PassProfessor’s CCRN program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog. Our CCRN (Adult) bank — 1,750 original practice questions with an explanation for every question, built to the AACN CCRN (Adult) test plan — is complete, and the program is in final preparation. Join the notify list and we will email you when enrollment opens — then use this guide to plan your path to the exam.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
This guide explains the CCRN (Adult) certification examination administered through PSI for the AACN Certification Corporation. The sitting administers 150 multiple-choice questions in 3 hours: 125 scored questions and 25 unscored pretest questions. AACN publishes the passing standard as a raw count — 83 correct of 125 scored items, effective November 12, 2025 — and not as a percentage. PassProfessor’s companion program holds 1,750 original practice questions with an explanation for every question.
One examination, one population: adults
The CCRN (Adult) credential certifies nurses who provide care to, or influence the care of, acutely and critically ill adult patients. It is awarded by the AACN Certification Corporation, the credentialing arm of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and the program is accredited by ABSNC. In the PassProfessor catalog the companion program carries the descriptive roster name Critical Care Registered Nurse — a descriptor of the nurses it serves, and nothing beyond that.
One boundary governs everything that follows. CCRN (Pediatric) and CCRN (Neonatal) are separate AACN examinations, with their own test plans, weights, eligible populations, and standards. This guide is about the Adult examination only; nothing in it, and nothing in the PassProfessor program, presents the other population examinations as covered. There is exactly one boundary case, and it belongs to the Adult examination itself: the Adult test plan’s Multisystem group includes life-threatening maternal and fetal complications, because a critically ill pregnant patient is an adult patient. That is adult obstetric critical care, treated where the test plan puts it — inside Multisystem.
This guide confines itself to the verified record behind it: the current Adult test plan, the recorded examination facts, the Direct Care eligibility standard, the recorded fees, and the PassProfessor bank. Where the record holds a figure as unverified, the figure does not appear here. AACN’s own publications govern.
The real exam at a glance
| Fact of record | CCRN (Adult) |
|---|---|
| Certifying body | AACN Certification Corporation |
| Administered questions | 150 — 125 scored plus 25 pretest |
| Time | 3 hours |
| Format | Multiple-choice, single best answer |
| Delivery | PSI — testing center or live remote proctoring |
| Passing standard | 83 correct of 125 scored items (raw count) |
| Initial examination fee | $260 AACN member / $375 nonmember |
The pretest questions are part of the sitting but do not count toward your result, and candidates cannot identify which questions they are. That carries a practical lesson: a question that feels unfamiliar or unusually hard may not count at all, and the disciplined response is to answer it as well as you can and move on at pace, rather than spending scored questions’ time on it.
Who can take it
Eligibility in this guide is stated for the Direct Care pathway — the candidate population the PassProfessor program serves. AACN also records Knowledge Professional and Tele-critical Care pathways; they are named here as pathways only, because this guide does not present the program as built for them. The older credential names sometimes attached to those routes are retired and are not current examinations; the current language is the three pathways.
Licensure. The candidate must hold a current, unencumbered U.S. RN or APRN license. The record notes that “U.S.” here includes the District of Columbia and the territories the handbook lists, and that candidates must notify AACN Certification Corporation within 30 days if conditions are placed on their license.
Clinical practice hours. The candidate must also meet one of two recorded options, earned as an RN or APRN in direct care of acutely and critically ill patients, aligned to the Adult population:
- Two-Year Option: 1,750 hours in the previous 2 years, with 875 hours in the most recent year preceding application.
- Five-Year Option: 2,000 hours in the previous 5 years, with 144 hours in the most recent year preceding application.
Under either option, a majority of the total hours — and of the most-recent-year hours — must be spent with critically ill patients. The hours must be completed in a facility in the United States or Canada, or one determined comparable to U.S. standards. Orientation and shadowing hours, where another nurse holds the assignment, do not count. If an application is audited, practice is verified by a professional associate — a clinical supervisor or an RN or physician colleague. No AACN membership is required to certify; membership affects the examination’s price, and nothing else about eligibility.
