CNA Written Pass Rate, Format & Study Guide

The certifying body does not publicly publish an official pass rate for this exam. Be wary of third-party sites citing a specific number here — treat any pass-rate claim you see elsewhere for this exam as unverified.

Retake policy depends on which vendor administers the exam in your state (NNAAP/Pearson VUE, Prometric, or Headmaster all operate in different states), so wait periods and fees vary. Common across all three: the written/oral knowledge test and the hands-on skills evaluation are graded and retaken independently — passing one does not carry over if you fail the other, and most states cap the number of total attempts (commonly around 3) before requiring re-enrollment in a training program.

Every state requires OBRA-87's federal minimum of 75 hours of training (at least 16 hours supervised clinical practice) before you're eligible to test. The NNAAP written exam is 70 multiple-choice questions in a 2-hour limit, of which only 60 are scored (10 are unscored pretest items not identifiable to the candidate); Prometric's version is 60 questions in 90 minutes, and Headmaster's is 75 questions in 1 hour — exact format depends on which vendor your state uses. The skills evaluation requires demonstrating 5 skills (hand-washing is always included), and missing a designated 'critical element' step within any skill fails that skill regardless of how well the rest was performed.

Because both the knowledge test and skills evaluation must be passed independently, split study time between memorizing content (vital sign ranges, OBRA resident rights, infection control) and physically rehearsing the skills checklist step-by-step, ideally with someone watching for critical-element steps you might skip out of habit. Since retake caps are common, treat your first attempt at each part as the one to be genuinely ready for.