[BrianB]

For background on me and my situation, I have no professional personal training experience, and no formal education in anatomy, kinesiology, etc., and went from cracking the book open for the first time to passing the CPT exam in about two weeks. That said, I have a rather extensive informal education in nutrition, metabolism, weight management, and human physiology. I also have been a student in some way shape or form (either toward attaining technology related professional certifications, or working on my bachelor's degree part time for about the last 22 years). I have learned how to study effectively, and am generally adept at taking comprehensive examinations. All that setup was just to help you set your own expectations for yourself based upon how similarly you compare to the above (or don't).

Note that the ACSM candidate agreement forbids revealing any specific test questions or answers. Even if it were allowed I would not do so because that would dilute the meaningfulness of the certification. There is a difference between directing your study to that which the ACSM apparently thinks is most important vs. giving you test answers.

All that said, here are my tips for passing this exam. Other than #1 being most important, they are not in any particular order of importance.

1. Read "Resources for the Personal Trainer", cover to cover, for comprehension, and take lots of notes. I filled almost a full 300 page notebook with notes from the text. Amusingly I did not go back and read the notes at all prior to the exam. For me, the taking of the notes is the important part. I don't really need to go review them. When I read the text, and make the notes, I translate the material into my own form, and in synthesizing it (rather than simply copying it) it goes into long term storage in my brain.

2. Know specifically how to spot common freeweight exercises. It is *not* enough to know the spotting advice in the texts. If you're going to take the 3-day workshop, there is a great 1-page guide in the study guide that covers the most common ones. Otherwise I guess you'll have to grab a NSCA book like "Strength Training" and see what they say. There are very specific spotting questions on the exam, there is a KSA for the topic, and it doesn't matter that the texts don't cover it.

3. You do not need to know the mmol values for the dyslipidemia thresholds in the risk stratification criteria. Every question gave both the mg/dL and the mmol values. I wasn't sure if I needed to know the mmol values, so I memorized the mg/dL and then taught myself how to convert the mg/dL to mmol (and vice versa). That is not necessary.

4. Be sure to know the U.S. and metric BMI formulas. There are times when you will need to calculate the BMI for someone and will be provided only U.S. or only metric numbers. Alternatively you can memorize just the metric formula and know that if you divide pounds by 2.2 you get kilograms, and if you multiply inches by 25.4 you get millimeters (or multiply by 2.54 to get centimeters).

5. Be sure you know what a MET is and are able to do some simple metabolic calculations based upon that definition. I had memorized the equation that defines a MET and had at least one question where I was able to use that to determine the answer.

6. Know the major structures of the heart -- the chambers, valves, and inflows and outflows. Where does the blood come in and go out, etc.

7. Know the acute and chronic responses to cardio and resistance training. I *would not* just try to memorize a simple "up/down" list (like resting heart rate decreases, stroke volume increases, etc.) because in my opinion there are too many different ways to ask these questions and instead you really need to have a decent grasp of why each variable will go up or down so you can reason out the right answer to whatever question is posed.

8. Do the end of chapter practice tests in the "Certification Review" manual. You can skip chapter 11 and 12 of Certification Review as they are for HFI and ES. Even in chapters 1 through 10 many of the questions are not for CPT and are targeted toward HFI or ES, but those will probably be obvious to you. If it asks a question about a 12 point EKG reading, you can skip it. If you're not sure whether or not to skip it, go ahead and take a stab at it. The answer key explains the answers, so you're bound to learn something just from reading the answer key at the end.

9. Glance through chapters 1-10 of certification review. I didn't actually do this, but I think doing it would have been a good idea.

10. Be sure to know the planes of the body (saggital, frontal, transverse), the "anatomical position", and what joints move in what planes in the anatomical position. For each joint, be sure you understand the major agonist and antagonist muscles. Be sure you understand both the eccentric and concentric phases of the movements of the major joints. Be sure you know all the ways that the shoulder and scapular joints can move and what they are called. The shoulder and scapular movements are the most difficult because there are so many of them. Paying attention to keywords which indicate the plane of the movement will help you understand the movements. Horizontal (or transverse) shoulder adduction for example versus regular (frontal plane) shoulder adduction.

11. Know what SITS is -- what each letter means, and what each one does. It's not enough to memorize what the acronym stands for, you need to be able to answer applied questions.

