The studying was difficult, mostly because of the shear volume of material to cover. One text book is 680 pages, the other was 267, and the study guide to accompany the first text book was 186 pages. Science and math are not my strong points, but the material was interesting to me and that kept me going.
I was thankful for the study support provided through ACE -- they sent a weekly email telling me how much and which material to cover so that I could work through it in 12 weeks. I took about six more weeks on the tail end to truly master the material before I took the test. (If I'm really honest with myself I pretty much took December off from studying; I read a little bit but there wasn't much happening with the kids home and Christmas festivities going on.)
The practice modules and exams helped tremendously, too, especially since it's been about 13 years since I've taken any type of exam. (GAH! Has it seriously been that long since I left college? I'm getting very old!) ACE also has a library of blog topics related to the test, and it hosts frequent live question and answer sessions on its Facebook page. I reviewed the history of the Q&As and picked up quite a few pointers and strategies that I put to good use.
After a short period of completely freaking out about a month before the test, I was very confident and calm heading into the exam. My trusty stack of index cards, Post-it flags, and paper clips made sure I focused on what I was sure to be covered. It also helped to use Zach as my pseudo-client as I put him through some posture and movement assessments to get some real-world practice.
The exam was 150 questions and covered four domains:
- Client Interviews and Assessments: I scored 89%
- Program Design and Implementation: I scored 81%
- Program Progression and Modifications: I scored 93%
- Professional Conduct, Safety, and Risk Management: I scored 88%
It sure was a load off to pass that exam! However, even though I learned a lot and received a passing score, I realize that there is so much more to learn -- and that's a good thing! I don't ever want to stop learning how to be a better person, a better trainer, a better business person.
I have a few things in the works to put my new certification to use, which I will share later. In the meantime I'm going to find some new ways to spend those two hours per day that were earmarked for studying for the past 4 months!
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Workout of the Day
Asylum 2: Upper Elite
60 minutes of upper body work. At one point I thought my entire upper body was going to cramp!
So far I really like these workouts, though. They go by quickly and are not as repetitive as the workouts in Asylum 1.
