CNRN Exam Prep: What's Actually Scored, When You Can Sit, and What It Costs

By Castleport Test Prep Editorial Team
Last verified: August 28, 2026 · Clinical review pending — no named CNRN reviewer has reviewed this page.

The next 2026 deadline: ABNN's application deadline for the October 1–31 exam window is September 3, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Central time. ABNN says deficiencies cannot be corrected after the deadline, so do not treat 5:00 p.m. as the time to start the application. Open the official ABNN Certification Center →

For CNRN exam prep in 2026, start with these current facts: the exam is 220 multiple-choice items in four hours. Only 200 are scored; 20 are unscored pretest items. Use the outline based on ABNN's 2024 job analysis, effective beginning with the July 2025 window. You need a current, unrestricted RN license and 2,080 hours of direct or indirect neuroscience nursing practice in the prior three years. The exam fee is $300 to $425. Patient Management plus Multidisciplinary Care account for 109 of the 200 scored items.

That last number is the part candidates can miss. The diagnosis-heavy domain is 91 items. The other 109 are allocated to managing patients and coordinating care. That does not mean disease knowledge disappears from those questions. It means memorizing disorders alone is not a complete study plan.

The CNRN 200 Map: the answer before the details

Official fact: ABNN publishes the 91/76/33 domain allocations.
Castleport calculation: 76 + 33 = 109, and 109 ÷ 200 = 54.5%.

The interactive CNRN 200 Map above also lets you:

• compare your available study hours with ABNN's published survey of successful candidates without pretending to predict your result;
• check a book, course, or question bank for retired-blueprint signals;
• open selected detail from the retired outline as historical review prompts, not as a current test-content promise; and
• calculate exam, membership, and study-material costs from current published prices.

This page is for you if you are an RN preparing for the broad CNRN neuroscience nursing certification, including candidates whose qualifying work is in direct care, education, research, administration, consultation, or clinical supervision.

This is probably not your exam if you need a stroke-only credential such as SCRN, rehabilitation nursing certification such as CRRN, critical care certification such as CCRN, medical-surgical certification such as CMSRN, or trauma certification such as TCRN. CNRN is a general neuroscience nursing exam. It is not a substitute for your RN license.

What is on the CNRN exam?

The current CNRN blueprint has three scored domains: 91 items in anatomy/pathophysiology/diagnosis, 76 in patient management, and 33 in multidisciplinary care. The exam also contains 20 unscored pretest items, but ABNN does not identify them while you test.

ABNN's current detailed outline is based on its 2024 job analysis study and took effect with the July 2025 exam window. The exam remains 220 items total and four hours long. The blueprint change was structural: the old two-axis outline was replaced by three scored domains plus 50 unweighted secondary task classifications.

Domain I: Anatomy, Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Diagnosis — 91 items

ABNN places six broad content families under Domain I:

1. Trauma
2. Cerebrovascular
3. Neuro-oncology
4. Infection and Immune Complications
5. Neurodevelopmental Conditions
6. Neurological Disorders

Those families include topics such as traumatic brain and spinal injury, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, tumors, infection and immune complications, congenital conditions, seizures, headaches, hydrocephalus, dementia, movement disorders, degenerative spine disease, and peripheral nerve injury or neuropathy.

Domain II: Patient Management — 76 items

ABNN divides Patient Management into three broad areas:

1. Physiological Interventions
2. Behavioral Interventions
3. Safety Interventions

The current outline names activity and self-care, bowel and bladder management, nutrition, metabolic and pharmacological management, neurological assessment, procedures, airway and respiratory management, thermoregulation, cardiovascular management, psychosocial care, chemical dependency, pain, coping, delirium, abuse recognition, environmental safety, infection prevention, and restraint.

Domain III: Multidisciplinary Care — 33 items

ABNN divides Multidisciplinary Care into:

1. Quality of Life
2. Health Care Management

The outline names comfort, support systems, culture and socioeconomic considerations including social determinants of health, rehabilitation, palliative care, hospice and end-of-life care, organ donation, patient and caregiver education, multidisciplinary collaboration, quality improvement, outcome evaluation, scope of practice, delegation, ethics, evidence-based standards, and regulations.

