Well, I took my first NSCA CSCS practice exam and passed. It wasn’t a perfect score, for sure, but now I know what I don’t know. This is a good thing for further prep.
Based on what I got wrong, I know what test domains to focus on more. One nice thing about the test is that when you score it, they make it easy to see what question you botched, what domain and subcategory it was from and where to look in the official text for the rationale behind the answer. That’s way better than an answer key, and for the money you have to shell out for these test prep materials, it’s almost the least they could do.
The prep materials I have (the essentials text, the symposium CD’s and the exam content book) are solid and comprehensive.The one knock I initially had about the CSCS practice exam(s) is that they are a lot shorter than the real deal. Thing is, the content being tested isn’t as general as an LSAT or SAT — it’s a test of a specific body of knowledge. Longer practice exams would just give the real exam away for the most part or slant the exam toward ridiculously detailed recall of minutia.
Anyhoo…
So now, the plan is to just keep studying. I’ll probably write out an outline of the text with a focus on my weak areas and memorize some key nutritional and athletic performance stats / formulas. That review effort, combined with whatever help I can get from the few CSCS’s I know should set me up to take a second practice test sometime after my CrossFit Level I certification this month. Assuming the second test goes well, I’ll schedule my official exam and take it — probably sometime in late February or early March.
Also on the “to do” list is take a first aid / CPR class somewhere. It’s a pre-req to getting certified officially.
Plenty left to do, but at least this first minor benchmark has been cleared. It’s nice to see progress, ya know?
