How to Study for Your CSCS Exam

CSCS stands for “Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist,” for those who are unaware. Additionally, CSCS is a famous and well-respected certification program in the world of health, fitness, and sports science.

But it can be pretty difficult to prepare for the CSCS exam, especially if you think that you need to go it alone. What does the exam look like? What’s the best way to start preparing? Would a CSCS study guide be enough on its own? And how should you know if the CSCS program is the correct physical training (PT) certification for you?

While it may seem difficult to discern what the best route is in terms of CSCS preparation, you are not alone. And there are resources you can use to figure out the best way to brush up on your knowledge.

Look into a CSCS Study Guide

A CSCS study guide is a great way to supplement your CSCS exam preparation, especially if you’re enrolling in a program that is nationally accredited. As is typical for many study guides in the academic world, a CSCS study guide can help you get a better understanding of what information you will need to know for the exam.

A CSCS study guide can help to compile key information into one place, especially if you don’t have enough time during your final study sessions to look through a CSCS textbook and other CSCS preparation materials.

CSCS Practice Tests

CSCS practice exams can also be pretty helpful for your exam preparation. This is largely because it can help you understand the major format of the exam. For some, you might not know that the CSCS final exam is comprised of two separate tests that need to be passed individually in order to be certified.

And that means that if you don’t pass one of the exams on your first try, you’ll need to pay to retake the other part of the exam in order to get certified and become a CSCS properly. And paying to retake even one part of the exam can get to be pretty pricey, so you would do well to try your hardest as passing the exam the first time.

A practice test would be able to get you acquainted with how many questions are in each part of the exam, as well as how long you will be able to take for each individual question in order to finish the exam on time.

The exam commits 110 questions to the test that is focused on practical or applied information, and then another 80 questions on the test concerned with scientific foundations. An additional 30 questions will be non-scored, and they will be spread equally throughout the two test sections of the exam. That means there’s a total of 220 questions on the exam.

Why are 30 of these questions not scored? It’s so that questions can be tested for future use, as well as to gauge different formats and kinds of information for how well-received those kinds of questions are. But just because 30 questions aren’t going to be scored, you won’t necessarily be able to know which of the questions you don’t need to answer.

It’s generally going to be a good idea to try and answer as many of the questions in front of you as you can during the testing period.

Speaking of the testing period, the exam is three hours long in total. This means you’ll have just over a minute for each question on the exam.

Focus on Time Management Skills

In general, the time between enrolling in a CSCS program and registering for a CSCS exam is about four months or 120 days. This is a pretty short timeline, especially when you consider that other PT certifications will require between six and 12 months to prepare for their certification exams.

Not only does this mean that you will have less time than usual to prepare for the exam, but it’s easy to forget that this is one of the most difficult PT certifications to acquire. So you’ll have less time to prepare for an even harder certification exam.

At a pass rate of 63% for the CSCS certification, it’s definitely possible to pass on the first try, but it isn’t a guarantee.

Some places like Trainer Academy claim that you can be fully prepared for your CSCS exam within about three months, as long as you have a lot of study dedication and strong time management skills during your short preparation time.

Why is the CSCS So Difficult?

The CSCS exam is meant to be so difficult because those who are certified will mainly be personal trainers for those who are professional and high-profile athletes. Not only does this mean that a CSCS will need to be knowledgeable, but they will also be responsible for another person’s livelihood and career.

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