It took me 25 days from taking the course to taking the exam. I was taking other classes in between, so my actual time spent studying for the ACSM was about 10 days. Because I’d previously interned in physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), I’d already picked up a lot of related knowledge, and I was very familiar with the anatomy and physiology. My prep time was probably on the shorter side, so you can adjust the time you need accordingly.
The Prep Process
Looking back at my process, here is the order I recommend for your prep:
- Get the books: Ordering GETP 11th from Amazon takes up to two weeks, so do this first. In the meantime, you can look for copies in the library.
- Pre-course reading: Because the pandemic shifted the course online, Instructor Chia-Chih’s handouts were mailed over in advance. Skimming the handouts before class is a huge help for understanding the lectures. You can check with the assistant to see if you can get the book early. Also, if you aren’t familiar with the English names for various weightlifting postures, you can search and learn them beforehand.
- Take the course: Over the three days, the lecture pace isn’t too fast—there’s plenty of time to take notes while listening. By the end, you should have a better structural grasp of the overall content. For any parts you aren’t clear on, there are replays you can listen to again.
- Organize your notes: I rewrote the lecture content into my own notes. This part depends on your personal study habits.
- Do practice questions: Once you feel confident about the lecture content, you can do the questions at the back of the handout (which are the Certification Review questions) to see how you score. This also shows you what material you’re unfamiliar with so you can strengthen those areas. I organized the questions I got wrong into a separate set of notes—especially those related to law and motivational theory. You can Google these or check the textbook, but remember to compile them separately so you can review them quickly.
- Register for the exam: After doing the questions, you’ll have a better sense of the exam’s difficulty and your own level, and you can decide on a test date. I just went ahead and registered to lock in a date and give myself some pressure to study.
- Read the textbook and GETP: I read through the GETP chapters on aerobics, weightlifting, pregnancy, the elderly, and children, which was quite helpful. Looking back after the exam, the GETP content for sedentary lifestyles is scattered across different chapters, and you really should organize it yourself.
- Do more questions: I read through the Certification Review case studies one more time to figure out my weak spots, and then stubbornly went back to reading GETP and organizing my notes. If you don’t want to keep looking at the same things, or if you’re worried you haven’t studied thoroughly enough, you can also buy practice questions online to get a feel for the exam. You can refer to the previous post to see what resources are available.
- The two-hour final sprint: Focus on reviewing the details of exercise prescriptions for different populations, law, and motivational theory. You can also look over the questions you previously got wrong.
Test Day
You’re required to arrive 15 minutes early. My check-in took exactly 15 minutes, so I started right on time. During check-in, you sign in and lock all your belongings in a personal locker. Then you go into a room to take a headshot—remember to smile, because that will be the photo on your certificate! After coming out, they checked that I didn’t have any personal items on me, handed me a whiteboard marker and an A4 whiteboard, and then I could enter my individual computer booth to start getting familiar with the testing system.
At first, there are practice questions to introduce the testing system. This doesn’t count towards your time, so you can take it slow. The system has a calculator, and you can flag questions. But keep in mind that you can only go back to look at flagged questions after you’ve gone through all the questions.
I used the whiteboard to write down terms I was unsure about. If they happened to pop up in later questions, I could go back and check my answers. Also, because time is limited, if you aren’t sure of an answer, you can flag it and leave it blank, or pick an answer first and come back to check it at the end. The total exam time is 150 minutes. It took me 100 minutes to finish the questions and 20 minutes to check them before submitting my test.
After submitting, you’ll instantly see your score on the screen—this is the most thrilling part! Then the staff led me out of the computer booth. After signing out, picking up my score report, and grabbing my personal items, I was good to go.
I hope everyone reading this prep guide passes on their first try and celebrates big time. You’ve just passed what even Americans consider the hardest personal trainer certification to get!