Two reading notes belong here. First, a coincidence: the Two-Year Option’s 1,750 hours and this program’s 1,750 practice questions are the same figure by accident, in different subjects — one is AACN’s eligibility floor, the other is the size of a practice bank. Second, this guide deliberately states no eligibility testing window: the record treats the current window as a temporary arrangement rather than a settled fact, so take the window that applies to you from AACN at application time. Confirm your own standing against AACN’s publications before you apply, because AACN governs eligibility.
The exam, piece by piece
Format. The examination is computer-based and multiple-choice: four options, one best answer. AACN is transitioning the examination to generic medication names only, and the PassProfessor bank follows that direction — generic names in stems, options, and explanations alike. The clinical work the items exercise follows the test plan’s action layer: assess and evaluate, prioritize, recognize emergencies, initiate interventions, and seek assistance. Read that list as the examination’s verbs: a candidate can know a system’s content thoroughly and still miss its questions if the practiced skill is recognition rather than prioritization, so preparation has to rehearse the verbs, not only the nouns.
Delivery. The examination is delivered through PSI, in two recorded modes: at a PSI testing center, or by live remote proctoring. Candidates choose the mode when they schedule.
Results. For the computer-based sitting, results appear on screen at completion, and a detailed score report is emailed within 24 hours. That report is worth reading as a study document if the outcome is a retest: it is the certifying body’s own account of the sitting, and it outranks any reconstruction from memory.
Framework. The examination rests on AACN’s study of practice — a job analysis conducted at least every 5 years, most recently in 2024 — and its organizing framework is the AACN Synergy Model for Patient Care, which pairs patient characteristics with nurse competencies. The current test plan, effective November 12, 2025, is the product of the 2024 study. The Synergy Model section below takes the framework up in brief, because the blueprint’s structure is hard to read correctly without it.
The blueprint, group by group
The Adult test plan effective November 12, 2025 divides the scored examination into two domains: Clinical Judgment, carrying the first five groups, and Professional Caring and Ethical Practice, carrying the sixth. AACN publishes weights at the six-group level only, and the table states them exactly as published, alongside this bank’s question counts:
| Test-plan group | AACN weight | Approximate scored questions | Questions in this bank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiovascular | 13% | about 16 | 228 |
| Respiratory | 12% | 15 | 210 |
| Endocrine, Hematologic, GI, Renal and Integumentary | 21% | about 26 | 367 |
| Musculoskeletal, Neurologic and Behavioral | 18% | about 22 to 23 | 315 |
| Multisystem | 16% | 20 | 280 |
| Professional Caring and Ethical Practice | 20% | 25 | 350 |
The approximate scored counts are arithmetic against the published weights — a planning aid, not additional AACN figures. Two cautions govern everything under this table. First, AACN publishes no weights inside the combined groups and none inside the professional domain: this bank’s distribution within those groups is a PassProfessor build allocation, never presented here as an AACN figure. Second, AACN publishes no cognitive-level distribution for this examination; how a bank divides recall, application, and analysis is likewise a builder’s choice. A guide that printed precise inside-group percentages as the certifying body’s own would be inventing authority it does not have.
Cardiovascular — 13%, 228 questions in this bank
Cardiovascular content is the joint-largest single-system group on the plan and, with Respiratory, forms the classic center of adult critical care practice. The reasoning its questions reward is time-critical pattern recognition joined to prioritization — reading a deteriorating picture early, separating the finding that changes management from the finding that merely accompanies it, and knowing which intervention comes first. Study it as a discipline of sequences rather than a catalogue of conditions: what is happening, what it will do next if unaddressed, what confirms it, and what the first move is. Because the group is heavily weighted and deeply familiar to working critical care nurses, it is also where overconfidence concentrates; the honest test is performance on questions worded against your habits, which is what the explanations are built to supply.
