FREE Michigan CNA Exam Guide 2026: Headmaster Blueprint + 17 Skills

Michigan CNA Exam 2026: What You Need to Pass

Michigan uses D&SDT-Headmaster, not Prometric, for its Nurse Aide Competency Evaluation. The exam has a 65-question knowledge test and a three- or four-task manual skill test. Each component allows three attempts, and both components must be passed within 24 months after training before you apply through Michigan's MI-NATES registry system.

The most important current corrections are easy to miss in older guides: the official testing fee is $175, new MI-NATES registration costs $40, the handbook publishes exact counts for all 12 knowledge domains, and the first skill task comes from four possible mandatory tasks.

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Official Michigan CNA Exam Snapshot

These details come from the current Michigan Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook and the Michigan LARA Nurse Aide Registry. The handbook is Version 5, effective January 1, 2025, and remains the current handbook listed by Headmaster.

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Step 1: Complete a Michigan-Permitted Training Program

New candidates normally complete a nurse aide training program permitted by LARA. Federal rules require at least 75 hours of training, including classroom and supervised practical instruction. Before a student has direct contact with residents, the program must provide at least 16 hours covering communication, infection control, safety and emergency procedures, promoting resident independence, and respecting resident rights.

Use LARA's registry page to find permitted programs rather than relying on a school's marketing claim. Admission rules, schedules, tuition, background checks, and health-document requirements vary by program and clinical site.

Ask about reimbursement before paying

If you work for or have an offer from a nursing home, county medical care facility, or hospital long-term-care unit, federal reimbursement rules may cover qualifying training, testing, and registration costs. Michigan links the current reimbursement instructions from its registry page. Ask the employer and training program before paying out of pocket.

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Step 2: Activate TMU and Schedule Headmaster Testing

After your training program records completion in TMU, you receive eligibility instructions. Complete your profile before trying to schedule.

1. Sign in at mi.tmutest.com.
2. Complete every required demographic field and make sure your name matches your identification.
3. Confirm whether your training program has already paid or scheduled your exam.
4. If self-paying, pay the $175 testing fee before selecting an available event.
5. Select the audio knowledge test before payment if you need the audio version.
6. Read the confirmation notice for the exact test site, time, and event instructions.

The handbook also describes a remotely proctored knowledge-test option. It has specific computer, room, phone-camera, identification, and internet requirements, so review those rules before scheduling it. The manual skill test remains an observed performance test.

Rescheduling and results

You may reschedule through TMU until one full business day before the scheduled test date, excluding weekends and holidays. A Friday exam, for example, must be rescheduled by the close of business Wednesday.

Official results appear in TMU after 8:00 p.m. Eastern on the business day after the test event. Headmaster does not mail or email result letters.

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Step 3: Master the Exact 65-Question Knowledge Blueprint

The knowledge test contains 65 multiple-choice questions, allows 60 minutes, and requires a score of at least 74%. Unlike many summaries online, the official handbook publishes an exact question count for every subject area.

How to use the blueprint

Start with Basic Nursing Skills, then give equal serious attention to Infection Control, Role and Responsibility, and Safety. Together, those four domains account for 31 of 65 questions. Do not ignore smaller areas: missing all three Disease Process or Data Collection items can still decide a close result.

The in-person knowledge test is electronic. The proctor can provide scratch paper and a basic calculator if needed. Headmaster also offers a free question of the day and a 10-question static sample at hdmaster.com; select Michigan in the state menu. Use those samples to learn the vendor's wording, then use longer mixed sets for timing. There is no benefit to leaving an item unanswered, so mark your best answer and keep moving.

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Step 4: Prepare All 17 Michigan Skill Tasks

TMU assigns one mandatory first task plus two or three additional tasks, for a total of three or four. You receive 30 minutes for the complete skill test.

To pass, you must correctly perform every key step printed in bold and at least 80% of the non-key steps on each task. You may tell the RN Test Observer that you want to correct a step and then demonstrate it correctly before time expires or before you declare the test finished. Merely describing a required action does not earn credit when the handbook requires a demonstration.

Four possible mandatory first tasks

Your first task is one of these four procedures with embedded soap-and-water hand washing:

1. Assist with a bedpan and measure and record urine output.
2. Perform catheter care for a female resident on a manikin.
3. Don PPE, empty a urinary drainage bag, measure output, doff PPE, and wash hands.
4. Perform perineal care for a female resident on a manikin.

The current handbook therefore has four, not three, possible mandatory first tasks. Both catheter care and perineal care use a manikin.

Complete 17-task pool

Use the step lists in the handbook or the separate Michigan Mock Skills PDF. Practice from the current Michigan list; videos for another state may use different steps, tolerances, or equipment.

A high-value rehearsal method

For each task, make three passes:

• Slow accuracy pass: read each official step aloud while demonstrating it.
• Closed-checklist pass: perform from memory, then compare your work with the official list.
• Timed correction pass: run several assigned tasks under a 30-minute timer and practice announcing and correcting a missed step.

Spend extra rehearsal time on the four possible first tasks because one must appear on every skill test.

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The Three-Attempt and 24-Month Rules

You have three attempts to pass the knowledge component and three attempts to pass the skill component within 24 months after your training completion date. If you pass one component, you retake only the component you failed.