12. Know which CAD risk factors are modifiable and unmodifiable. Understand what modifiable vs. unmodifiable means. Understand that age and gender are quasi-distinct risk factors (and if they are modifiable or not) even though they aren't separate "list" items.

13. Know your transtheoretical stages of readiness to change. Be able to answer applied questions on this.

14. If math isn't your thing, brush up on your simple algebra. I do complex math every day for my day job, so this wasn't much of an issue, but if you've been away from school (and math) for awhile, you might want to brush up just a little bit. Worst case scenario, this is a multiple choice test. If you can't work out the math to "solve for" the answer, frequently you can take each provided answer and plug it in and "work forward" and see if the answer "checks" or not -- only one will -- the right one.

15. This should go without saying, but know the risk stratification criteria and process down cold. Know all of the threshold to qualify for each criteria. Know what it takes to qualify as low, moderate, or high risk. Know what can and can't be done with people in each risk category with and without medical clearance. Since much of that last topic involves the definitions of "moderate" or "vigorous" exercise, be sure you know how to define moderate and vigorous in terms of HRR, VO2R, HRmax, and VO2max. Watch for tricks in the stratification. They may tell you something early on that implies the person doesn't have a given risk factor, and then tell you something later that means they do. Read carefully -- don't be sloppy.

16. Know the general prescription (F, I, T, and T) for cardio, resistance, and flexibility programs.

17. Know what HRR, VO2R, HRmax, and VO2max are, formulas or techniques related to calculating or determining them, and what you do with them. Know how the various levels of each correlate to RPE.

18. Know the skinfold sites. Not just where they are, but their orientation, and how to take the actual measurement. Know the verbatim details of how to take each measurement.

I'm sure there is actually a lot more than the above, but those are the things that I remember being particularly glad I had made a point to reinforce. There were countless questions that were things that I just remembered because I read them and were interesting, but didn't really stick in my head because they weren't part of an area of concentrated study.

Another good idea is to make a copy of the KSA list for the exam. Each time you come across a topic in the book that addresses a KSA, highlight it or tag it in some way to let you know you've addressed/learned that item. Then when you're done with the text you'll know what KSA items you've not yet covered (and need to find in one of the other books). There will be a lot of them. Some of the more esoteric things you'll just have to skip and know that you may miss an odd question here or there on that.

Also, there are some KSA items that are *not* covered in the 3 books that are part of the "study kit" (RPT, GETP, and CR). Some of the items are *only* covered in the "Resource Manual for Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription" (RMGETP). Whether or not this is enough to make you buy this extra $60 book is up to you -- I did. I'll need it some day for Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist anyway.

Yes, it's a lot. The ACSM exam is very clinical. I hope the above helps.

[SquirrelPatrol]

Thanks for all the tips Brian!

[griffman]

Even though I am sitting for the NFPT exam pretty soon, I eventually would like to take the ACSM exam. This information is greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to do this. Best wishes Brian and God bless. Griff

[newguy]

Great info Brian. I am currently studying for this exam, but I am not sure when to take it. (Financial problems)

One question though. Which of the metabolic equations will I need to know? All of them?

[BrianB]

[tammysherlock]

Thanks for the great studying tips. I have decided to postpone my test as I realize I am not ready!

One area that I'm concerned is the coverage of muscles, bones. Any tips on where to focus, i.e. just agonist and antagonist to joints.

Thanks again for your tips.

[BrianB]

Hi Tammy. I responded to your PM, so hopefully that helps, I'll post that information here for the benefit of others as well.

[arti8]

yr post comes across very useful. thanks. I am also preparing for CPT. My query:
In Health appraisal, fitness testing KSA...how much in dept must I know the following topic:
Knowledge of and the ability to discuss the physiological basis of the major components of fitness : flexibility, cardiovascular fitness , muscular strength, endurance and body composition.

Thanks
Arti

[kb6832]

Do we have to know about ecg's

[newguy]

[kb6832]

Thanks. I had another questions as well. How in depth do we need to know about training and prescribing exercises for people with cardiac history. There's a lot of material on this subject, which is very specific and I was just wondering if we need to know the specifics or have a general understanding of it or what?????

[BrianB]

Pretty much you just need to know the general guidelines for people who are in the different risk categories. I don't recall anything specific for cardiac patients, etc. Perhaps that would be something needed for HFI...