Respiratory — 12%, 210 questions in this bank
Respiratory carries the second single-system weight, close behind Cardiovascular, and the two groups together account for a quarter of the scored examination. Its questions turn on the same clinical verbs as its neighbor’s — assess, recognize, initiate, escalate — applied to the patient whose oxygenation or ventilation is failing or threatened. Preparation here should be organized around deterioration and response: how a respiratory picture declares itself, what distinguishes its likely causes, what support is initiated at each stage, and how the patient’s response is evaluated and acted on. Candidates who study this group as equipment and settings alone under-prepare it; the plan tests judgment about patients, including when the right answer is to seek assistance rather than to adjust something.
Endocrine, Hematologic, GI, Renal and Integumentary — 21%, 367 questions in this bank
This combined group is the largest Clinical Judgment group on the plan, at more than a fifth of the scored examination, and it is the group that most punishes narrow preparation. Five areas share its single published weight: endocrine, hematologic and immunologic, gastrointestinal, renal and genitourinary, and integumentary content. AACN assigns no weights among them, so no candidate can honestly claim to know which area the sitting will favor; the rational response is breadth held to a working standard in all five, rather than excellence in two and neglect in three. The bank’s 367 questions are distributed across the five areas as a PassProfessor build allocation for exactly that reason — coverage, not an AACN signal.
Within the renal and genitourinary area, the verified head of the recorded topic list runs to acute kidney injury and acute tubular necrosis, chronic kidney disease, and infections including urosepsis; the record behind this guide holds the remainder of that topic list as unverified, so this guide enumerates the area no further rather than printing topics it cannot stand behind. That restraint is the guide’s general rule: where the primary record was not cleanly verified, the guide goes quiet instead of going plausible. Across the whole combined group, the study method that matches its shape is rotation with retrieval — cycling the five areas in turn, testing rather than rereading.
Musculoskeletal, Neurologic and Behavioral — 18%, 315 questions in this bank
The second combined group joins musculoskeletal and neurologic content to behavioral and psychosocial care, at just under a fifth of the scored examination. Its internal logic is the logic of the current plan: the examination treats the patient’s neurologic status, mobility, and behavioral presentation as one field of judgment, because in critical care they arrive together and alter one another. As with the other combined group, AACN publishes no weights among its parts, and this bank’s internal distribution is a build allocation. The preparation trap this group sets is asymmetry of comfort: most candidates arrive with a clear preference for either the neurologic material or the behavioral material, and study time quietly migrates toward the preference. The blueprint does not reward that migration. Behavioral and psychosocial questions test recognition and response under the same action verbs as the rest of the plan, and they are scored in the same total. Give each part of the group its deliberate block, and let practice results say when the balance is right.
Multisystem — 16%, 280 questions in this bank
Multisystem is the group for presentations that refuse to stay inside one system: the patient whose deterioration crosses system boundaries in origin or in effect, and whose management is an exercise in ordering competing priorities. At a sixth of the scored examination, it is large enough to decide outcomes for candidates who study the plan system by system and never practice across the seams. Its questions characteristically offer several defensible actions and ask for the first, the most urgent, or the one that must not wait — which is why this group’s preparation should be timed and mixed rather than topical. Two scope notes from the record belong here. The group includes life-threatening maternal and fetal complications — the adult obstetric critical care discussed at the front of this guide — because the critically ill pregnant patient is a multisystem adult patient. And its content is where the examination’s emphasis on recognizing emergencies and seeking assistance is most concentrated, since multisystem deterioration is precisely the situation in which a nurse’s escalation judgment is itself being tested.
Professional Caring and Ethical Practice — 20%, 350 questions in this bank
The professional domain is the plan’s second domain and its largest single group: a fifth of the scored examination, larger than Cardiovascular. It is built from the nurse competencies of the Synergy Model other than Clinical Judgment itself — seven competencies: Advocacy and Moral Agency, Caring Practices, Clinical Inquiry, Collaboration, Facilitation of Learning, Response to Diversity, and Systems Thinking. AACN publishes no weights among the seven; the bank’s distribution across them is a build allocation.
