What the Florida CNA Exam Tests, and How It Is Scored

What are the two parts of the Florida CNA exam?

Florida’s nursing assistant competency exam has two parts: a written, or knowledge, test and a clinical skills test. Prometric administers both under contract with the Florida Department of Health. Certification itself is granted by the Department of Health through the Board of Nursing.

You can apply for both parts together or for one at a time. At the fees in Prometric’s current Florida bulletin (opens in a new tab), both parts together cost $155, the written test alone $35 and the skills test alone $120. However you take them, both parts have to be passed within a two-year window.

This guide covers what each part tests and how it is marked. For identification, what to wear and when to arrive, use the exam day checklist.

What is on the Florida CNA written exam?

The written test has 60 multiple-choice questions and a 90-minute time limit. You answer on a computer using a mouse, and you do not need any computer experience. Every question is drawn from a published content outline with five areas, and the outline gives each area an approximate share of the test.

Most questions are short care situations: a resident refuses a bath, a door alarm sounds mid-task, someone in bed becomes short of breath. The best answer usually keeps the resident safe, respects their choices and stays within a nurse aide’s role. People skim the role and safety areas because they feel like common sense, yet together they make up 42 per cent of the test.

The Board’s rule sets the pass mark at 76 per cent on the base version of the test, with later versions statistically equated to it. Your score report says only pass or fail.

Which skills are on the Florida CNA skills test?

Prometric’s clinical skills checklist (opens in a new tab) covers 22 skills. Handwashing and indirect care are scored for every candidate. Your other three are picked by computer from the remaining 20 when you are scheduled, and you first see them on the day, on a card the evaluator reads through with you.

You perform them in the order printed on the card. Each is tested in one set-up: feeding uses a resident sitting in a chair, and dressing uses a mannequin with a weak arm. The written test can still ask about other variations.

The table sorts the current list into the three families used in the Board’s rule. The rule also names blood pressure and weight as recording tasks, but neither appears on Prometric’s current Florida list.

How are handwashing and indirect care scored?

Nobody tells you to wash your hands. Evaluators expect you to know that hands are washed before and after you touch a resident. Your technique is scored during your first skill. In Florida, one nurse watches your handwashing at the start of that skill and the other watches it at the end. From then on, hand hygiene is judged as part of indirect care, under infection control.

What they want to see is ordinary technique done in full. Wet your hands and apply soap. Lather the fronts and backs, between the fingers, around the cuticles, under the nails and over the wrists, with at least 20 seconds of friction. Rinse, dry your hands and wrists with clean paper towels and put the towels in the bin. Then avoid touching the taps or the sink.

Indirect care is not a separate task. It is how you behave throughout, scored across all three of your skills. Prometric describes it as care relating to residents’ rights and preferences, communication, safety, comfort and needs, and infection control. The checklist attaches the same seven indirect care checkpoints to every skill. In plain terms:

• Greet the resident, use their name and say who you are.
• Explain what you are going to do before you start, and keep explaining as you go.
• Ask about their preferences, and act on what they tell you.
• Use standard precautions and infection control, including hand hygiene and gloves where the task needs them.
• Check on their comfort and needs before you finish.
• Protect their rights throughout. Privacy and dignity are the obvious ones.
• Keep them safe from the first step to the last.

How is the CNA skills test scored?

Every skill is broken into checkpoints: observable actions that show the skill was done safely and properly. Two nurses watch you throughout the test and compare what you do with those checkpoints. Afterwards the nurse enters the observations into Prometric’s system, which produces the result. To pass the skills test you must pass all five skills. Fail one, and the whole test is a fail, however well the others went.

You do not have to be flawless to pass a skill. Prometric asks you to show competency, and the Board’s rule sets the pass level for each task statistically rather than as a fixed number of checkpoints. Nobody can tell you how many checkpoints you can afford to miss, so the safe approach is to treat every one as if it decides the result.

You may correct a mistake while you are still on that skill. Tell the evaluator you are making a correction, then actually carry it out. Once you have said you are done with a skill, you cannot go back to it. If the evaluator has to stop a skill because of a safety concern, they will tell you what to put right, and you get no credit for that correction.

The test is timed at between 31 and 40 minutes, depending on your skills, and you are told your time before you begin. The nurses cannot coach you or discuss your performance. You get a score report at the test site shortly afterwards, and the online version shows which checkpoints you missed.

Where do candidates lose marks on the skills test?

Read the checklist closely and a pattern appears. Many checkpoints sit outside the main task, in the set-up, the measurement and the way you leave the resident. Those are the easiest to drop when you are nervous.

