CSCS Study Guide: Exam Prep & Practice Exam Questions for the NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist Test Paperback – 26 January 2017

Great in depth study guide. Gives great summary of covered topics on exam.

This book is absolutely fantastic for preparing for the exam. I took my exam yesterday and passed both sections!Here’s a little bit about me so you guys have some background about how much this little prep guide helped me.I was not a physical science major.While I have a solid background in biology and chemistry from science courses I took in college, I am not an expert by any means (especially in terms of physical anatomy). If you have absolutely no idea where anatomical structures are located or what movements they perform, this book will help you dive in, in the most simple and clear way. The one thing this book lacks is a chart of agonist to antagonist muscle groups and you need to know it for the test (gotta grind a little bit)Prepping for this exam took me 6 months. It was not easy. There were many days when I wanted to say F*** it. The giant dry text book will do that to you. The research studies are there to inform you but they are useless in terms of what you need to know for the test.I also went bats*** crazy and typed out the entire textbook into a word doc because I hit the copy and paste limit on kindle (Hilarously fun getting hit with the “you have reached the publishers limit for copying” when you’re 300 pages into an 800 page textbook)So, don’t be like me.Read through this guide and nail down the big concepts. All the way through and take the practice tests at the end of each chapter. If you get it wrong or don’t believe it’s true, go back into the text book and actively learn why you got it wrong.When you feel like you have a solid grasp of the concepts after finishing the guide, go back into the textbook and study the colored charts (especially at the end of the book!) This guide doesn’t include demonstrations of exercise technique, test procedures, or test scores) all of which you need to know and all of which are compiled into charts! It helps to see examples of this in the textbook!I bought practice questions through the NSCA site as well and I used the pocket prep app which gave me virtually 800 question flash cards to help me practice which I highly recomend.In my exproence, the test was easier than the practice questions. The night before I was CONVINCED I would fail the practical applied section because there’s a lot of moving parts. They are NOT comprehensive questions where they build off a story and you have to work out programming and nutrition for a single athlete. That is a marketing ploy to freak you out online! They are individual questions that have no cumulative effect. Also, you must do long division to find percentages of macronutrient contents of a diet on paper! It is basic math but it is math heavy. You also need to know physics equations and how to apply them on paper with values they give you. There are NO calculators on the test program and you are not allowed one in the testing room! So jump on Kahn Accademy and brush up a little if you took math a couple years ago!This booklet is a life saver.Read it first and take notes.Then...read the textbook and write more notes on what you think is important. If it touches on it in the guide, it is ESSENTIAL and if there’s more to the information in the guide, write it down and study it as well.I hope this helped.Thank you for making this guide, and I wish you all happy hunting!

I have been having an amazingly difficult time understanding the NSCA 700 page book. I have been an attorney for 20 years, have taken a bar exam and have been grilled by the best judges in the Great State of Maryland; however, I was having a hard time retaining the material as presented by NSCA. It is strange because I am not a novice. I have trained youth athletes for years and have passed the FMS, Y Balance Test, All IYCA certifications as well as Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey and Pat Beith study courses. Fortunately, I came across your study guide online. It is absolutely amazing and and a complete game changer. Everything is now in perspective for me. The test taking tips are great. Thank you so much for putting the time and effort into this product. I could not be happier!!

EXCELLENT BOOK. SHOULD COST 200 DOLLARS.

I really liked that the content was summarized nicely and efficiently. It seems that the guider really went along with the text good and focused in on the text highlighted words. I liked that there were explanations of answer choices for the test. I also liked that the tests were broken in to sections vs all mixed together as a whole. I think that it is helpful to focus section by section vs having go find the info ‘somewhere in some section of the book’. I think that for the visual learner there could be more pictures or graphics, but overall it is was really put together well.