How the CNA exam works

The CNA certification exam has a written (or oral) knowledge test and a skills evaluation. You must pass both. They are not the same exam in a different form: they test different things, on different days, and they are scored differently.

The written part asks about the knowledge an assistant needs — personal care, infection control, vital signs, resident rights and the rest. The skills evaluation asks you to perform a set of nursing-assistant skills in front of a person who scores you against a fixed order.

The written part is scored by your state’s vendor against a cut standard, on a calibrated item bank. The skills evaluation is scored by a person, against a checklist, in a fixed order, with some steps weighted so heavily that missing one fails the whole skill.

What this site reports on the written half is raw correct out of total, by topic. It is not a CNA score and it does not predict whether you will pass. The exact item count, time limit, number of skills and passing standard are set by your state and vendor — facts this site does not state until it has verified them.

Most people pass the written half. The skills evaluation is where candidates overwhelmingly fail — and it is the half no website can rehearse you for. This site practises the written half and tells you, plainly, that the exam you just practised is not the one that fails people. The skills evaluation is explained in full here.

Passing means meeting a cut standard set by your state and its testing vendor on their calibrated exam. It is a standard, not a curve, and not a prediction any practice site can make. Your state’s board of nursing is the source for the exact numbers, and the national directory of boards is at ncsbn.org.