ACSM Test Wednesday

This Wednesday I’m sitting down to take the ACSM-CPT (American College of Sports Medicine-Certified Personal Trainer) test and I was wondering if anyone on here who has taken the test has any suggestions as far as what some good things to look over would be. I’ve looked at the KSA’s (basically the breakdown of what the test consists of and how heavily they’re weighted) and feel pretty good overall, especially after taking several practice tests and doing quite well on them. I’ve read the three books they suggest and done some independent research already and have reached the point where I feel like I already know everything I’m studying, which makes me want to stop. That being said, I would hate to fail the test and have to take it again.

So seriously, anything you can think of, just post it below. Frankly, if you guys could throw some stuff out there that I have no idea about and scare me back to my desk to study that’d be fantastic haha…

Thanks!

sorry i dont have any helpful info for you, but can you take that test whenever you feel ready? or is it only taken on certain dates throughout the year?

haha don’t sweat it. I think you can essentially take it on any date within reason. It’s given at a Pearson VUE location and each center seems to offer it at different times, but when I looked (a month in advance) it seemed to be offered almost any day of the week. I wasn’t able to really find too many open slots less than a month in advance though.

I don’t have any advice for you, but I’m glad to see you’re not getting some crappy ACE certification or anything.

I’ve seen the tests for nearly all of the PT certifications, and I gotta say, the ASCM and the NSCA are the only ones that actually require you to know your asshole from your elbow to pass. All the other ones are just a joke.

Thanks Xab. That’s actually why I chose this one, I really wanted to have some kind of credibility to at least get my foot in the door with my age and lack of supporting college degree. I figure if I can at least get some type of interview based on my certification I can use my “real” knowledge and hopefully put myself in a good place…

thanks for the info. definetly report back with how well the test goes. im looking into doing this prior to majoring in exercise science. i want to be training while in school so i can make decent money, and hopefully much more after school. good luck!

So as for the update, I just took it a couple hours ago and passed with a score of 737 (needed 550), so needless to say I’m ecstatic. I’m actually using this the same way you’re planning to in that I’m hoping to make some decent money during school, put my experience on a med school application, and then hopefully make some better money as I go through med school. Are you thinking of taking the ACSM route or another cert?

thats awesome. yeah i think i am going with the ACSM for sure.

[quote]CornSprint wrote:
So as for the update, I just took it a couple hours ago and passed with a score of 737 (needed 550), so needless to say I’m ecstatic. I’m actually using this the same way you’re planning to in that I’m hoping to make some decent money during school, put my experience on a med school application, and then hopefully make some better money as I go through med school. Are you thinking of taking the ACSM route or another cert?[/quote]

what was it like?

It’s a good route to go IMO. If I did it again I’d probably take a harder look at the NSCA since the ACSM does seem to have a lot of clinical information in it, while from what I’ve heard the NSCA is more athlete friendly. That being said, ACSM is a good one to do that I didn’t think was too too bad.

jasmincar: You go into a room where they take everything you have and put it in a bag in the other room, then you sit down at a computer and take the test, which was 150 multiple choice that you have 2.5 hours to finish. All I did was read the three suggested books, take notes, and take a couple practice tests, and while I will say it was harder than the practice tests online, it wasn’t terrible considering you need something like a 60% to pass.

what were the recommended books? did you find out from a website? are the practice tests through them? or online through a different source?
by what you just said, maybe it would be better for me to look into the NSCA instead

The suggested books were ACSM’s Resources for the Personal Trainer, ACSM’s certification review, and I think something along the lines of Handbook for the Personal Trainer or something like that…The review book had quizzes at the end of each chapter and one full practice test in the back of the book. The other practice tests I found were online and were an additional charge. I found out all the stuff I needed to do for my cert through the site Error 404 .

As far as the NSCA goes, I would look into both and figure out which one you want to do. I really didn’t see one as much as a benefit over the other, as I was studying the material to pass the test (I did learn a couple things, but nothing compared to what this site and my experience has taught me over time) and get my certification to have a shot at getting a job as a PT. I figured once I had my job I could just go ahead and use what I know to work better anyway.

i’ll check out the site, thanks. yeah i feel really comfortable helping people with advice and ideas for the gym, but i could use some sharpening up in the A and P aspect

wow the NSCA adds up to be way more. the ACSM seems way more straight forward. thats too bad tho, because itd be nice to be able to get the sports conditioning cert afterwards. it says it requires a cpt, but maybe they would allow you to take it if you had the ACSM cpt also