Future fitness professionals seeking to become certified via one of ACSM's certification exams now have updated resources available to aid in their certification process.
All exam candidates are encouraged to consult
ACSM's Candidate Handbook for information related to eligibility requirements, exam preparation and scheduling, exam administration (both online and in-person) and exam scoring. The exams will utilize the Gelish formula for HRmax 207 - (0.7 x age).
Exam Content Outlines
Each ACSM certification exam has an exam content outline that organizes knowledge and skills into major content domains and job tasks. The job of an exercise professional ranges from simple to complicated tasks. Much in the same way, the ACSM exams are written at different levels of cognitive complexity. Cognitive complexity is a way of describing the extent to which a candidate should know or be able to do something. A low level of cognitive processing is simple recall of information whereas a higher level of cognitive processing includes analysis, evaluation and judgment. ACSM uses three levels of cognitive challenge: recall, application and synthesis.
At this time, it is important to consult the exam content outline that coincides with the date you intend to sit for the certification exam. Those planning to take the exam on or prior to June 30, 2022 should consult the first edition of the exam content outline, while those planning to take the exam on or after July 1, 2022 should consult the second edition of the exam content outline.