Make sure how to apply what you know

I took the ACSM today, Passed it! HOWEVER here is the following information regarding what I did and how I did it. First of all I am a Sports and Exercise Science major with a minor in Nutrition. That helped A LOT as I was taking this test.

I had been reading over and over the posts other people who took the test wrote. Some studied for months and months and others for weeks and weeks. I studied for three days, three consecutive days of at least 5-6 hours per day.

I had bought all the books and review material that ACSM reccomended. Was it worth it? Yes and No. See this is the problem, the questions at the end of the Chapters on the ACSM review manual do help, however they are very medical terminology oriented. I had to look over many diseases and words from a medical dictionary; did my actual test have that? Not really...I am not a book worm, if anything I am a gym rat who'd rather be training than opening a book, with all due honesty the reason I passed is because I live the fitness lifestyle and understand my major. There is no reason to study more than 2 weeks in order to pass if you are in the major itself.

For any non health related major people out there, I do not want to unmotivate you guys but I would highly reccomend another type of certification. Another thing, my test did not have one single question regarding muscle anatomy or skeletal structure, sure you need to know where the muscle is and what it anatomically does but no where on my test did I ever have to point at anything.

I do also recommend buying the test from this site, even though the questions are indeed much easier than the actual test itself, it gives you a GOOD general review of things. I also went through other people's suggestions, that gave me an idea on what to focus on.I basically skimmed through all the chapter, no way in world was I going to read in detail everything. That would have been all 4 years of my major in three books. That's why I say being in the education related to this helps.

Now...regarding what you actually need to know specifically for the test; every test does change so this is what came up on mine:

-Know how to Calculate % LBW , % FAT , HR , BP, WHR , BMI
-Know the risks and were they qualify-CH. 14
-Know basic nutrition and how to calculate someone's kcal needs
-Conversions from cm-m and english to metric system
-Cognitive and simple human behaviour
-Negligence and what it is
-Know your VO2max equation and what it is
-Know your rotator cuff muscles and what they do
-Muscle composition
-hot&humid&cold&altitude conditions

I could go on and on because honestly there is always 1 question that comes from at least every section from the books. My suggestion? Just know the overall picture of everything, no need to actually go into specific small details. It was a hard test, not going to lie, I was kinda of worried I was not going to pass but in the end it basically comes down to this; you HAVE to know how to apply the knowledge from books into real scenarios with people. Wish everyone the best of luck with this test.