There are five informational areas in which the questions on the Cooper personal trainer exam fall. The first three categories are core scientific material, assessment and evaluation of clients’ health and fitness status, and goal setting and adherence. Each content area contains a set number of questions that will appear on the exam; the number of questions in each category will not vary from exam to exam. The more you familiarize yourself with each category before you take the exam, the better you are likely to score on the exam. All five categories relate to your ability to succeed professionally as a personal trainer. Your training and job experience should prepare you substantially for the content of the exam, but if you prefer, the Cooper Institute offers additional preparation materials, such as courses and publications. However, the exam is not written to adhere strictly to the Cooper Institute’s study materials; it is based on using knowledge of the human body and good professional skills to help your clients achieve their fitness goals.
- The first subject area of the Cooper personal trainer exam is core scientific knowledge. This encompasses biomechanics, exercise physiology, nutrition, anatomy, and kinesiology. An understanding of the general workings of the human body will be necessary to succeed as a personal trainer because you will need to understand what behaviors your clients can elicit to get the results they seek. This portion of the exam is more objective than the others, because it is based on the application of scientific principles rather than the diverse needs, lifestyles, and desires of each particular client. The Cooper personal trainer exam will have 45 out of 150 questions that fall within the core scientific category. That makes up roughly 30% of the entire exam.
- The second subject area of the Cooper personal trainer exam is the assessment and evaluation of clients’ health and fitness status. This is where you will apply the scientific concepts tested in the first subject area of the exam. Each of your clients will enter a personal training program with you with a different level of physical fitness. As a personal trainer, it will be your job to assess each client’s existing level of fitness in order to craft a training program that is properly challenging yet doable. You will also need to be aware of how to create a training program that takes into account any medical conditions that a client may have. Your clients may have various risk factors related to medical conditions when beginning a training program, and you will need to assess the best way to create a program that minimizes the risk of injury for your clients. 15% of the exam will be based on these assessment and evaluation questions. You should expect to see either twenty-two or twenty-three questions of this category when you take the Cooper personal trainer exam.
- The next section of the Cooper personal trainer exam is goal setting and adherence. Questions in this section of the exam will test how you can help your clients set achievable fitness goals and overcome any obstacles in achieving these goals. Some of the techniques you will need to use with your clients include behavior modification techniques, motivational techniques, and principles of goal setting. Part of the challenge with these techniques is also learning how to communicate them effectively to clients whose needs and responses to certain challenges will be vastly different. You will also be tested on how you can assess your clients’ results and progress toward meeting their goals. Remember, each client will respond to their goals slightly differently, so the assessment methods you use may need to vary from person to person. The goal setting and adherence section of the Cooper personal trainer exam makes up about 10% of the exam. You should expect to answer fifteen questions about this subject matter.
More Content Areas on the Cooper Personal Trainer Exam
The content on the Cooper personal trainer exam is divided into five distinct categories. A particular percentage of the exam covers each category, so you can plan what to study according, devoting the most time to the largest category and less time to categories that have fewer exam questions. The five subject areas covered on the Cooper personal trainer exam are goal setting and adherence, core scientific knowledge, assessment and evaluation of clients’ health and fitness status, exercise prescription, and business principles and professionalism. All of these apply to different facets of your work as a personal trainer, whether it be literally understanding how your clients’ bodies work and how to help them improve their lifestyles, or how to psychologically understand your clients and interact with them appropriately. Your work experience and training should prepare you adequately for the exam. Additional resources are available through the Cooper Institute, such as classes, seminars, and publications if you wish to consult them as you prepare for the exam.
Exercise prescription is the largest subject area covered on the Cooper personal trainer exam. This category covers 35% of the exam, and you can expect either fifty-two or fifty-three questions to fall under exercise prescription. In turn, exercise prescription is divided into subcategories to classify various types of exercise that, together, make up a cohesive fitness regime. Exercise prescription encompasses strength training, flexibility training, and cardiovascular training. Regardless of your clientÕs personal fitness goals and interests, all of these three areas are intertwined. Not only do you need to understand the interdependence of these various kinds of exercise, but you will likely need to explain their connectedness to some clients as well. For example, if you have a client who is a runner, that client may be particularly focused on cardiovascular training. As the personal trainer, it will be your job to show your client how even strength training and flexibility can help him or her run faster. Safety is also a major component of exercise prescription. You will need to know how to teach your clients to work out safely, which includes both being aware of their own physical state as well as using equipment properly.
Business principles and professionalism is the last content area covered on the Cooper personal trainer exam. This section focuses on how to grow your client base and market your skills. You will need good business skills whether you are self-employed or if you are employed by a gym or athletic club. Even if you are employed by a gym, the number of clients you bring in and maintain can have a positive effect on your pay. For the Cooper personal trainer exam, you will need to know how to form and maintain good professional relationships with your clients and with other people in your network who could bring in new clients. You will be tested on how to use referrals wisely, as well as standard business operations for the personal training industry and the scope of practicing as a personal trainer. Business principles and professionalism takes up 10% of the exam, which is 15 out of 150 total questions.
