I Passed the ACSM Personal Trainer's Exam. Here's How:

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Thank you!!! Good luck on your test. Also, I've been a trainer for over five years. I've helped many clients lose over 100 lbs. One client I guided to lose about 250 lbs. Ask me questions about the job if you like.-Gabe Redel

I took The ACSM Personal Trainer Certification exam and passed it on the first try. It was a tough exam!!!

I'm going to tell you a few things that helped me succeed in passing.

The first is that I ordered all three books. The ACSM Resources text book, the Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, and the Certification Review workbook.

I did not go to the one day or the three day workshop. I signed up for it, for a price of $375, but it was cancelled because I was the only one attending. Ha! Got my money back.

The first book I read was the Resources book. Read through all of that and do your best to understand as much as you can. Read and reread. If you are like me, you will have to reread the same sentence five times before you finally understand what it is trying to say. I found myself looking up a lot of medical terms that I wasn't familiar with.

After reading the Resources text, then go into the smaller Guidelines for Exercise Testing book.

What you will not need to read in the Guidelines book is a whole lot of it.

Don't bother with any of the Special Populations Exercise Prescriptions other than for the elderly, children, and CVD or CAD classified risk populations.

You will also not need to know anything about Electrocardiograph Waveforms in the Interpretation of Clinical Exercise Test Results. The rest of the book is mainly review of the resources book, but highlight any new information you read in it.

Other things you will not need to know are most of the metabolic equations. I spent several days making sure to memorize each of them so I could bang them out on the test. The only metabolic equations you will need to know is Ideal Body Weight calculation, BMI, and work rate.

You will not need to know how to calculate the run or walk test, any of the Rockport stuff, the cycling test, the stepping test, nothing about mechanical work and angular power, and especially don't give a rat's behind about any conversion factors other than inches to centimeters, centimeters to meters, and pounds to kilograms.

I'm actually happy I busted hump learning everything I just told you wasn't on the test because I'm confident I can perform those things if I have to while on the job. It makes me look really smart in front of the the clients.

You will need to know how to calculate Target VO2 Max, max heart rate, heart rate reserve, the Karvonen target heart rate, and the absolute and relative VO2Max difference.

Something you should definitely know how to calculate is simple stuff like volume of exercise per week, how many pounds of fat you will lose if you burn so many calories. Those aren't necessarily metabolic equations, but they do require the basics of simple math.

Other than that, I remember a lot of questions about how blood pressure, heart rate, and stroke volume change as you workout, so know those.

The test will throw in little tid-bit questions about stuff that isn't a part of the bulk of the knowledge. One or two questions will be about muscle types, while one or two will be about protein. So, the best way to study for this is to simply review the stuff and get a fundamental idea of how most of it all works.

One thing that you will definitely need to know is Risk Classifications. Know how to classify High Risk, Moderate Risk, and Low Risk potential. One thing about the risk classification stuff is that you will be given total cholesterol figures. I don't remember ever seeing total cholesterol in any of my books. I remember seeing fasting glucose levels, so beware of that.

A few behavioral modification questions will arise. The best one to know down cold is the Transtheoretical Model. Know the basics of the others.

You will need to know how often and how much an athlete should drink water while working out on a 90 degree day.

You will need to know that there are 4 calories in one gram of protein, 4 in one gram of carbohydrates, and 9 in one gram of fat. You will also need to know that there are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat.

You will need to know the regions of the spine, how many vertebrae are in each, and what the curvatures of the spine are called.

Study the parts of the heart and how the blood flows through it. Understand Cardiac Output, stroke volume, blood pressure, heart rate, and especially know high and low blood pressure.

Those things I've listed should help to save you some time. The test is tough, but it isn't as scary as some of the other bloggers are saying. By the way, look up what the other bloggers are saying and use their information as well. I did, and it definitely helped. However, they did lead me astray a little bit. They made me think the exam was going to be full of the most difficult questions in the texts. So that's why I wasted a good 20 hours of my life learning all of those metabolic equations! But, as I said, all of those equations weren't on the test. Only the ones I mentioned. However, again, I'm glad I learned them for my own sake.

My overall study time for the exam was about 1.5 months. I'm not the best studier, but I did kick it into high gear as much as my brain would allow me to go. I generally spent about 10 hours a week studying in the beginning, but really turned up the volume for the last two weeks. The last week I spent a good 30 hours studying.

I hope some of what I said helps. Stay calm and get a good fundamental understanding of what is in the Resources text. Your goal isn't to just simply pass the exam. It is also to be a good personal trainer.