• 72 multiple choice questions on the following subject areas
  • Basic Nursing Skills
  • Care impaired
  • Communication and Interpersonal Skills 
  • Data Collection 
  • Disease Process
  • Growth and Development Across the Ages
  • Infection Control
  • Mental Health
  • Personal Care
  • Residents Rights
  • Role and Responsibility
  • Safety
• 90 minutes to complete
• Must achieve a 75% or greater to pass this portion of the examination
• There is an audio version available upon request and additional fee.
  • If you learn best by hearing or if vocabulary or reading are a challenge, this might be a great option for you.
  • An audio (oral) version of the knowledge test is available and is only offered electronically. However, you must request an Audio exam before you submit your testing fee payment.
  • For the Audio version of the knowledge exam, questions are neutrally read to you and can be heard through headphones/earbuds plugged into the computer, which has control buttons on the computer screen (play, rewind, pause, etc.).

• The purpose of the Skill Test is to evaluate your performance when demonstrating North Dakota-approved nurse aide skill tasks. You will find a complete list of skill tasks in the North Dakota Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook 
• You will be given randomly selected three (3) or four (4) tasks will have scenarios associated with them. The scenarios will be read to you by the RN Test Observer immediately before you are asked to do each task.
• You will be allowed a maximum of thirty (30) minutes to complete your tasks.
• To pass the Skill Test, you must correctly perform all the key (in bold font) steps and 80% of all non-key steps on each task assigned.

To Schedule

• To Schedule an examination date, candidates must have successfully completed a nurse aide training and competency program (NATCP) approved by the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services. 
• In addition, all nurse aide certification exam candidates must be registered with D&S Diversified Technologies Headmaster by their training program. 
• Your registration information will be transmitted to the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services upon passing both portions of the CNA exam.

To Register

• If you are enrolled in a CNA course currently with NDSCS Workforce Affairs, your instructor will provide you with your testing date and instructions on how to complete registration 
• If you are NOT currently enrolled in an NDSCS Workforce Affairs CNA course,
  • You must provide proof of training completion from an approved ND HHS training provider
  • Please contact our office to schedule and register for a testing date.

Initial Skills and Knowledge Exam- $250.00

Audio Knowledge Exam- $10

Knowledge Exam Retake- $120.00 

Skills Exam Retake- $170.00

The North Dakota CNA Candidate Handbook 

Please read through the handbook very carefully. There is a lot of important information regarding your CNA certification throughout. 

• Pages A-B: Contact information and Table of Contents 
• Page 1: Introduction and the Nurse Aide Registry 
• Page 2: Reactivation by Exam and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 
• Page 3: North Dakota Nurse Aide TestMaster University (TMU) 
• Pages 8-15: The North Dakota Nurse Aide Competency Exam 
• Pages 16-18: The Knowledge/Audio Exam 
• Pages 18-19: The Skills test recording form 
• Pages 20-38: Mandatory first tasks and skill tasks list 
• Page 39: Knowledge Exam Vocabulary List

• Mandatory: You must bring a United States (US) government-issued, signed, non-expired photo bearing form of identification AND your Social Security Card. 
• Some examples of US government issued, signed, non-expired photo-bearing forms of identification are: 
  • State-issued Driver’s License 
  • State-issued Identification Card 
  • Signed US Passport (Foreign Passports and Passport Cards are not acceptable) 
  • Permanent Resident Card (Green Card or Alien Registration Card)/Employment Authorization Card issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) (now accepted without a signature or fingerprint IF ISSUED from January 30, 2023, to present day. If issued before January 1, 2023, may contain a fingerprint in place of a signature)
  • Tribal Identification Card 
  • Military Identification Card 
  • School ID (with photo)

After you have completed both the knowledge and the skills exam components of the CNA competency exam, your tests will be officially scored and double-checked by Headmaster personnel.

Official test results will be available to you in your TMU account after 6:00pm (CST) 1 business day after your test. 

To view your results, sign in to your TMU account at nd.tmutest.com and click on tests at the top of the page. 

Successfully passed both examination components 

• After you have successfully passed both the knowledge and skills test components of the nurse aide exam, your test results will be sent electronically to the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) by D&SDT-Headmaster.
• You will be certified by the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) only after you meet all DHHS requirements.
• To check on your nurse aide certificate
  • Go to DHHS’s website at https://services.ndnar.org/ and under Registration Verifications, click on “Verify a Registration”
  • Or go to https://www.health.nd.gov and click “Regulations and Licensure”
    • Click on “Nurse Aide Registry and CNA”
    • Click on “Nurse Aide Registry On-Line Services” 
    • Under Registration Verifications, click on “Verify a Registration”). 

Retaking the Certification Exam

• In the event that you fail the knowledge and/or skill portion of the exam you will only have to repeat the portion in which you did not pass.
• You will need to reregister and repay for the portion you failed.
  • Knowledge Exam Retake- $120.00
  • Skills Exam Retake- $170.00
  • If you failed both portions- $250

Download the Policy

Cancellations - You may cancel your test two business days before the test date.

• For example, if the test is on Monday, cancellation must be made by 4 p.m. the prior Wednesday. This allows time for NDSCS to contact students who would like to test on that day.
• This cancels the test with Headmaster and is not considered a test attempt.

Refunds - There are no refunds when you cancel less than two business days before the test or do not show up for testing.

• There are a limited number of testing slots. By submitting your testing fee, you are holding a spot that another person cannot use.
• NDSCS provides testing as a service to our community for serious CNA candidates. We are committed to the healthcare industry to provide testing to prospective CNA's.

Weather Cancellations

• If NDSCS is closed due to weather (blizzard, flooding), testing is cancelled. Please be looking at your email for any updates regarding weather related cancellations.