How to Become a Nursing Assistant in Korea — Requirements and Exam
Eligibility for the Korean nursing assistant national exam, the required training hours, the exam subjects and passing marks, and the annual schedule.
Search for how to become a nursing assistant (간호조무사) in Korea and you get a mix of academy ads and outdated pages, which makes it hard to see the actual order of steps. This post lays out that order, from eligibility through the exam to the license itself.
The whole process comes down to three stages. Complete an approved training program → pass the national exam → receive your license. The step people miss most often is the first one. The exam is not open to anyone who wants to sit it; you only become eligible after finishing a prescribed course of training.
The information below follows the announcements of the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute (한국보건의료인국가시험원, commonly called 국시원). Hour requirements and schedules can be revised, so check the Institute’s current announcement before you commit to anything.
Step 1 — Becoming Eligible
The baseline academic requirement is graduation from high school or above. On top of that, you have to complete a set course of training at an institution designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare (보건복지부).
The hour requirements are as follows.
| Category | Required hours |
|---|---|
| Classroom instruction | 740 hours or more |
| Practicum | 780 hours or more |
| (Within the practicum) at a hospital-level medical institution (병원급 의료기관) | 400 hours or more |
What stands out is that the practicum is longer than the classroom portion. And of those 780 practicum hours, at least 400 must be logged at a hospital-level institution. That is why so much of the advice about choosing an academy starts with which hospitals it has practicum agreements with. If placements are not secured, you can sit through every hour of theory and still not be eligible to take the exam.
There is more than one route to meeting these requirements.
- Nursing academies (간호학원) — completing a Ministry-designated course, the most common route
- Nursing-related departments at vocational high schools (특성화고) — graduates or students due to graduate
- National and public nursing assistant training centers
- Designated programs at lifelong education facilities
- Graduates of nursing assistant programs abroad — these go through a separate document verification process
Whichever route you take, the thing that matters is whether the institution is designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare. Training taken somewhere that is not designated does not count, no matter how many hours you put in.
Step 2 — The National Exam
Subjects and Question Counts
The exam is 105 questions in 105 minutes. Each question is worth one point, for a maximum of 105.
| Subject | Questions |
|---|---|
| Basic Nursing Overview (기초간호학 개요) | 35 |
| Public Health Nursing Overview (보건간호학 개요) | 15 |
| Introduction to Public Health (공중보건학 개론) | 20 |
| Practical Skills (실기) | 35 |
| Total | 105 |
The subject that causes the most confusion is “Practical Skills.” It is also a written multiple-choice section. There is no separate hands-on test where you demonstrate procedures; the practical content is asked about in five-option multiple-choice questions. Every subject uses the same five-option format, and Practical Skills is the largest single block at 35 questions — worth keeping in mind when you divide up your study time.
Because there are so many candidates and seating has to be split, the exam runs in a morning group and an afternoon group. From 2025 it has been administered as a computer-based test (CBT). That change is to the delivery only, not to the number of questions or the mix of subjects, but if you are used to working through problems by marking a paper booklet, it is worth practicing on a screen beforehand.
Passing Marks
You have to satisfy both conditions to pass.
- 60% or more of the total across all subjects — at least 63 correct out of 105
- 40% or more of the maximum in every subject
The second condition is the one that eliminates people. Even with a total of 70, you fail if you drop below 40% in a single subject. Converted into questions, that means at least 14 correct in Basic Nursing Overview, 6 in Public Health Nursing Overview, 8 in Introduction to Public Health, and 14 in Practical Skills.
The subject to watch here is Public Health Nursing Overview. With only 15 questions, each one carries 6.7% — more weight than a question in any other subject. Nine wrong answers puts you right on the minimum line, and ten wrong answers fails you regardless of your total score. People do study toward the total and then get caught in a short subject, so the sections that look small deserve more attention, not less.
Exam Schedule
The exam is held twice a year, once in the first half and once in the second. For 2026 the schedule is as follows.
| Session | Application period | Exam |
|---|---|---|
| First half | Mid-January to end of January | Mid-March |
| Second half | Mid-July to end of July | Mid-September |
Applications are submitted online through the Institute’s website, from 9 a.m. on the opening day to 6 p.m. on the closing day, and the fee is 40,000 won. Applicants who graduated from a foreign institution have to complete an in-person document check before their application goes through.
The thing to watch in the schedule is that applications close roughly a month and a half before the exam. If you plan around the exam date alone and miss the application window, you wait half a year. It is also worth working out in advance whether the date you finish your training falls inside the application period.
Step 3 — Getting the License
Once you pass, you receive a license issued in the name of the Minister of Health and Welfare. As of January 1, 2017, the issuing authority changed from provincial governors and metropolitan mayors (시·도지사) to the Minister of Health and Welfare. Licenses obtained before that date remain fully valid.
What the Pass Rate Looks Like
Based on recent sittings, the pass rate sits in the mid-to-high 80s. In the second-half exam of 2025, 13,713 of 16,143 candidates passed, for 84.9%. It has generally stayed in the 80s over the last several years.
A high pass rate can be read two ways. One is that anyone who has properly completed the training program and prepares in earnest can get through it. The other is that the 10 to 20% who do not pass mostly fail on a subject minimum or on insufficient preparation. The 60% total is not a demanding bar in itself, so the strategy is clear: secure 40% in every subject first, then work on raising the total.
The Order, Summarized
- Choose a Ministry-designated training institution — check its hospital practicum arrangements first
- Complete 740 hours of classroom instruction and 780 practicum hours (including 400 in a hospital)
- Apply through the Institute’s website — applications close about a month and a half before the exam, so check the dates
- Prepare for 105 five-option questions — defend the minimums in the short subjects first
- Receive your Ministry of Health and Welfare license after passing
In the next post I’ll go into what each subject actually covers, and which units the questions tend to come from.
If you want to work through a lot of practice questions, I built a Nursing Assistant Mock Exam app. It has a question bank organized by subject, a wrong-answer review, and a mode that avoids serving questions you saw recently.