This is an abbreviated CNA practice test. The test contains 60 questions and you will have 90 minutes to complete it. You cannot pause the test to keep your place. Whether your test provider is Headmaster, Credentia, or Prometric a CNA practice test will help in your preparations for your official state exam. When you are ready click the “Start” button.
Be Ready for your Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Exam with our Free CNA Practice Test
If you’ve made it to this page you’re most likely looking for assistance in preparing for your written CNA certification exam. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered. We have hundreds of free CNA test questions to help you practice in preparation for your CNA exam. Best of all, these resources are completely free and require no registration to use. Take any of our CNA practice tests as often as you’d like until you are confident in your ability to perform on exam day. For those of you in Ohio and New Hampshire, please note that yes, this is also an STNA practice test or LNA practice test. For the purposes of this site we default to using the CNA acronym rather than the State Tested Nursing Assistant and Licensed Nursing Assistant terms which are used in Ohio and New Hampshire.
Our CNA free practice tests are designed to challenge your knowledge and prepare you for your CNA knowledge exam. You will be quizzed on questions across a number of topics including:
- Basic nursing skills and safety: These are the basic patient care skills you’ll need to display on a day to day basis to be a valuable member of your facility’s healthcare team. Questions in this area will cover taking and recording vital signs, methods of infection control, and assisting patients with everyday living activities.
- Emergency procedures: Questions on emergency procedures are exactly as you’d expect, understanding a CNA’s role in various medical emergencies while working at a medical facility or a nursing home..
- Personal care skills: Understanding personal care skills is critical to being successful as a CNA. You’ll need to have a complete understanding of how to assist patients with tasks such as bathing, oral care, shaving, hair care, and using the toilet.
- Patient mental health and social service needs: These questions focus on caring for a patient’s mental and emotional health needs.
- Restorative services: These questions cover items such as assisting clients with mobility and assisting patients with developing independence in their day to day activities.
- Patient and professional communication: Effective communication is critical as a CNA. Questions in this area will focus on ways to effectively communicate with both patients and team members in a healthcare setting.
- Legal and ethical concerns: Being a healthcare worker comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility both legally and ethically. Questions here are designed to gauge your understanding of concerns in these areas including abuse, negligence and privacy.
- Resident’s rights: 1973’s Patient Bill of Rights dictates the questions in this section, so be sure you have a complete understanding of that document and its contents to correctly answer questions in this section.
- Care of cognitively impaired patients: Questions in this area require aspiring CNAs to know the correct procedures for dealing with patients with minimal to severe cognitive impairments.
Our free practice CNA test options are designed to help you pass your certification exam. They are an excellent method for preparing for the written test because they are timed just like the official written exam. Our free CNA practice tests come with answers available upon completion so you can go back through and review each of your responses to see which questions you got wrong and need to brush up on. We offer six full practice tests with questions from every test category, or nine category specific tests where you can focus in on one topic area in a CNA’s scope of practice that you want to improve upon. Our tests are an excellent study guide and offer great flexibility in where, when and how you study, as we have a huge range of questions to assist you in your test prep. These tests are easy to access on either a desktop computer or a mobile device.
CNA Exam Breakdown By Provider
Depending on where you live, and who is providing your CNA exam, the format of your test may differ. There are three major providers of CNA exams: Prometric, Headmaster and Credentia. We’ll walk you through the format of each of the tests below.
