The Colorado Notary Public Exam

Program Rules 2.1.3 and 2.1.4 describe the exam as one administered by the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State's testing page sends candidates to its eLearning portal to take it. There is no exam fee. The testing page says the exam checks your familiarity with Colorado notary law and with the procedures covered in the required training, which is why the FAQ lists passing the exam after completing training as a qualification.

The official description is brief. The exam is online, it is open book, notes and the handbook are allowed, and the Secretary of State expects it to take about 30 minutes. Any PC or Mac with an up-to-date browser will do. The pages reviewed for this guide do not publish the number of questions, a passing score or a formal time limit, so be skeptical of any figure you see elsewhere and rely on what the portal shows you when you launch the test.

Open book does not mean collaborative. Treat the exam as your own work; the certificate you upload is a statement that you passed it.

The testing page lays out the sequence. Create an eLearning account, or log in if you took the free training there. Under Notary Training, choose the exam titled Colorado Notary Public Examination - RULONA, open the curriculum and launch the test. When you finish, close the test window, choose Options, then View Completion Page, then View My Certificate, and save the PDF.

Two practical notes from the FAQ. The eLearning account is separate from the notary account you will use to apply, so the logins may differ. And once your application is approved, the eLearning account is deleted, so download the certificate right away.

Rule 2.1.7 names four sources the exam tests. Knowing why each is on the list tells you where questions are likely to come from.

The FAQs are the best available guide to what the office considers important, because they are built around the errors it sees. Expect to be tested on the elements every certificate needs (county and state, date, the type of act, your signature, stamp, title and commission expiration), the rule against pre-dating or post-dating a certificate, and how to correct a mistake by lining it through, writing the fix, and initialing and dating it.

Other favorites: the identification standard (a government ID that is current or expired no more than one year, bearing a photo or signature), the credible witness alternative, the list of relatives who create a disqualifying interest, the $15 per-document fee cap, what a journal entry must record, the ban on certifying copies of records available from a Colorado vital records office or clerk and recorder, and why a notary acting on a federal Form I-9 is an employer's authorized representative rather than a notary.

The certificate has a shelf life. Under Rule 2.1.3 you must finish training and pass the exam within the 90 days before you apply, and Rule 2.1.4 imposes the same limit on renewals. Plan to apply within a few days of passing. Rule 2.1.6 also lets the Secretary of State order a notary who has committed misconduct to retake the training and exam. The official pages do not describe a limit on attempts or a waiting period after a failure; if that matters to you, check the portal before you start.

The risk on an open-book exam is not ignorance so much as time spent searching. Read RULONA once straight through, then build a one-page index of where each topic lives: identification, certificates, the stamp, the journal, fees and disqualification. Tab the handbook the same way. Work practice questions until you can answer the common scenarios without looking anything up, and reserve the book for the unusual ones.

A sensible schedule for most candidates is two or three short sessions: one to read the law and the handbook, one to build your index and drill weak topics, and a final timed run the day you sit the exam. Because the certificate expires for application purposes after 90 days, there is little benefit in taking the exam weeks before your paperwork is ready.

NotaryPrepHQ can help with that last step. Its Colorado bank is written from the state's notary law and handbook, and it includes a diagnostic, topic drills that explain each answer, and timed practice exams with a readiness score. It is practice for the exam, not a training course, and it does not produce a certificate the Secretary of State will accept.