Preparing for personal training (PT) certification exam can be pretty tough, especially when you’re going after one of the most difficult PT certification programs in the health and fitness space. That’s exactly what you’re doing if you’re trying to get ready for the CSCS, or the “Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist,” exam.

So if you’re looking for a good way to prepare, you might decide it’s a good idea to invest some time and money into a top-notch CSCS study guide or two. But how do you know what makes a good CSCS study guide in the first place? And what is that CSCS study guide going to help you accomplish during the actual exam?

You Have Limited Study Time

Unless you didn’t know, you’re going to only have very limited time to prepare for your CSCS exam, especially if you’re set on passing the exam the first time you take it. That means you might not always have all of the time you want to get through every bit of material, including some of the very long and detailed textbooks that have been made for the CSCS.

These curated study guides for the CSCS exam will help you get through as much information as possible, especially if you are starting to run out of time toward the end of your very short available study period. With only four months to prepare for the CSCS exam, especially in comparison to other personal training programs and certifications, you don’t have a lot of time.

For comparison, other personal training programs will give you about six to 12 months to prepare for the certification exam, which can give you significantly more time in your busy life to find extra time to study.

This four-month time limit is especially brutal if you consider the fact that the CSCS is considered one of the most difficult certifications for someone to get. That means there’s a lot of information you need to get through in a very short amount of time.

However, according to Training Academy, you can be well and thoroughly prepared to pass the CSCS exam in approximately three months. That’s especially the case if you have good time management skills and have the ability to be extremely dedicated during your available study hours.

Check Out the Trainer Academy CSCS Study Guide

A good CSCS study guide is going to help you in a number of ways to fully prepare for your CSCS exam. Frequently, study guides will contain information that is more compact and concise for a particular examination, and they’re especially useful for making sure you can get through all of the necessary information in a shorter amount of time.

How does the Training Academy accomplish making a very effective and useful study guide for its CSCS students? It eloquently and efficiently compacts all of the information offered in some of the textbooks into the key information you’re going to need on the main examination.

Additionally, Training Academy helps its students become Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists by passing on the most updated and recent information by discussing the exam with former students. That means they get information about the kinds of information that were used, the sorts of questions they saw, and the ways that the exam has changed year to year.

Because of these resources, it could be a great idea to check out Training Academy’s study guide for the CSCS. Not only is the information curated, but they also get access to extra information because of their history of successful students passing the exam.

Use the NSCA Study Guide

The NSCA, or the National Strength and Conditioning Association, also offers a study guide. And this is extremely useful because the NSCA is the association that most frequently provides the CSCS certification program to aspiring personal trainers.

It was established in 1978, and it’s also a non-profit organization that wants to further research and education for those in the sports science, fitness, and health industries. The NSCA is also regarded very highly and considered the golden standard for PT certifications. It’s incredibly well-qualified and also has a stellar reputation for its certifications.

Given the fact that the NSCA provides CSCS certification program opportunities, it’s not a bad source for information regarding how you should prepare for the final exam. According to the NSCA website, its study guide is based on a CSCS Detailed Content Outline. It’s also been put together specifically for helping students better understand the exam.

It also advises students on the best way to focus during their preparation time, as well as gives them the ability to assess how knowledgeable they are as they study. It even does this on a bit more of a granular level, allowing students to figure out their levels of comprehension for each section and subject of the exam. This includes each domain, sub-domain, and task.