What the 109-item finding changes

A study plan built almost entirely around diagnoses is misaligned with the published allocation. If your baseline is equally strong across the three domains, a simple 20-block study cycle would roughly mirror the blueprint with 9 blocks for Domain I, 8 for Domain II, and 3 for Domain III. That is Castleport's rounded planning model, not an ABNN rule.

ABNN publishes no item counts for the subareas inside each domain. That means no one can responsibly tell you that “physiological interventions are about 36 questions” or “cerebrovascular is about 19.” Those estimates require assuming that every outline line receives equal weight, and ABNN never says that.

The official sample items support an applied approach without proving exact cognitive weighting. All four samples ask the candidate to choose the most suitable, beneficial, or appropriate intervention or team goal. ABNN also says the exam tests knowledge, interpretation, and problem solving/evaluation. The clean conclusion is not “facts do not matter.” It is: facts must be usable in nursing decisions.

Open the current ABNN CNRN Candidate Handbook →

What changed in the CNRN blueprint in July 2025?

ABNN replaced the retired outline beginning with the July 2025 exam window. The old outline classified the 200 scored items on two separate axes; the current outline uses three scored domains and 50 unweighted secondary task classifications.

The biggest danger is a false before-and-after comparison. The retired “Cerebrovascular — 50 items” number came from the old disorders axis. The current outline does not publish a cerebrovascular item count. Comparing 50 with a home-made current estimate would compare two different structures and manufacture a trend ABNN never published.

Newly named does not automatically mean newly tested

The current outline names several concepts that the retired outline did not name in the same way, including stroke mimics, prion disease, neuro-endocrine disorders, social determinants of health, delegation, hospice, regulations, abuse recognition, and depression/anxiety under psychosocial considerations.

Those are newly named in the published outline. That does not prove each concept first appeared on an exam in July 2025. ABNN did not publish an item-by-item crosswalk or a list labeled “new test content.”

No-longer-named does not automatically mean still tested

The retired outline named much more detail, including specific tumor types, vascular anomalies, stroke subtypes, dementia types, movement disorders, devices, braces, and procedures. The current outline uses broader headings.

That old detail can still be useful as a review prompt. But ABNN has not said every retired example remains testable. The safe use is:

• current outline first;
• retired detail second, as optional prompts beneath a current broad heading;
• never present the retired list as the active blueprint; and
• never promise that a retired named detail will appear.

The tool's Historical Detail tab follows that boundary. It preserves useful specificity without turning an old document into a fake current blueprint.

How can you tell whether CNRN study material is current?

The strongest proof is a source date: current material should identify ABNN's 2024 job analysis, the three-domain 91/76/33 outline, or the July 2025 effective window. A “2026” or “2026–2027” cover by itself proves nothing.

Use this order:

Definitive retired-blueprint signals

Material is describing the pre-July-2025 outline if it does any of these as the current blueprint:

• presents separate Disorders and Interventions axes;
• gives the disorder counts as 30/50/26/22/10/62;
• gives intervention weights as 54%/21%/12%/8%/5%;
• says its governing outline is based on the 2019 job analysis; or
• says that outline took effect with the July 2020 window.

The content may still teach accurate neuroscience nursing. The problem is version control: it is not a current blueprint map.

Warning signals that need a second check

These can suggest older organization, but none proves a resource is unusable by itself:

• it uses “Tumors” where the current outline says “Neuro-oncology”;
• it has a “Health System Management” module;
• it does not mention current named concepts such as social determinants of health, stroke mimics, delegation, or hospice; or
• its public description lists only disorder families without mapping the rest of its coverage to the current three domains.

A broad textbook may use older chapter names and still cover current material. A short product page may omit details that exist inside the course. Check the cited ABNN outline, sample pages, table of contents, and update statement before deciding.

Current factual errors are a harder stop

Do not rely on a source that says the current exam is 200 total questions, three hours long, or requires a fixed published number correct to pass. The current official facts are 220 total items, four hours, 200 scored, and no public raw cut score.

Use the Version Check tab in the CNRN 200 Map before you buy. It separates definitive old-outline signals from mere warnings and current factual errors.

Which CNRN study materials are available, and what do they cost?

AANN sells the main official-association prep options, including a print or digital Core Curriculum, a recorded Study Session, a 75-question Self-Assessment, and a package. ABNN lists these as optional resources and says it does not endorse any educational product or program.

