How to ace your HHA test: 9 proven tips

It’s natural to feel a bit overwhelmed before you take any test.

Many times, it just comes down to: you don’t know what to expect and get nervous just because of the “unknown”.

The home health aide (HHA) competency exam is different though.

Why’s that? Well, the good news is that if you pass then you can start working right away and make money helping others in their home.

The bad news? If you do not pass on the first try you may need to take more training courses which can cost you time and money.

Most people pass on the first try; the test is not difficult.

But you need to spend time before and plan out how to ace the exam.

Avoid your test day stress and follow these easy secrets to acing your test.

Plan and Don’t Cram

You spend enough time and money on your HHA training classes now you need to focus on the exam. You may need to spend hours preparing so don’t kid yourself and wait until the last minute. In other words, no cramming.

Take the time and study your training material an hour or more a day for about a week before the test.

Find someone to study with and go over the skills portion by actually demonstrating some of them. For example, assist someone out of a bed, take someone’s temperature or help someone eating.

If you have questions reach out to your trainer, registered nurse, or fellow students for clarification.

Test and Repeat Test

Practice may not make perfect but it will definitely help you pass the HHA test!

If you go in blindly not knowing what it will look like then your chances are very poor of passing.

Seriously?

How can you pass a test if you have no idea what to expect – what kind of questions will be asked, how to answer them, and what format is it in?

Take as many practice tests as you can – they are the best way to pass the real test.

They will also help you actually learn concepts you may have missed in your training or were not presented to you at all. Most practice exams have questions from actual tests.

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Forget About It

Focus on what you don’t know and forget about what you do know.

If you know some of the material move on to what you don’t understand. Pay attention to key concepts that give you the most trouble and focus on them. Work smart.

For example, don’t spend a lot of time focusing on feeding a patient if you already know how to do that; spend your time on a skill that you can give you that gives you the most trouble and ace that.

The Final Final

You’re in the final stretch now so it’s time to bring it all together and focus on the actual HHA competency test.

Review your notes, key concepts, vocabulary terms and what you learned in your skills set training.

Spend the night before the test focusing on acing the HHA competency exam; get in a positive mindset.

Give It a Break

Spend just a little bit of time relaxing and don’t study right up until the test.

You need to keep your brain fresh and focused on the test and not the necessary all the details on taking the test.

Give yourself a little reward on what you may have been sacrificing for the last week or so; have a nice cup of coffee/tea and listen to some relaxing music – you can do this.

Test Day

You’ve done a great job!

You’ve made it this far so show up early on test day and bring everything that’s required – including pencils, pens, two (2) forms of identification and maybe even a check just in case there are last minute fees.

Don’t spend your time with other candidates.

At this point you do not want any distractions. You want to focus on relaxing and even meditating just a little bit.

The key is to relax and have confidence that you do well on the test.

Take Charge

I recommend when you sit down for the actual HHA test you look at the whole test very quickly; write down key concepts that you want to focus on or you think you may have difficulty.

This is where those practice tests you’ve been taking are going to come in handy.

You will now know what the test looks like and what to focus on; the questions will look familiar to you.

Relax, take a deep breath and jump right into the test.

Take your time.

You will have plenty of time to answer all the questions so do not rush through it.

Finishing Strong

Congratulations you finished the test but do not pass it in just yet.

Spend a couple of minutes and review your answers just in case you have last minute thoughts about some of them.

But don’t spend too much time reviewing. Otherwise you will drive yourself crazy and change a correct answer into an incorrect answer!

Moving on And Up

Well you’ve done it.

You’ve taken the test that you work so hard on. You’ve trained, you’ve done practice tests, flipped flashcards, set up study groups, gone through all the skills test and now you’ve done. Or just beginning, shall we say!