This domain is where prepared candidates gain ground that clinically strong but plan-naive candidates concede. Its questions are not soft: they test how a nurse advocates for a patient inside a team, reasons through an ethical conflict at the bedside, collaborates and escalates, questions a practice against evidence, teaches patients and families under stress, responds to diversity in care, and thinks in systems rather than in isolated tasks. The common failure is not ignorance but dismissal — treating a fifth of the examination as common sense that needs no preparation. Common sense, unexamined, answers these questions the way the candidate’s own unit happens to do things; the examination answers them the way the framework and the profession’s standards frame them. Study the seven competencies as content, with the same explanation-reading discipline as the clinical groups.
The Synergy Model, in brief
The AACN Synergy Model for Patient Care is the examination’s organizing framework, and understanding its shape explains the blueprint’s shape. The model pairs patient characteristics with nurse competencies: the needs a patient presents are matched against the competencies a nurse brings, and outcomes are best when the two are in synergy. The model’s nurse competencies number eight, and the test plan is built directly from them — one competency, Clinical Judgment, carries the five clinical groups, and the remaining seven competencies together form Professional Caring and Ethical Practice. That is why the professional domain reads the way it does: it is not an ethics appendix bolted onto a clinical examination, but the larger part of the framework’s competency side, sharing the plan with the one competency that carries the bedside clinical content. No question in this bank asks for a recitation of the model; candidates need to recognize that the examination’s two domains are the model’s two hands — what the patient needs, and what the nurse brings — and to prepare both.
Scoring, stated honestly
AACN publishes the CCRN (Adult) passing standard as a raw count: 83 correct of 125 scored items, effective November 12, 2025. The standard was set through a modified Angoff criterion-referenced process, conducted with PSI psychometricians, and it is scored on the total examination — there is no per-group standard to clear. AACN states expressly that the standard is a raw count and not a percentage. This guide therefore does not convert it. Any percentage attached to this standard by any source is that source’s arithmetic, not AACN’s figure, and the same caution covers the other numbers that circulate for this examination: cut scores higher than the recorded count, and scaled-score claims, appear in secondary material and are not the recorded standard.
Two consequences follow for preparation. First, there is no honest strategy of aiming at the standard group by group, because the standard lives in the total: a neglected group taxes the same total your strongest group feeds, and margin across the whole plan is the only form safety takes. Second, your practice percentage in any bank — including ours — is a study instrument, not a prediction and not a conversion. It tells you where your performance against that bank’s questions stands today; it does not translate into the certifying body’s raw count.
Within the PassProfessor program, 70 appears as a PRACTICE BENCHMARK ONLY: a study target we set so candidates can judge readiness in practice. It is not AACN’s standard, it is not derived from AACN’s standard, and nothing about it converts toward the raw count above. Use it as evidence that practice performance is consistently strong, group by group: be strong everywhere the plan reaches, with room to spare.
Retakes, and what they cost
The verified record behind this guide states the retest fee exactly: $185 for AACN members and $290 for nonmembers. That fee is all this guide states about retaking. The record deliberately carries no retake-frequency rule: the limit candidates commonly hear quoted rests on secondary sources rather than a primary document verified for this guide, so no frequency figure appears here. A candidate planning a retest should confirm the current retake terms with AACN when scheduling, and should study the emailed score report from the earlier sitting first — it is the certifying body’s own account of where the total fell short.
Keeping the credential: recertification
CCRN certification runs in 3-year cycles. The cycle begins on the first day of the month in which the examination is passed, and renewal opens 4 months before the renewal date. Two renewal routes are recorded.
Renewal by Synergy CERPs. The certificant completes 100 CERPs in the Direct Care distribution: a minimum of 60 in Category A, a minimum of 10 each in Categories B and C, and the remaining 20 in any category. Alongside the CERPs, the route requires 432 direct-care hours in the period, with 144 of those hours in the last year, plus current RN or APRN licensure and active CCRN status throughout. This guide states no fee for renewal by CERPs: the fee figure that surfaces for that route was not cleanly verified in the record behind this guide, and an unverified fee does not appear here. AACN’s renewal publications are where that figure should be taken from.
Renewal by examination. The certificant meets renewal eligibility and passes the examination before the scheduled renewal date. Its fee is verified: $185 for AACN members and $290 for nonmembers — the same figures as the retest fee, and a different transaction from the initial examination fee recorded at the front of this guide. The record also notes that Inactive status, for up to 3 years, and Alumnus and Retired statuses exist for certificants whose practice changes; AACN’s renewal publications govern those routes.