We should tell you what we do not have. Castleport does not publish a CNRN book, question bank, course, or CNRN diagnostic. We do not offer a pass guarantee. We have no access to actual, recalled, leaked, or live exam items. We earn no commission if you buy an AANN product or apply through ABNN. The free CNRN 200 Map on this page is Castleport's tool; the credential, exam, application, and AANN products are not ours.

Current AANN prices and terms

Verified August 28, 2026. Recheck the direct product page before paying, especially the Study Session CE date.

The package math is more complicated than the summary line

The direct AANN package page publishes $360 member / $500 list. The same page says members save $140 or more, which is the difference between its $500 list price and $360 member price.

Using the current separately published product prices:

• member components total $400, so the $360 member package is $40 less;
• nonmember components total $555, so the $500 list package is $55 less; and
• the ABNN/AANN summary page says the package saves $60.

Those three statements are close but do not reproduce one identical savings number. The direct product price is the clean number to use; checkout is the final price.

What the public pages do and do not prove about coverage

The Self-Assessment's direct product page says it was newly updated with the 2025 CNRN outline. That is stronger and more current than a stale summary phrase elsewhere that still says “seven content areas.”

The Study Session's public page lists six disorder-family areas, but its learning outcomes also discuss patient care, interventions, and treatment. That means the six module labels do not prove that management or multidisciplinary care is absent. The page does not publish a clean three-domain coverage map, so ask for one if this will be your only paid resource.

The Core Curriculum is broader than an exam blueprint. Use it to learn and fill clinical knowledge gaps; use the current ABNN outline to control what gets time first.

See ABNN's current CNRN study-material page →
See AANN's direct CNRN Self-Assessment page →
See AANN's direct CNRN package page →

How much does the CNRN exam cost?

The application fee is $300 for an AANN member paying by credit card and $400 for a nonmember paying by credit card. Paying by check adds $25 at either tier, producing a verified fee range of $300 to $425.

All applications are completed online even when payment is mailed. ABNN says checks must be received by the deadline, not merely postmarked.

Does joining AANN save money?

AANN's live membership listing showed these annual dues on August 28, 2026:

• Active RN membership: $142
• New to Neuro membership: $92
• Associate membership: $110
• Student membership: $72

For a CNRN candidate, the useful comparison is usually Active versus New to Neuro. New to Neuro is available for one year to people who graduated from nursing school in the last three years, are new to nursing, or are new to a neuro unit or to caring for neuro patients.

These comparisons treat a new membership as part of the CNRN basket. If you are already an AANN member, the dues are already paid and the $300 member card fee is the clean exam cost.

The Active membership does not pay for itself on the exam alone: $142 in dues buys a $100 exam discount. It crosses into savings when the basket contains enough member-priced material. The New to Neuro rate saves $8 on the exam alone if you qualify.

Refund and forfeiture rules that can cost more than the price difference

ABNN's standard refund rule is narrow:

• you must not have scheduled with PSI;
• ABNN must receive the withdrawal at least seven days before the eligibility window ends; and
• ABNN keeps a $100 administrative fee.

Once you have scheduled, the handbook says you are not eligible for a refund. Failure to complete a selected audit also produces no refund. Missed appointments, late arrival beyond the allowed window, an ID mismatch, or failure to reschedule on time can forfeit the fee and require a new application.

A grant may cover part of the fee

The Agnes Marshall Walker Foundation publishes an ABNN Certification Grant for neuroscience nursing professionals who do not yet hold CNRN or SCRN. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with a quarterly acceptance limit. AMWF does not publish an award amount on the grant page, so do not build a budget around an assumed number.

Check the current AMWF ABNN Certification Grant →

When can you take the CNRN exam in 2026?

ABNN offers the CNRN in March, July, and October windows. As of August 28, 2026, the remaining published window is October 1–31, with an application deadline of September 3 at 5:00 p.m. Central.

ABNN encourages candidates to apply early because it may request more documentation and deficiencies cannot be corrected after the deadline. Test appointments are first come, first served. The handbook also says you cannot schedule and sit on the same day, so the last day of the window is not a safe scheduling plan.

Can you reschedule or move to another window?

Within the same window, ABNN's live cancel/reschedule page says you may reschedule at least 48 hours—and at least two business days—before the current appointment. Follow PSI's posted procedure and use the stricter timing when the wording produces two clocks.

