The CNA written exam, and its oral version

What a written form contains

The NNAAP written test is one block of 70 multiple-choice questions, each with one best answer (Credentia, the NNAAP written examination). You have 2 hours. Of the 70 questions, 60 decide your result and 10 are being tried out for future forms. Your result is reported as pass or fail. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a blank is always worse than a guess.

The 2024 content outline, in force since October 1, 2024, groups the areas under three roles. The count below is our scaled estimate for a full form:

Physical care carries the bulk of the test. The role of the nurse aide, spread across five small areas, adds up to more than many candidates expect, and its questions are often the easiest to secure once you know the rules on rights, ethics and reporting.

How the questions are built

Very few questions ask for a bare definition. Most give you a resident, a situation and a task, then ask what the aide should do, do first, or say. Three kinds come back often:

• The priority question. Several options are correct actions, but only one comes first. A resident who is sliding out of a chair needs to be made safe before anyone is called.
• The scope question. One option belongs to the nurse, such as changing a diet or giving an opinion on a diagnosis. The aide observes, reports and follows the care plan.
• The words question. A resident says something, and you choose the reply that listens rather than argues, reassures falsely or changes the subject.

Watch for words such as first, best, most important and except. A question that asks what the aide should not do flips the logic of the options, and missing that one word is a frequent reason for a wrong answer that the candidate actually knew.

When you cannot decide, eliminate before you choose. Cross out options that are unsafe, that go beyond the aide's role, or that ignore what the resident wants. Two options usually remain. Between those, prefer the one that acts on the resident's need now over one that postpones it, and the one that reports a change over one that keeps it to yourself.

The oral version in practice

Federal rules leave the choice of a written or an oral test to the aide (42 CFR 483.154). In the NNAAP the oral form has 60 questions that you hear from a recording, followed by 10 word recognition items. The content is the same as the written test. What changes is the rhythm: you follow the recording rather than your own reading speed, and you may be able to replay a question, depending on how your site delivers it.

Choose the oral version if reading English slows you down, not as a shortcut. Practise by having someone read scenarios to you, or read them aloud yourself and answer without looking back at the text.

Other vendors, other counts

States that do not use the NNAAP write their own forms. Prometric forms in Texas, Florida and New York have 60 questions in 90 minutes, and Florida offers them in English or Spanish (Florida bulletin). Headmaster forms run 65 questions in Michigan, 75 in California and 79 in Ohio. The pacing tool above lets you check the time per question in each case; the Prometric page covers those three states in detail.

Training for the written part

Work in short sets by area, starting with basic nursing skills, which is the set loaded above. When your sets are steady, move to the full timed mock to train stamina. To read questions with their answers rather than answer them, the question bank lists them by area. All questions on this site are written by us from the outline; none come from a real form.

The five questions above come from legal and ethical behavior, a small area that rewards a single evening of focused review.