Exam Information

Exam Information

Announcement:
The ability to apply for, schedule, and take a NAB exam will be unavailable from December 15, 2024, to January 2, 2025. NAB will be changing exam providers. Please plan accordingly. The last day to take an exam will be December 14, 2024. The ability to schedule and take exams will start on January 3, 2025.

For assistance or to schedule an exam, please contact PSI Candidate Support:
(833) 892-5442
nabcandidatesupport@psionline.com

ATTENTION EXAM CANDIDATES:

Effective the week of November 14, 2022, NAB exam applications and scores can be found on NAB's website. State jurisdictions will continue to approve or deny all exam applications and retrieve any scores on NABVerify. NAB does not review exam applications under state jurisdictions. 

For all other exam candidate questions, please contact PSI Candidate Support or refer to the Exam Candidate Handbook.

For login credentials to NAB's website, please contact NAB:
nab@nabweb.org

NAB Examinations

In July 2022 new exam forms were released for the CORE and all Lines of Service Exams. There has been an increase in the number of questions and pretest questions. Pretest questions are ones that are being tested or piloted to see if they are quality questions. They do not count towards a candidate's final score, and they are not identified as pretest questions. The number of exam questions and seat time are as follows:

CORE Exam – 100 scored /25 pretest questions/ 125 total questions. Seat time 150 minutes.
NHA, RCAL, & HCBS Exams – Each line of service exam has 60 scored/15 pretest questions/ 75 total questions. Seat time 90 minutes.

All examination content reflects what is current practice. As such, changes to practice in the long-term and post-acute healthcare profession/industry that have been necessitated by the coronavirus situation and other recent developments are not yet assessed by the NAB licensure examinations. Examinees are advised to respond to examination content accordingly.

Please Note: While NAB offers the federal licensing exam for potential Nursing Home Administrators (NHA), candidates must be approved to test through their respective state licensure board(s). NAB is unable to approve any NHA exam applications. Please contact your state board to determine if you are eligible to take the below exam(s) prior to submitting an exam application.

Exam candidates will need to pass the one hundred (100) item Core of Knowledge examination module and a minimum of one of the below fifty (50) item line of service (LOS) examination modules.

Currently, there are three line of service exams offered in the areas of:

1. Nursing Home Administration (NHA)
2. Resident Care/Assisted Living (RCAL)
3. Home and Community Based Services (HCBS)

Once approved by a state licensure board, candidates can apply for examinations through the NAB website. 

Those applying for the NAB Health Services Executive (HSE qualification) will need to complete both the RCAL and HCBS LOS exams and should choose "NAB-HSE" as their state jurisdiction.

Refunds: All refund requests must be made in writing to nab@nabweb.org within 60 days of an exam application's denial or withdrawal.

The NAB Exam Candidate Handbook will answer questions regarding the exams structure (number of questions and seat time), fees, scheduling, withdrawals, and much more. Please read prior to applying for exam(s). 

Once approved by a state licensing jurisdiction, log in or create an account and apply online for the NAB exams. If you need technical assistance please contact nab@nabweb.org. To schedule an exam, after you have received an exam approval email, we recommend using the scheduling link found in the email or call PSI at 1-833-892-5442.

Consult the Recommended Exam References list for the Core of Knowledge, NHA, RCAL, and HCBS exams. All exam questions are referenced to a minimum of one reference listed. NAB is not able to recommend one, specific reference as all resources are used in exam development.

Test Score Interpretation - Do you have questions regarding interpreting your exam scores? Using an example score report, this comprehensive test score interpretation document will assist in truly understanding your test score.