The candidate handbook states that candidates may not extend or postpone an eligibility window. ABNN's live page adds a narrow exception: it may review a postponement request for extenuating circumstances when the candidate contacts ABNN first and at least seven days before the scheduled exam. That is a review path, not an automatic right or an approval promise.

ABNN had not published 2027 CNRN exam dates in the verified 2026 handbook as of August 28, 2026. The tool therefore does not invent them. Once the October window passes, use ABNN's current handbook or exam page for the next official dates.

Run your date and study-hours calculation in the CNRN 200 Map ↑

Are you eligible for CNRN certification?

You need two things: a current, unrestricted RN license and 2,080 hours of direct or indirect neuroscience nursing practice as an RN during the prior three years. ABNN's live eligibility page says the license must remain valid through the exam date.

The license rule

The standard pathway covers an unrestricted RN license in the United States, Canada, or an eligible U.S. territory. Candidates licensed elsewhere may be considered if they meet comparable requirements, can read and understand English, and obtain equivalency verification from CGFNS, WES, or Educational Records Evaluation Services before applying.

All candidates are subject to licensure validation. CNRN is a national specialty certification, not a state nursing license, and it does not replace the RN designation.

The 2,080-hour rule

ABNN defines qualifying experience as one year full-time, or 2,080 hours, in the last three years at the time of application.

Direct practice is bedside or other clinical nursing-process work with continuing professional responsibility and accountability. Indirect practice includes clinical supervision of students or staff, research, or consultation. ABNN also says consultants, researchers, administrators, and educators may qualify when they meet the hours and other requirements.

That is a meaningful eligibility detail. You do not have to be standing at a neuro ICU bedside on application day. Your hours do need to fit ABNN's definitions and fall inside the three-year lookback.

Audits

ABNN randomly audits 5% of certification applications. If selected, the supervisor named on the application is contacted to verify work experience, and the candidate must upload RN licensure. ABNN can audit other applications at its discretion. Failure to complete the audit can deny the application without a refund.

Accommodations

PSI reviews disability-related accommodation requests. The handbook requires the verification and requested-assistance documentation at least 45 calendar days before the desired exam date. Remote accommodations use the same process, although a request that would compromise exam security may require in-person testing.

Read ABNN's live eligibility page →

What score do you need to pass the CNRN exam?

The passing scaled score is 200. That is not 200 correct answers. ABNN sets a raw number-correct cut score for each exam form. ABNN does not publish the raw cut score.

This is an easy number trap because the exam also has 200 scored items. The two “200s” mean different things:

• 200 scored items is the number of questions used in scoring.
• 200 scaled score is the passing point on ABNN's reporting scale.

ABNN uses a criterion-referenced process with neuroscience nursing experts and psychometric support. The raw passing point can vary by form. It is then converted so the passing point equals a scaled 200. A prep source that tells you a fixed number or percentage correct is quoting a target ABNN does not publish.

There is no penalty for guessing, so unanswered items only give away a chance to earn credit. The practical timing rule is simple: answer every item.

ABNN says candidates receive a pass/fail result at the close of the exam—at the test center or by email for remote testing—with information explaining the scaled score and passing score. Successful candidates receive a Credly badge invitation in roughly four to six weeks.

A passing score is not a separate banked credential application. Passing the exam produces CNRN certification; the certification term then runs under ABNN's five-year rule.

How hard is the CNRN exam, and what is the pass rate?

ABNN's current page says 62% of certification candidates passed over the past five years. The table on that same page displays only 2021–2024; those four visible years pool to 686 passes out of 1,160 candidates, or 59.1%.

The four rows reconcile exactly: passed plus failed equals tested every year. The apparent gap is that ABNN's prose describes five years while the visible table displays four. A fifth year not shown could reconcile the 62% statement. There was no 2025 row on the page when verified.

Do not relabel these as first-time pass rates. ABNN does not call them first-time results and does not publish a first-time rate.

The honest practical reading is that roughly four candidates in ten did not pass across the four displayed years. That does not predict your outcome. It does explain why current-version control, full-domain coverage, timing practice, and a realistic calendar matter.

Check ABNN's live pass-rate table →

How should you build a CNRN exam prep plan?