If you fail either component three times, or the 24-month training window expires, you must complete another LARA-permitted training program before further Michigan testing. The current handbook lists a $175 retake fee for either the knowledge/audio component or the skill component, so a failed attempt is expensive.

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Test-Day Rules That Prevent a No-Show

Read your TMU confirmation because it controls the event-specific details. For an on-site test, the current handbook requires:

• Arrival 20 to 30 minutes early, and no later than 20 minutes before the scheduled start.
• Full clinical attire or scrubs, closed-toe shoes, and long hair pulled back.
• One original photo ID from the handbook's accepted U.S.-government-issued list; check its signature exceptions and exact document rules.
• Exact first-and-last-name agreement between the ID and your TMU record.

School IDs, photocopies, phone images, screenshots, and digital-wallet IDs are not accepted. A late candidate or one without valid identification or required attire is treated as a no-show and must pay for another date.

Do not bring test material into the exam room. Phones, smartwatches, recording devices, outside notes, and unapproved translation tools are prohibited during testing.

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After Passing: Apply Through MI-NATES

Passing Headmaster is not the final registration step. To receive a Michigan certificate of registration:

1. Create a MILogin account.
2. Request access to MI-NATES and complete your profile.
3. Submit the new nurse aide application.
4. Pay the current $40 registration fee.
5. Use MI-NATES to view or print the certificate after approval.

LARA says MI-NATES is not compatible with Safari; use Chrome or Edge on a computer. The current $40 fee replaces the older $20 amount still repeated by stale guides and archived FAQs.

A graduate of a Michigan-permitted program may work as a temporary nurse aide in a skilled nursing facility for up to four months while awaiting successful testing. If testing is not passed within that employment window, the graduate cannot continue nurse aide duties there until placed on the registry.

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Renewal and the March 2026 CE Rule

Michigan registration renews every 24 months. Renewal opens no earlier than 45 days before expiration and costs $40. The electronic application requires you to attest that you:

• performed at least 40 paid hours of nursing or nursing-related services during the relevant previous 24 months; and
• completed at least 12 hours of continuing education each year, totaling 24 hours in the two-year cycle.

The CE requirement applies to certificates expiring on or after March 23, 2026. CE must be health-care-related or relevant to nursing services and must include at least one course or CE activity on each of abuse, neglect, and care planning during the two-year cycle. A combined abuse-and-neglect course may satisfy both topic requirements.

You attest at renewal rather than uploading every certificate, but LARA requires documentation to be retained for two renewal cycles, or four years. The documentation must identify the participant, course, provider, location, duration, topic, and completion date.

LARA's Michigan Nurse Aide Continuing Education FAQ explains accepted sources. Employer in-service training at a long-term-care facility can count, as can qualifying college, health-facility, nursing-board, and accredited-provider activities. LARA also offers a free one-contact-hour care-plan module.

If the certificate lapses

A certificate lapses the day after its expiration, and you may not work as a CNA while it is lapsed. A lapse of less than 24 months can follow the standard renewal process only if the required paid employment occurred in the permitted period. A lapse greater than 24 months, or inability to meet the employment requirement, requires removal from the registry, new training, and another competency examination.

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Reciprocity Into and Out of Michigan

Michigan's live LARA page currently lists 39 approved reciprocity states. Applicants must hold active certification in good standing, have completed training and testing in an approved state, and satisfy Michigan's minimum training requirements.

To apply into Michigan, create MILogin and MI-NATES profiles, submit the online application, and pay the $40 registration fee. Because the approved-state list can change, check the current LARA page before paying rather than relying on a copied list.

For an active Michigan CNA moving elsewhere, BCHS no longer completes paper reciprocity forms. The destination authority should verify Michigan status through the public online registry; follow the destination state's application instructions.

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Michigan CNA Pay: Use the Official State Data

Michigan's Center for Data and Analytics reported a $18.70 statewide median hourly wage for nursing assistants using 2024 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Nursing assistants working in nursing homes had a median of $18.33 per hour. Actual offers vary by setting, location, shift, experience, and employer.

This official statewide measure is more useful than mixing unrelated job-board averages, travel rates, and unverified sign-on bonuses. Compare current local openings when making an employment decision.

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A Focused Study Plan

1. Blueprint pass: complete questions in all 12 domains, with extra volume in Basic Nursing Skills and the three seven-question areas.
2. Mandatory-task pass: memorize and demonstrate the four possible first tasks from the official Michigan steps.
3. Full-pool pass: rehearse every one of the 17 skills, not only common transfer and vital-sign tasks.
4. Timed pass: complete 65 questions in 60 minutes and run three or four skills inside 30 minutes.
5. Test-day pass: verify your TMU name, accepted ID, attire, location, and arrival time before the rescheduling deadline.

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Official Michigan CNA Sources

• Michigan LARA Nurse Aide Registry
• Headmaster Michigan CNA testing page
• Michigan Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook
• Michigan Mock Skills PDF
• Michigan TMU scheduling portal
• Michigan Nurse Aide Continuing Education FAQ
• Michigan Nurse Aide Registry lookup
• Federal nurse aide training requirements, 42 CFR 483.152
• Michigan 2024 nursing-assistant wage analysis

Headmaster testing support: 888-401-0462 or michigan@hdmaster.com. LARA registry support: 517-284-8961 or BCHS-CNA-Registry@michigan.gov.