Often I see many people that get overwhelmed when studying for the ACE Personal Trainer exam. To become a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) you need to read and understand a lot of material. It can be overwhelming for many people. Honestly studying for the personal trainer exam felt overwhelming for me. If you are feeling stressed, seriously you are not alone.
I have a very good tip that I recommend to anyone currently studying for the;
- ACE Personal Trainer exam
- ACE Group Fitness Instructor exam
- ACE Health Coach exam
- ACE Medical Exercise Specialist exam
What is it? Use the ACE Exam Outlines that are provided by the American Council on Exercise (ACE).
Most are not aware but ACE provides exam outlines for all of four of these tests. The ACE Exam Outlines are great resources since it tells you exactly what areas will be covered on the ACE exams and the percentages it will cover.
I've uploaded and attached the PDF for the ACE Personal Trainer exam outline here. The current test covers;
- Interviews and Assessments – 23%
- Program Design and Implementation – 31%
- Program Modification and Progression – 26%
- Professional Conduct, Safety, and Risk Management – 20%
In the ACE Personal Trainer Manual (Fifth Edition) you can go to page 718 to get Appendix B, which is the ACE Personal Trainer exam outline. I used the PDF to print out a copy though which was extremely useful when I was trying to figure what to study and focus on.
Keep in mind ACE does continually update the test. Meaning they will change percentages of what is covered. If you want the most updated version you can go here. Typically the percentages do not change by much but I thought you should be aware as a future personal trainer.
Using the exam outline should take a lot of mystery and stress out of reading the whole book and having to memorize everything. I'm not saying there isn't useful information in the ACE Personal Trainer Manual that isn't on the test. There are just some things you don't really need to know about or could probably better learn from other sources.
For instance LLC vs S Corp and C Corp? Yeah I'll save you the trouble just get an LLC for you fitness and training business. Use a registered agent if you want your home address out of the public record and it's best to incorporate in your home state.
If you are studying for another ACE exam besides the Personal Trainer test, here are the links for the;
- ACE Group Fitness Instructor Exam outline
- ACE Health Coach exam outline
- ACE Medical Exercise Specialist exam outline
I hope whatever ACE exam you are studying for that these exam outlines come in handy for you. If you passed the test and learned about these exam outlines from reading my article, please let me know. I'd love to know! 🙂
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