Walking into the testing center feels a lot like going to the DMV. You take a number, they call you up, you fill out paperwork, give multiple ID's and get your picture taken. They then give you a key to a locker and ask you to put all of your belongings into the locker. Then you wait around for them to call you back to the testing area. You are escorted to the entrance way into another holding area. From there you give your palm print, empty out everything in your pockets. I mean everything I had ChapStick in my pocket and they had me put it up. After all that you are finally able to sit at the computer and start the exam.
I took the Scientific Foundations section first. It is a 95-question (15 are thrown out) within 1.5 hours. Scientific foundations entail exercise science, sport psychology, and nutrition questions. This was the section that I spent the majority of the time studying due to the sheer amount of information that could be asked about anatomy and physiology. Nutrition was also a bug a boo for me during the practice tests. Nutrition would be a word problem about macros and percentages of total caloric intake. Doing these calculations with a calculator is easy. By hand...not so much. I had to re-learn long division and multiplying sets of numbers. Taking the exam, I felt confident about knowing the material (or at least being able to eliminate answers). Some of the questions.... I had no clue. I was just hoping those were a part of the 15 questions that weren't used. Turns out I knew just enough I squeaked by with a 71. It is a go at this station!
Upon completion they give you a 15 min break. That does not include signing out of the testing center and signing back in, so really, it's enough time to go to the bathroom and head back.
Part two of the exam is the practical/applied section. It is 110 questions in 2.5 hours of time. Again 15 questions are thrown out for research. This portion is exercise technique, program design, organization and administration, testing and evaluation. On this section I felt that I could pass it by using my "gym" knowledge for technique and program design. They play videos of exercises and ask you to pick a coaching point or continue with technique. It is not obvious either; the videos have very subtle movements that you have to pick up. I mostly focused on the football, basketball, baseball for men and softball and basketball for women athletic profiles. Athletic profiles are your bench, squat, clean, body fat, Vo2 max and vertical jump stats. The sheer number of sports is insane. I took a chance and boy was I wrong. The test asked about strong man atlas exercises, lacrosse, swimming (basically all the sports I did not study for). This was humbling. I thought I had bombed it. Turns out I failed it by two questions...ouch! I would have rather bombed it then being so close.
So, what did I learn? The test itself wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I should have taken it earlier; I also should have taken my studying more serious as well. This is not an easy exam by any means. There are no shortcuts. You have to put in the work and multiple studying angles. For me it was reading the book, watching YouTube videos and of course this blog. I'll continue this process until I re-take the practical/applied section. Now that I know what the test is like and how to prepare, I anticipate being much more successful the next time.
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