This CEN cheat sheet distills the BCEN Certified Emergency Nurse exam into a fast recall sheet of the recognition patterns and first actions examiners test most across all 11 content areas. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free CEN toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CEN exam at a glance
- Questions: 175 items (150 scored + 25 unscored pretest)
- Time: 180 minutes (3 hours) seat time
- Passing score: Scaled criterion-referenced cut: about 99 of 150 correct (~66%) effective July 6, 2026
- Cost: ≈ $285 ENA member / $380 non-member; reduced military and veteran fees (verify at bcen.org)
What’s on the CEN cheat sheet
- Cardiovascular, Respiratory & Neurological (52 items) — the big three — ACS and the 12-lead, ACLS dysrhythmias, the shock states, asthma/COPD and PE, stroke, ICP, and seizures.
- Medical & Gastrointestinal (29 items) — sepsis and septic shock, anaphylaxis, DKA/HHS, endocrine and electrolyte crises, GI bleeds, and the acute abdomen.
- Mental Health, Environment/Tox & GU/OB (36 items) — suicide-risk safety, de-escalation, toxidromes and antidotes, burns, ectopic pregnancy, preeclampsia/HELLP, and renal emergencies.
- MSK/Wound, HEENT & Professional Issues (33 items) — compartment syndrome, ocular emergencies, plus ESI triage, mass-casualty START, EMTALA, consent, and forensic evidence.
How to use it in your final week
- Memorize the ESI first: ESI 1 needs an immediate life-saving intervention, ESI 2 is high-risk or severely distressed, then ESI 3-5 sort by anticipated resource use.
- Front-load the big three — Cardiovascular (18), Respiratory (17), and Neurological (17) are about a third of the 150 scored items, so spend most of your final week there.
- Read the sheet the morning of the test for one clean pass on the memory hooks — STEMI reperfusion under 90 minutes, epinephrine 1 mg every 3-5 minutes, cardiovert the unstable patient, needle-decompress a tension pneumothorax.
- Pair every review pass with a short timed set (175 items in 180 minutes is about 1 minute each) so your pacing feels routine before test day.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CEN practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CEN cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CEN cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no sign-up and no payment. It sits alongside Career Employer's free CEN practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your whole review layer costs nothing.
It condenses the highest-yield emergency-nursing facts BCEN tests: ESI triage levels, ACS and the 12-lead, the four shock states, ACLS drug doses, stroke and ABG rules, and the sepsis and anaphylaxis bundles — organized around the 11 weighted content areas of the exam.
It's built from BCEN's Certified Emergency Nurse Examination Content Outline effective July 2026, so it reflects the 11-area blueprint and the updated scoring standard. We review it against BCEN's published outline and AHA/AHRQ references.
No — it's a last-mile cram and recall aid, not a substitute for working questions across all 11 content areas. You need roughly 99 of 150 scored items correct under the standard effective July 6, 2026, so pair the sheet with timed practice to build readiness.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page and the PDF opens instantly. Bookmark the page so you can pull it up again the morning of your BCEN exam.
References
- 1.Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing. “Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) Examination Content Outline (effective July 2026).” bcen.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing. “CEN Certification for Emergency Nurses.” bcen.org, 2026. ↑
- 3.Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing. “The CEN Certification Process & Eligibility.” bcen.org, 2026. ↑
- 4.Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). “Emergency Severity Index (ESI): A Triage Tool for Emergency Departments.” ahrq.gov, 2026. ↑
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