Start with the current outline, measure your baseline by domain, allocate time by the official 91/76/33 weights, and practice applying knowledge to patient-management decisions. Do not let a familiar diagnosis block consume the plan just because it feels productive.

ABNN reports a survey of 90 successful candidates. Respondents started an average of four months before the exam, and 69% reported studying at least 10 hours per week. Independent study was the most common method at 86%; 57% used a review course, 8% used group study, and 6% used an online study course.

Four months at 10 hours per week is about 173 hours using 4.33 weeks per month. That is Castleport arithmetic on a small self-reported survey of successful candidates. It is not an ABNN minimum, a readiness score, or a pass threshold.

Step 1: Freeze the exam version before you study

Download the current handbook and save the content outline. Confirm that every paid resource describes the 2024 job analysis or the three-domain 91/76/33 structure. Run the Version Check before you buy, not after six weeks of study.

Step 2: Build a baseline by the three current domains

Use your own notes, a legally produced question source, or AANN's 75-question Self-Assessment if you choose to buy it. The Self-Assessment is not ours, is not required, and its product page says performance does not guarantee the real result.

Do not call a score “diagnostic” unless the item set covers all three current domains and gives enough information to support the conclusion. A short quiz can reveal misses; it cannot prove readiness.

Step 3: Allocate time by official weight, then adjust for weakness

A neutral 160-hour plan based only on blueprint weight would look like this:

That is a starting allocation, not a command. If your baseline shows a true weakness, move hours toward it. The guardrail is that Domain II and III together still deserve more than half the neutral plan.

Step 4: Turn facts into decisions

For each condition or system you review, force the second layer:

• What finding changes the priority?
• What nursing action comes first?
• What complication must be prevented or recognized?
• What safety issue changes the plan?
• What can be delegated, and what stays with the RN?
• Which discipline or resource belongs in the next step?
• What changes at discharge, rehabilitation, palliative care, or end of life?

Those prompts mirror the current domains without pretending to reproduce ABNN items.

Step 5: Train the four-hour decision pace

The whole-form arithmetic is 240 minutes ÷ 220 items = about 65 seconds per item. If you take all three allowed 10-minute breaks, the clock still runs and the remaining average falls to about 57 seconds per item.

Do not interpret that as a command to spend exactly 65 seconds on every question. Use it to see the trade: every five-minute stall must be repaid somewhere else.

A useful final phase includes timed mixed sets, deliberate guessing on stuck items, and at least one long session that exposes fatigue. It does not require stolen or recalled questions. Original practice written to the public blueprint is the only defensible route.

A simple 16-week structure

This structure preserves the official weights without pretending every candidate starts from the same place.

What is CNRN test day actually like?

You can test at a PSI center or by live remote proctoring. The exam lasts four hours, allows up to three breaks of no more than 10 minutes each, and the clock keeps running during breaks.

Remote candidates: do the live system check

ABNN warns against using a work computer because firewalls can block the secure browser, and the compatibility check may not expose every firewall problem. The remote setup also requires a webcam that can show a 360-degree room scan.

The 2026 handbook still lists Adobe Flash Player in one technical-requirements section even though Flash reached end of life in 2020. Do not waste time trying to install it. Follow PSI's current live system check and current technical-requirements page for the actual testing setup.

Answer every item

There is no penalty for guessing. The 20 pretest items are unmarked, so you cannot decide which questions “do not count.” Treat all 220 as live, manage the clock, and put an answer on every item.

Open ABNN's live remote-proctoring page →

What happens if you do not pass?

You may reapply for a later examination, but you can test only once per window and no more than three times in a rolling 12-month period. Every repeat attempt requires a new application and the full examination fee.

The three-per-12-month rule can matter across a year boundary, so it is wrong to assume that “three windows per calendar year” makes the cap irrelevant. Count your actual attempt dates inside the rolling 12 months.

ABNN says there is no appeal for failure to achieve a passing score. The handbook describes a score-verification request through PSI within 90 days, at the candidate's cost, with results taking about six weeks. Verification checks the scoring process; it is not a new substantive review of exam content.

For a retake, do not simply repeat the same hours. Recheck the current blueprint, identify what your source and practice process failed to cover, and rebuild the plan across all three domains. ABNN's published result information does not give you a public raw cut score to reverse-engineer.

