating your knowledge of French. However, once you have successfully taken the examination in English and you are applying for issuance of a licence, you will need to demonstrate that you have a working knowledge of French and provide a copy of an official document, such as:

• A certificate issued by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF);
• A proof of successful completion of the French exam from the OQLF (for more details, read this article);
• A certificate or a secondary school diploma issued by an educational institution in Québec starting from the school year 1985-1986;
• A transcript from the ministère de l’Éducation du Québec proving that you passed the 4th or 5th year secondary level examinations in French as a mother tongue;
• A school report card, transcripts or a diploma showing that you have attended a French language secondary or post-secondary establishment full time for three years;

If you cannot provide an official document, your knowledge of French will be evaluated using the French exam from the OQLF.

View the following pages for more details on this matter:

• Examination registration procedure
• Examination administrative fees

Each session can accommodate a maximum of 95 candidates. Due to the very high demand for the certification examination, it is possible that several sessions already show as sold out on the calendar. However, the OACIQ has adjusted its examination calendar to accommodate the increased demand.

You must note that the Training Education department only handles requests sent by email. Check out the examination registration procedure and make sure to submit all required documents so that your request can be processed.

The OACIQ will notify you by email when your examination result is available. You can then check it out in My record on synbad.com. 

To access your record:

• Go to synbad.com
• Click on « Section reserved for brokers” at the top of the page
• To log in, use your licence number, made up of a letter and 4 digits
• In the left menu, click on “My record”
• In the blue section: “Exam results letters,” click on “Download.” Your results letter will then be downloaded, and you will be able to print it or save it electronically.

There is no passing grade. All OACIQ certification examinations require that the candidate master all seven competencies listed in the competency framework corresponding to the type of brokerage which the candidate wishes to practice.

If you miss an exam day, you will automatically fail the exam. You will then have to register for a retake and pay the fees again.

The candidate who did not pass the exam can apply for a supplemental examination, using the Application to take a supplemental examination. This means retaking the entire exam. You may apply to a maximum of three supplemental examinations within 12 months following the date of the initial examination. If a candidate fails all the supplemental examinations, he can re-apply for an examination only after a period of 12 months following the date of his last supplemental examination.

Yes, every grade review request must be filed using the Request for examination grade review form, where you will find all the information pertaining to this process. The form must be sent no later than 15 days following the date the exam results were issued. Grade review does not provide access to your exam papers.

The use of FCQs and OSAQs allows us to make an objective and consistent evaluation of each of the competencies required to become a real estate broker. In addition, these will help prevent candidates from getting lost in too many explanations when answering a question on a given scenario.

The addition of FCQs and OSAQs took place in June 2021 for the Residential real estate brokerage certification examination. The addition to the Commercial real estate brokerage certification examinations is scheduled for 2022.
 

No, FCQs and OSAQs are integrated gradually into certification examinations since June 2021. Therefore a portion of the examination will be in the form of FCQs and OSAQs, and the other portion will take the form of scenarios based on hypothetical situations. However, candidates retaking the exam and who have completed their training before December 2020 will only be required to respond to scenarios that simulate complete fictitious cases, without FCQ or OSAQ, as they have not been trained with these types of questions in their training course.

Yes, all OACIQ certification examinations are based on the skills-based approach, so the examinations are designed based on the competency frameworks. This allows us to validate a candidate’s proficiency in the competencies identified in the corresponding framework and to evaluate the behaviours expected.

Yes. The Guide was provided to all teaching establishments during the course of 2020. Several communications were sent and presentations of the Guide were held in December 2020.

A forced-choice question (FCQ) presents a short scenario, sometimes accompanied by documents, followed by a question and a choice of four answers. An FCQ forces the candidate to choose the correct or best answer, as the case may be. Only one answer is accepted.

Only what is contained in the predefined space provided for the answer will be corrected. Any answer or portion of answer contained outside of this space will not be taken into consideration when marking the examination. The candidate can use the outside space to makes notes or to draft his answer, but this content will not be corrected.

FCQs and OSAQs are developed in close cooperation with real estate brokers and content expert from the field of real estate brokerage. In addition, skills-based evaluation professionals take part in the design of certification examinations, which ensures a good level of difficulty as well as consistency with different evaluation trends.

The purpose of this Guide is to provide examples of forced-choice questions (FCQ) and open-ended short answer questions (OSAQ) to students enrolled in a basic training program in residential real estate brokerage. The Guide is a tool to help prepare for OACIQ certification examinations.

Yes, the passing grade remains the same. For all OACIQ certification examinations, the candidate must be proficient in all competencies outlined in the framework corresponding to the type of brokerage he wishes to practice. To pass the certification examination in residential real estate brokerage for example, the candidate must master all seven competencies contained in the framework.

A forced-choice question (FCQ) provides specific answer choices to the situation presented and the question being asked; for this type of question, only one answer is possible. A multiple-choice question (MCQ) can call for different combinations of answers (e.g. “answers a and b” or “all of the above”); for this type of question, several answers can be possible. Forced-choice questions (FCQ) are therefore better adapted to the skills-based approach used in OACIQ certification examinations.

An open-ended short answer question (OSAQ) presents a scenario, sometimes accompanied by documents, followed by a question and a predefined, limited space to enter the answer. The candidate must keep within this space when drafting his answer, which can be, for example, a word or short phrase, completing certain sections of a form, etc.

It is strongly recommended that you send all the following documents to [email protected] in a single email along with the Examination Application Form.
 

1) Proof of identity

If you were born in Canada: A copy of your act or certificate of birth.

If you were not born in Canada: A copy of your Canadian citizenship certificate.

If you are not a Canadian citizen: A copy of the document issued by Canadian immigration authorities certifying your permanent resident status or a copy of the work permit issued by Canadian immigration authorities.

2) An official transcript

A copy of the final transcript certifying that a training program recognized by the OACIQ has successfully been completed.

Name, date of birth, program code, session, result (program completed: yes)

3) Payment of fees

Check the Administrative fees for the OACIQ certification exam page for full details.
 

4) Examination Application Form duly completed

Although educational establishments that offer a basic training program recognized by the OACIQ must adapt their programs accordingly to reflect all the changes, the OACIQ certification examination was officially updated as of January 2023.