Credentia CNA Written Exa
- Used in: AL, AK, CA, CO, DC, GA, MD, MN, MS, NC, PA, RI, SC, TX, VA, WA
- Number of questions: 70
- Types of questions: Multiple choice
- Skills test overview: 30 minutes to complete four randomly selected skills in addition to the hand washing skill
| Topic | # of Questions | % of Exam |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Physical Care Skills | ||
| Activities of Daily Living: Dressing and Grooming, Elimination, Hygiene, Rest, Sleep & Comfort | 9 | 14% |
| Basic Nursing Skills: Data Collection & Reporting, Infection Control, Safety and Emergencies, Therapeutic Procedures & Technical Procedures | 23 | 39% |
| Restorative Skills: Prevention, Self Care & Independence | 5 | 8% |
| 2. Psychosocial Care Skills | ||
| Emotional & Mental Health Needs | 6 | 11% |
| Spiritual & Cultural Needs | 2 | 2% |
| 3. Role of the Nurse Aide | ||
| Client Rights | 4 | 7% |
| Communication | 4 | 8% |
| Legal and Ethical Behavior | 2 | 3% |
| Member of the Health Care Team | 5 | 8% |
| 4. Pretest Questions | ||
| These questions are unscored and used for statistical purposes only | 10 | 0 |
Credentia skills for the skills test
If you’re taking the Credentia version of the CNA exam, your clinical skills test will include hand washing as well as four other randomly selected skills chosen from the list below.
- Applies one knee-high elastic stocking
- Assists to ambulate using transfer belt
- Assists with use of bedpan
- Cleans upper or lower denture
- Counts and records radial pulse
- Counts and records respirations
- Donning and removing PPE (gown and gloves)
- Dresses client with affected (weak) right arm
- Feeds client who cannot feed self
- Gives modified bed bath (face and one arm, hand and underarm)
- Measures and records blood pressure
- Measures and records urinary output
- Measures and records weight of ambulatory client
- Performs modified passive range of motion (PROM) for one knee and one ankle
- Performs modified passive range of motion (PROM) for one shoulder
- Positions on side
- Provides catheter care for female
- Provides foot care on one foot
- Provides mouth care
- Provides perineal care (PERI-CARE) for female
- Transfers from bed to wheelchair using transfer belt
Check out our collection of CNA skills test videos to sharpen up your skills for the Credentia skills test.
Prometric CNA Written Exam
- Used in: AL, AR, CT, DE, FL, HI, ID, LA, MI, NM, NY, OK, WY
- Number of questions: 60
- Types of questions: Multiple choice
- Time allowed: 90 minutes
- Skills test overview: Perform five skills within 31-40 minutes. Two required skills include handwashing and indirect care, the other three are chosen at random.
| Topic | Approximate # of Questions | Approximate % of Exam |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Role of the Nurse Aide | ||
| Communication, Nurse aide as a member of the health care team, Personal responsibility | 12 | 20% |
| 2. Promotion of Safety | ||
| Common injuries & related risks, Emergencies, Fire prevention/safety, Infection prevention/control, Potential hazards in the healthcare environment, Safety & comfort, Safety devices | 13 | 22% |
| 3. Promotion of Function and Health of Residents | ||
| Age-related changes, Health maintenance & restoration, Personal care skills, Psychosocial resident needs | 12 | 20% |
| 4. Basic Nursing Care Provided by the Nurse Aide | ||
| Acute emergency situations, Routine, chronic, non-life threatening situations | 14 | 24% |
| 5. Providing Specialized Care for Residents with Changes in Health | ||
| Care of the dying resident and post-mortem care, Physical problems, Psychological problems | 9 | 14% |
Prometric list of skills for the skills test
On the day of your test, your skills test will include the top two required skills as well as three others from the list below.
- Handwashing (required)
- Indirect care (required)
- Ambulate the resident using a transfer/gait belt
- Assist resident needing to use a bedpan
- Change bed linen while the resident remains in bed (not tested in Wyoming)
- Change resident’s position to a supported side-lying position
- Dress a resident who has a weak arm
- Empty contents of resident’s urinary drainage bag, and measure and record urine output on an Intake and Output (I&O) form
- Feed a resident who is sitting in a chair
- Measure and record a resident’s radial pulse
- Measure and record a resident’s respirations
- Provide catheter care to a female resident who has an indwelling urinary catheter
- Provide foot care to a resident who is sitting in a chair
- Provide mouth care to a resident who has a denture
- Provide mouth care to a resident who has teeth
- Provide perineal care to a female resident who is incontinent of urine
- Provide resident hand and nail care
- Provide resident a partial bed bath and back rub
- Provide resident with passive range of motion (ROM) exercises to one elbow and wrist
- Provide resident with passive range of motion (ROM) exercises to one shoulder
- Provide resident with passive range of motion (ROM) exercises to one hip, knee and ankle
- Transfer the resident from the bed into a wheelchair using a pivot technique and a transfer/gait belt
If you need more practice for the skills test, be sure to check out our collection of skills test videos to prepare for the Prometric skills test.
