News
NANA members pass the spring CAE at 71%
Members who used NANA's exam preparation passed the May testing window at a rate above the norm cited by candidates.
Seventy-one percent of NANA members who sat for the Certified Association Executive exam in the May 1–14 testing window passed. Theo Nakashima-Ward, NANA's director of learning and credentialing, tracked results across members who used NANA's preparation resources ahead of the window.
What NANA does, and doesn't do
NANA does not administer the CAE exam. The credential is issued by the CAE program on its own testing calendar, with windows each May and December. NANA's role is preparation: study groups, bootcamps, and pre-approval of credit hours members can apply toward eligibility for the exam.
"We hear from members who think we run the test," Nakashima-Ward said. "We don't. We get people ready for it, and then the program administers its own exam on its own schedule. Getting that distinction right matters, because members sometimes call us asking about their score and we have no way to look it up."
Nakashima-Ward earned his own CAE in 2021, three years before taking over NANA's learning and credentialing program, and said his own study experience shaped how the current preparation offerings are structured.
How members prepared
Members who passed this spring most often used one or more of:
A CAE study group meeting in person or virtually, co-led by staff and volunteer members who already hold the credential
NANA's credit-hour pre-approval for courses already in the Learning catalog, which lets candidates count coursework they've already completed toward eligibility
The winter CAE Credential Bootcamp held the previous November, an intensive multi-day session covering the exam's core content areas
Members reported studying an average of roughly six hours a week in the two months before the window, according to informal polling NANA's learning team conducted after registration closed.
"I'd taken two association-management courses years ago and had no idea they'd count toward my hours until someone on staff walked me through the pre-approval process."
— member who passed the May window
Why the number matters
Nakashima-Ward said tracking a pass rate for members, rather than relying on the CAE program's own national figures, gives NANA a way to measure whether its preparation programs are actually working rather than assuming they help. His team plans to publish the figure after every testing window going forward, spring and winter alike, so members can see whether the rate holds steady, improves, or slips as the preparation offerings change.
Who sat this spring
The May window drew candidates from across NANA's membership, from first-year staff pursuing the credential early in their careers to long-serving executive directors who had put off the exam for years. Nakashima-Ward said the study group format seemed to help both groups equally, though for different reasons — newer staff used it to fill gaps in association-management fundamentals, while veteran candidates used it mainly to refresh material they hadn't reviewed since graduate school.
The next window
The next CAE testing window runs December 1–14, and NANA's credentialing team will hold study sessions ahead of it for members preparing to sit, including the winter CAE Credential Bootcamp scheduled for November.