The November 12, 2025 revision
The test plan this guide is built to took effect on November 12, 2025, derived from AACN’s 2024 study of practice. The passing standard recorded above took effect on the same date. The revision matters practically for one reason above all: the plan it replaced carried different weights, and those earlier weights are retired. A large share of the preparation material in circulation was built to the earlier plan, which means it rehearses a shape of examination that is no longer the shape candidates sit — overweighting some groups and underweighting others relative to the current plan. This guide names the earlier weights only to retire them; the current weights, in the blueprint table above, are the only set a candidate should plan against. The PassProfessor bank is built to the current plan — that currency is what a candidate should verify when comparing preparation built before and after the revision date. AACN conducts studies of practice at least every 5 years, and no later revision stands in the record behind this guide.
What this program costs, and what the examination costs
PassProfessor’s CCRN (Adult) program is priced at $79. That is a decided price, and it is the price of the practice program — 1,750 original questions with an explanation for every question, built to the current Adult test plan — charged when you enroll after enrollment opens. It is not AACN’s examination fee, and the two should never be blurred. AACN’s verified initial examination fees are $260 for members and $375 for nonmembers; the retest fee and the renewal-by-examination fee are each $185 for members and $290 for nonmembers. This guide states no fee for renewal by CERPs, for the verification reason given in the recertification section. Keeping these figures separate and labeled matters: preparation is a purchase you choose; credentialing fees are the certifying body’s charges.
How to study for the CCRN (Adult) examination
- Build your plan from the blueprint table, not from habit. The six groups and their current weights define what is fair game and in what proportion. If a topic sits outside them — including any other population focus — it is a distraction from this certification.
- Confirm eligibility before you schedule study around a date. Licensure plus one of the two hour options, with the majority of hours in care of critically ill patients, is the gate. Knowing which option you meet turns a study plan into a calendar.
- Study the combined groups for breadth on purpose. Five systems share one weight in one group, and three fields share another. Rotate them, test rather than reread, and refuse to let a favorite system absorb the hours its neighbors need.
- Give the professional domain its full weight. A fifth of the scored examination sits in its seven competencies. Study them as content; dismissing them as common sense is the most expensive shortcut on this plan.
- Practice the verbs, not only the content. The plan’s action layer — assess and evaluate, prioritize, recognize emergencies, initiate interventions, seek assistance — is what the questions exercise. When you miss a question, name the verb that failed before you reread anything; the repair differs by verb.
- Read every explanation, especially when you were right. Right answers reached by wrong reasoning are unmarked weaknesses. The explanation is where a practice question teaches; skipping it because the answer matched keeps the test and discards the teaching.
- Use generic names as you study. The examination is moving to generic medication names only, and the bank follows. Studying under trade names builds a translation step the sitting will not give you time for.
- Finish with timed, mixed practice, and let group results call you ready. Sit full timed forms, review every explanation, and test when your practice is strong in each group, with errors scattered rather than clustered. In this program, 70 is a PRACTICE BENCHMARK ONLY — a training marker, not AACN’s standard, which is the raw count recorded in the scoring section.
One design note belongs here, stated plainly. The PassProfessor program is organized around a timed practice form of 125 questions in 180 minutes, plus six group drills drawn from the bank. That form is a preparation design we chose — its length and pace mirror a real sitting — and it is not a claim about how AACN or PSI administers the examination. The real examination’s recorded facts stand in their own table near the front of this guide.
PassProfessor’s CCRN (Adult) program — 1,750 original practice questions with an explanation for every question, built to the Adult test plan effective November 12, 2025 — is in final preparation. The CCRN Exam Prep program page carries the notify list; join it and we will email you when enrollment opens. The program will also be listed from the Nursing Exam Prep hub alongside the other nursing programs in the catalog, including NCLEX-RN Exam Prep and FNP Exam Prep, likewise in the works.
