Just got my GNA results and I missed passing by 4 points. The clinical skills portion felt fine but the cognitive and mental health content clearly dragged my score down. Two years as a CNA made me assume that base knowledge would transfer — it did for basic care tasks but the geriatric-specific material was harder than I expected.
For anyone who's recently gone through gna certification, how much of the exam focuses specifically on dementia care and behavioral interventions? I think that's where I lost the most points. I was expecting more ADL-based questions and instead got a lot of scenarios about managing agitation, sundowning, and restraint alternatives.
My plan for the retest is 6 weeks at 1.5 hours a day: first 3 weeks on cognitive and behavioral content, last 3 weeks on mixed practice. Physical care and infection control felt strong — probably 90%+ on those portions. It's really the psych and cognitive domain that needs work.
Should I be putting any time into clinical documentation too or is it okay to trust that section after 2 years of hands-on practice?
Documentation tripped me up more than I expected. It's not just what to document but the sequence — what gets reported first, to whom, and within what timeframe. Worth at least one focused session there even if you feel okay about it after 2 years in the field.
Dementia and behavioral intervention questions made up a big chunk when I took it — probably 20-25%. The sundowning and restraint alternative scenarios have a lot of most-appropriate-first-step answers where two options seem reasonable. Focus on person-centered care language when two answers are close.
Missing by 4 points is frustrating but fixable in 6 weeks. Your ADL and infection control knowledge is already strong — you just need to shore up one domain rather than rebuild everything from scratch.
Your study plan sounds solid. The 6-week split with that focus gives you enough time to go deep on psych content without letting the clinical skills slip. Add a full timed practice run in week 5 so you know where you stand before test day.