How long is CNRN certification valid?

CNRN certification lasts five years, with the certificate expiring on December 31 of the fifth year after certification. Everyone who passes in March, July, or October 2026 has an expiration date of December 31, 2031.

ABNN allows renewal through qualifying continuing education/work hours or by retaking the examination under its recertification rules. Applications are not accepted before the fifth year of the cycle. The current handbook says applying by the October 1 early-bird deadline saves $85.

The CNRN credential sits beside RN; it does not replace it. Maintaining the underlying nursing license remains separate from maintaining specialty certification.

Is CNRN certification worth it?

CNRN can be worth it when your employer recognizes it, reimburses the cost, ties it to a clinical ladder, or when broad neuroscience nursing certification matches the work you want to keep doing. No official source can promise a raise, promotion, job, or passing result.

There is no reliable national salary figure that isolates the value of CNRN from role, location, experience, employer, shift, and education. A salary claim attached to the credential alone would be false precision.

Use a three-part decision:

1. Employer value: Ask whether your employer reimburses the exam, AANN membership, prep, or recertification; pays a differential; grants clinical-ladder points; or requires a specialty credential for a role.
2. Role fit: CNRN is broad neuroscience nursing. If your practice and career path are almost entirely stroke-specific, compare SCRN before committing. If your work is critical care, rehabilitation, trauma, or medical-surgical nursing first, confirm which credential your employer actually recognizes.
3. Real cost: Count the application, any membership you are buying only for the discount, prep resources, retake exposure, and your study hours. Then subtract verified reimbursement—not hoped-for reimbursement.

The credential decision becomes clearer when you stop asking “Is CNRN worth it for nurses?” and ask “What exact outcome does my employer or career path attach to CNRN, and what will I pay to reach it?”

What is the difference between CNRN and SCRN?

CNRN is ABNN's broad neuroscience nursing certification; SCRN is its stroke-focused certification. Choose the scope that matches your practice and the credential your employer recognizes.

ABNN describes the CNRN as a generalist exam covering neurological and neurosurgical populations across ages, settings, and levels of care. SCRN is centered on stroke nursing. A stroke nurse may qualify for and value either credential, but they are not interchangeable labels.

Do not substitute another acronym's study material because the letters look close:

• CRRN — rehabilitation nursing
• CCRN — critical care nursing; see Castleport's CCRN exam hub
• CMSRN — medical-surgical nursing; see Castleport's CMSRN exam hub
• TCRN — trauma nursing; see Castleport's TCRN exam hub
• NCLEX-RN — entry-to-practice licensure exam; see Castleport's NCLEX-RN hub

What did Castleport verify for this page?

Every official exam, eligibility, fee, scoring, deadline, accommodation, retake, and certification-term claim on this page was checked against ABNN's current handbook or live official pages on August 28, 2026. Current AANN prices came from its live membership and product pages.

No named CNRN reviewer has reviewed this page, so Castleport did not publish clinical practice questions or claim clinical-content validation. The page is limited to official exam administration facts, transparent arithmetic, source comparison, and planning tools. See Castleport's methodology and reviewer status page.

Primary sources

1. ABNN 2026 CNRN Candidate Handbook
2. ABNN 2025 CNRN Candidate Handbook carrying the retired 2019 job-analysis outline
3. ABNN: About the CNRN Exam
4. ABNN: CNRN Eligibility
5. ABNN: Cancel, Reschedule, or Postpone
6. ABNN: Live Remote Proctoring
7. ABNN: CNRN Study Materials
8. AANN: Current Membership Listing
9. AANN: CNRN Self-Assessment Examination
10. AANN: CNRN Study Session
11. AANN: Core Curriculum, 7th Edition — print
12. AANN: Core Curriculum, 7th Edition — digital
13. AANN: Individual digital Core chapter example
14. AANN: CNRN Exam Prep Package
15. Agnes Marshall Walker Foundation Grants

Independence and marks: Castleport Test Prep is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by ABNN, AANN, PSI, or any state licensing board. CNRN and organization names are used only to identify the credential, examination, and official sources discussed. Castleport claims no ownership in those names or marks.

Outcome boundary: We do not offer a pass guarantee. No study plan, tool, course, book, question bank, self-assessment, or prior score can guarantee a result on the CNRN exam.