Headmaster CNA Written Exam
- Used in: AZ, MT, ND, NH, NJ, NV, OH, OR, SD, TN, VT, WI
- Number of questions: 75
- Types of questions: Multiple choice
- Skills test overview: Demonstration of five skills is required
| Topic | Approximate # of Questions | Approximate % of Exam |
|---|---|---|
| Safety | 7 | 9% |
| Infection Control | 8 | 11% |
| Personal Care | 9 | 12% |
| Mental Health | 4 | 5% |
| Care Impaired | 4 | 5% |
| Resident Rights | 5 | 7% |
| Communication | 7 | 9% |
| Data Collection | 7 | 9% |
| Basic Nursing Skills | 9 | 12% |
| Role and Responsibility | 7 | 9% |
| Disease Process | 4 | 5% |
| Older Adult Growth & Development | 4 | 5% |
Headmaster list of skills for the skills test
On the day of your test, your skills test will include five randomly selected skills from the list below.
- Abdominal thrust
- Ambulation with cane or walker
- Ambulation with use of gait belt
- Applying antiembolic stockings
- Back rub
- Blood pressure
- Brushing teeth
- Denture care
- Dressing resident
- Feeding the dependent resident
- Fluid intake
- Hair care
- Hand washing
- Making an occupied bed
- Mouth care of a comatose resident
- Nail care
- Partial bed bath – face & arm
- Passing fresh water
- Positioning resident on side
- Range of motion exercise
- Toileting using a bedpan
- Transfer from bed to wheelchair using a gait belt
- Transfer from wheelchair to bed using a gait belt
- Vital signs: Pulse and respiration
- Weighing and measuring height of an ambulatory resident
For more CNA skills test practice, check out our collection of videos skills test videos to help you prepare for the Headmaster skills test.
How to pass the CNA test?
One of the most important things you can do to prepare yourself for the CNA exam is to learn all the required skills and then practice, practice, practice! One of the best ways to practice to become a CNA is a free test sample. This site contains a number of free CNA practice exams that will test your knowledge in a number of areas and also provide the exact same number of questions to be answered within the time limit for the written portion of the test, making it an ideal way to prepare yourself to pass the CNA test. Other resources to help you pass the test are available via a simple Google search if you’re interested in trying some other online resources.
Where can I take the CNA exam?
You can take the exam at an approved CNA program in your state. We have a massive list of CNA classes from around the country to help you find CNA programs near you.
Each state has approved providers for the skills exam. See the list below to find your state and your approved provider(s):
American Red Cross, approved university, or private entities: IL, IN, KY, MA, ME, UT, WV
Headmaster: AZ, MT, ND, NH, NJ, NV, OH, OR, SD, TN, WI, VT
Credentia: AL, AK, CA, CO, DC, GA, MD, MN, MS, NH, NC, ND, PA, RI, SC, TX, VA, VT, WA, WY
Prometric: AL, AR, CT, DE, FL, HI, ID, LA, MI, NM, NY, OK, WY
What score do I need to pass the CNA exam?
The score you’ll need to pass will vary by the state where you are getting certified (and the associated testing provider). Most commonly a score of 80% or higher is needed on the written knowledge portion examination, though some states only require 70 or 75%.
On the CNA skills test (or practical exam), all critical functions must be completed correctly or the student will fail. Every state will test on handwashing due to its importance in infection control, so be certain you have that skill mastered. Other common elements include recording measurements (pulse, blood pressure, etc.) and indirect care relating to a patient’s comfort and safety.
What are you waiting for?
Take our free CNA practice tests and the skill-specific CNA quizzes as often as you’d like to brush up on your basic care skills and improve your final score when taking the Certified Nursing Assistant exam. Read through our guides and practical career advice to build your skills and earn your CNA certification to jumpstart your career!