• Measurements outside tolerance. Your pulse count must be within 4 beats a minute of the nurse’s and your respiration count within 2 breaths a minute, each counted for a full minute. Urine output must be within 50 mL, and food and fluid intake within 25 per cent.
• Recording at the wrong moment. Write the measurement on the form before you say you are done, and take your gloves off before you record urine output.
• Coaching the resident’s breathing. Do not tell the resident how to breathe while you count respirations. You may say you are checking their pulse or vital signs instead.
• Starting a transfer too soon. Lock the wheelchair, move the footrests, put non-skid footwear on the resident and fit the gait belt snugly before they stand.
• Leaving the resident unsafe. Keep them a safe distance from the edge of the bed, and leave the call light and toilet paper within reach before you step away during the bedpan skill.
• Range of motion on the wrong side. Your card names the side. Move only the joints asked for, three times each, slowly, with the limb supported and without force.
• Working in silence. Explaining before and during care is a checkpoint in every skill, and it makes each step easier for the evaluators to see.
• Carrying one resident into the next skill. Prometric’s instructions tell you to treat the resident as a different person at the start of each skill, so greet, introduce yourself and explain again.

Can you take the Florida CNA written exam orally or in Spanish?

Yes to both. Florida law requires an oral exam to be given in place of the written portion on request, and Prometric provides it as an audio test. You hear each question read aloud while it is on screen, answer on the computer, and can replay any question as often as you need. You choose the audio option on your application. It cannot be requested on the day, and you do not need to apply for a disability accommodation to get it.

The written test, including the audio version, is available in English or Spanish. The skills test is in English only, and Prometric’s instructions require you to speak English throughout it, including while you are playing the resident for another candidate.

If English is not your first language, you can ask Prometric for extra time by sending a personal letter and a letter from an English instructor or sponsoring company. If approved, your time can be extended to one and a half times the usual limit, but only on an exam booked after approval. Disability accommodations are a separate request, need professional documentation and 30 days’ notice, and cost nothing extra. The Board of Nursing’s CNA page (opens in a new tab) confirms the oral and Spanish options.

What happens if you fail part of the Florida CNA exam?

You receive a score report at the test site on the day, and the result is reported to the Board of Nursing. To test again, you submit a new application and pay again, but only for the part you did not pass. At current fees that is $35 for the written test or $120 for the skills test. A part you have passed still counts, as long as you pass the other within two years of your first passing result.

The limit that matters most is three attempts. Under section 464.203 of the Florida Statutes, and the Board’s testing and competency rule (opens in a new tab), anyone who fails the exam three times cannot test again until they complete an approved training programme. Prometric’s bulletin sets that at a minimum of 120 hours of state-approved training, and says challenger candidates must then sit both parts again.

If you fail the written test, you can request an optional review. Email Prometric within 21 days of your test; the review must take place within 60 days, and a fee applies. You get 45 minutes with a printout of the questions you missed and the correct answers, and you cannot take notes out of the room. You must then wait 30 days after the review before booking a retake, so weigh what you would learn against the delay.

Because attempts are limited, treat a failed first try as a reason to change how you prepare, starting with the checkpoints listed on your skills report.

How should you prepare for each part?

The written test rewards careful reading and sound judgement. The skills test rewards repetition in front of someone who is marking you. Prepare for them separately, and give more time to the part you find harder.

1. 1Download the current bulletin and skills checklist from Prometric, and check the revision date before you rely on either.
2. 2Plan your written revision around the five content areas, giving most time to basic nursing care and safety, which carry the largest shares.
3. 3Sit a practice test in the real format. Prometric sells online practice exams and short clinical skills readiness tests. Read the explanation for every answer you get wrong.
4. 4Learn all 20 assignable skills, not a favourite few. You will not know your three until the day.
5. 5Build one opening and closing routine for indirect care and use it in every skill until you do it without thinking.
6. 6Practise pulse and respirations on real people for a full minute, and compare your count with a partner’s. Practise reading a measuring container at eye level.
7. 7Run timed mock tests of three random skills with someone marking against the checklist, then swap and play the resident.
8. 8In the final week, go back to the checkpoints you missed in practice rather than repeating the skills you already do well.

Where Jude Health Institute fits

Jude Health Institute runs CNA exam preparation in Orlando, and shorter CNA written and skills reviews if you only need help with one part. These are examination preparation courses, not a state-approved training programme. They do not establish your eligibility to test, and they do not count towards the 120 hours required after three unsuccessful attempts.

If you are not sure which part needs the work, send us an enquiry or call (407) 606-7964. Eligibility, scheduling and results rest with the Board of Nursing and Prometric.

Sources

1. 1Prometric — Florida Certified Nursing Assistant Candidate Information Bulletin (Rev. 11/01/2025) (opens in a new tab)
2. 2Prometric — Florida Clinical Skills Test Checklist (opens in a new tab)
3. 3Prometric — Nurse Aide Clinical Skills Test General Instructions (opens in a new tab)
4. 4Florida Board of Nursing — Certified Nursing Assistant certification and examination (opens in a new tab)
5. 5Florida Legislature — s. 464.203, Florida Statutes: certification, the oral examination and the three-attempt rule (opens in a new tab)
6. 6Florida Board of Nursing — Rule 64B9-15.008, F.A.C.: testing and competency evaluation (opens in a new tab)