Frequently asked questions
Which examination does this guide cover? The CCRN (Adult) certification examination of the AACN Certification Corporation — the credential for nurses who care for acutely and critically ill adult patients. CCRN (Pediatric) and CCRN (Neonatal) are separate AACN examinations with their own test plans and standards, and this guide does not cover them. Adult obstetric critical care inside the Multisystem group is Adult examination content and is covered.
How many questions are on the examination, and how long is the sitting? 150 administered questions in 3 hours: 125 scored questions plus 25 unscored pretest questions, in multiple-choice, single-best-answer format. Candidates cannot identify the pretest questions, and they do not count toward the result. Results appear on screen at completion, with a detailed score report emailed within 24 hours.
Where and how is the examination delivered? Through PSI, in two recorded modes: at a PSI testing center, or by live remote proctoring. Candidates choose when they schedule.
What score do I need to pass? AACN publishes the standard as a raw count: 83 correct of 125 scored items, effective November 12, 2025, set by a modified Angoff process and scored on the total examination. AACN expresses it as a raw count, not as a percentage, and this guide does not convert it. In the PassProfessor program, 70 is a PRACTICE BENCHMARK ONLY — a readiness target for study, not AACN’s standard.
Am I eligible under the Direct Care pathway? You need a current, unencumbered U.S. RN or APRN license, plus direct-care experience with acutely and critically ill adult patients under one of two options: 1,750 hours in the last 2 years with 875 hours in the most recent year, or 2,000 hours in the last 5 years with 144 hours in the most recent year. The majority of the hours must be spent with critically ill patients. Confirm your standing in AACN’s publications before applying.
What are the blueprint weights on the current test plan? Six groups, effective November 12, 2025: Cardiovascular 13%, Respiratory 12%, Endocrine, Hematologic, GI, Renal and Integumentary 21%, Musculoskeletal, Neurologic and Behavioral 18%, Multisystem 16%, and Professional Caring and Ethical Practice 20%. AACN publishes weights at the six-group level only — no weights inside the combined groups or inside the professional domain — and the earlier plan’s weights are retired.
What does the examination cost? The verified initial examination fees are $260 for AACN members and $375 for nonmembers. No AACN membership is required to certify; membership changes the fee only.
What does a retest cost? The verified retest fee is $185 for AACN members and $290 for nonmembers. This guide states no retake-frequency rule, because no such rule stands verified in its record; confirm current retake terms with AACN when scheduling.
How is certification renewed? In 3-year cycles, by one of two recorded routes. Renewal by Synergy CERPs requires 100 CERPs — at least 60 in Category A, at least 10 each in Categories B and C, and the remaining 20 in any category — plus 432 direct-care hours in the period, 144 of them in the last year. Renewal by examination requires meeting renewal eligibility and passing before the renewal date, at $185 for members and $290 for nonmembers. This guide states no fee for renewal by CERPs, because that figure was not cleanly verified in its record.
How many practice questions does PassProfessor’s CCRN program include? 1,750 original practice questions, with an explanation for every question, organized in the test plan’s six groups: Cardiovascular 228, Respiratory 210, Endocrine, Hematologic, GI, Renal and Integumentary 367, Musculoskeletal, Neurologic and Behavioral 315, Multisystem 280, and Professional Caring and Ethical Practice 350.
What does the PassProfessor program cost? $79, charged when you enroll after enrollment opens — the PassProfessor program price only. It is not AACN’s examination fee; the verified examination fees are stated in this guide’s fee sections, with their member and nonmember labels.
When will the PassProfessor CCRN program be available? The bank is built — 1,750 questions with an explanation for every question — the launch package is complete, and the program is in final preparation as part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog. Join the notify list and we will email you when enrollment opens. No date is promised that we cannot keep.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider; AACN does not endorse this program, and PassProfessor is not affiliated with or sponsored by the AACN Certification Corporation. CCRN is used in this guide as a factual reference to AACN’s credential. This guide is general information about examination preparation, current as of November 2026; it provides no clinical instruction or patient-care advice, and it confers no certification. The credential is awarded solely by the AACN Certification Corporation to candidates who meet its requirements, and AACN’s official publications govern if anything here differs from them.