CNA guides
Direct answers for CNA format, studying, exam day, scores, and what to do next.
18 source-backed guides
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A two-track plan for the CNA (nurse aide) competency exam: study the written exam by the nine NNAAP content areas, and rehearse the skills hands-on from your state's current checklist.
Read the guideThe nine content areas of the 2024 NNAAP written (oral) outline, their weights and scored-item counts, and the kind of decision each area's questions ask you to make.
Read the guideFederal rules let each state choose its nurse aide competency exam and who gives it. Here are the state examples verified on October 18, 2026, and a quick way to confirm yours.
Read the guideWhat happens during the NNAAP skills evaluation: five skills in 30 minutes, the candidate volunteer, Critical Element Steps, how corrections work, and the state rules that change test day.
Read the guideWhere the difficulty of the CNA exam really comes from: two parts you must both pass, a skills evaluation with little room for error, and written options that look alike. With a worked example and a ten-item self-check.
Read the guideHow the CNA written exam tests communication: talking with a resident who has aphasia, answering families inside privacy rules, reporting clearly to the nurse, and treating cultural and spiritual preferences as care information.
Read the guideBrowse the library
The content outline, the format, the passing standard, and the oral option.
Federal rules leave the CNA passing standard to each state. Here is what Tennessee and Pennsylvania publish, why the skills evaluation is scored skill by skill, and how to read a failing skills report.
Read the guideHow the CNA oral exam works on the NNAAP, what the word-recognition section checks, which states offer English and Spanish oral exams, when to request one, and how the oral exam differs from a reader accommodation.
Read the guideHow many questions are on the NNAAP written exam, how long you get, how the oral version works, and how Tennessee's, Florida's and Texas's formats differ, with a pacing plan for each.
Read the guideHow the skills test works and is scored, and what the steps of each skill protect.
Safety, measurements, communication, independence, end-of-life care, and the nurse aide role.
What the CNA exam expects of a nurse aide caring for a dying resident: comfort care within the aide's role, changes to report, advance directives and refusals, spiritual and cultural wishes, families, and care after death.
Read the guideWhat the CNA written exam expects about falls and transfers: the checks before a resident stands, a room that does not invite the next fall, why restraints and bed rails are not a shortcut, and what to do when a resident starts to fall.
Read the guideHow the CNA exam tests self-care and independence: the do-with-not-for rule, assistive devices, range-of-motion principles, and respecting a resident's choices, with original scenarios and the federal restorative-care list.
Read the guideWhat a nurse aide may and may not do, how to decline a task you were not trained for, how assignment and delegation differ, and which changes to report to the nurse, with original CNA exam scenarios.
Read the guideHow measurement shows up on the CNA written exam and the NNAAP skills evaluation, the errors that make a reading wrong, when a number goes to the nurse and not only on the chart, and worked examples with the arithmetic shown.
Read the guideExam day, ID and rules, fees, and who pays.
CNA exam fees in seven states as checked on October 18, 2026, the federal rules that stop nursing facilities from charging their aides, how pro rata reimbursement works, retest costs, and the fees you can lose.
Read the guideWhat to bring to the CNA exam, when to arrive, how online proctoring works, the rules on skills day, and what counts as an attempt, using Credentia's Pennsylvania handbook as the dated example and Tennessee's attire rules.
Read the guideRetake limits, time windows, and next steps after a result.
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