As you study for each subject area covered on the Cooper personal trainer exam, pay attention both to how many questions on the exam are devoted to each subject area and to which subject areas you are the least familiar with. For example, even though business, principles, and professionalism only accounts for 10% of the exam, if that particular area is not one of your strong points, you should devote more than 10% of your studying time to business, principles, and professionalism. On the other hand, if you are incredibly familiar with the core scientific concepts behind personal training, you may not need to devote an entire 30% of your study time to that subject, commensurate to the amount of questions about core scientific concepts on the exam.
Earning Contact Hours After Passing the Cooper Personal Trainer Exam
Passing the Cooper personal trainer exam is the first step to ensuring that you are certified as a personal trainer throughout the entire length of your career. However, you must renew your certification every three years in order to remain a Cooper Institute Certified Personal Trainer. Renewing your certification proves your competence in the personal training industry and demonstrates to your employers, colleagues, and clients that you are up to date with new developments in the personal training field.
In order to renew your certification as a personal trainer, you must complete thirty contact hours every three years. Contact hours are professional development continuing education credits that help you enhance your career and stay abreast of new trends and information pertaining to the field. The content of your contact hours must elaborate on knowledge included in the Cooper personal training exam and take your education to a higher level.
There are many factors you should take into account when you decide how you want to earn your contact hours. Continuing education courses offered to help certified personal trainers earn their contact hours are available in all five domains tested on the Cooper personal trainer exam, which are core scientific knowledge, assessment and evaluation of clients’ health and fitness status, goal setting and adherence, exercise prescription, and business principles and professionalism. As soon as you complete your Cooper personal trainer exam, you will receive information in your score report on how well you did in each specific content area. If you got a score of under 70% correct in any one content domain, you should consider earning some of your contact hours in that content domain during your first three years as a certified personal trainer. That way, you can ensure that you are developing a well-rounded background for your career.
You should also consider your personal career goals as you choose contact hours. Consider earning contact hours in areas of personal training that are of particular interest to you. If you think you may want to specialize within a certain area of personal training, you may want to choose contact hours that provide you with additional knowledge and experience in that area. Also pay attention to current trends in the personal training industry. Choose contact hours that will give you experience in areas of personal training where the job market is likely to grow. If there are any particular kinds of clients you would like to work with, think about taking contact hours that pertain toward training a certain demographic, such as people with health problems who cannot necessarily exercise in the same manner as healthy individuals. As you decide which contact hours you want to earn, think of them in relation to your short-term and long-term career goals.
Contact hours are classified under two categories. Category one is contact hours that have been earned through direct interaction with an instructor or were completed on your own but required that you pass a test to finish. Category two contact hours are completely earned on your own with no formal interaction with an instructor and no formal assessment. You can only complete one third of your contact hours through the category two option; the others must be through an instructor or include a formal test.
The specific content of contact hours is purposely not limited in order to encourage certified personal trainers to explore their personal interests with regard to their work. However, this occasionally raises questions over the validity of a contact hours program. To determine that a program will serve you well, check to see that it has clearly outlined its learning objectives. Also check to see if it is offered through an instructor or organization that has good credentials in the personal training industry. If other credentialing organizations accept contact hours through a particular organization, it is likely a good source for earning your contact hours.
Renewing Certification After Passing the Cooper Personal Trainer Exam
Once you pass the Cooper personal trainer exam, you can become certified as a personal trainer by the Cooper Institute. However, your certification will not last indefinitely. You must renew your certification every three years in order to remain a Cooper Institute Certified Personal Trainer (CI-CPT).
Being a certified personal trainer is one way to show your competency and professionalism to your employers, colleagues, and clients. In this sense, it is imperative that you remain up to date on your profession in order to maintain your certification, which is why your certification needs to be renewed every three years. During each three year period, you will be required to earn continuing education credits. Because earning these credits can take time, you should begin planning some of your continuing education credits as soon as you pass the Cooper personal trainer exam, rather than waiting until the last minute when you may not have enough continuing education opportunities available to renew your certification in time.
Continuing education credits are available in the same five subject domains that are tested on the Cooper personal trainer exam. These subject domains are core scientific principles of personal training, assessment and evaluation of clients’ health and fitness status, goal setting and adherence, exercise prescription, and business principles and professionalism. If there is a particular subject domain on the Cooper personal trainer exam on which you did not do well, you may want to earn some continuing education credits in that domain so as to have a more well-rounded background of the personal training industry. Or, if you are personally interested in certain subject areas covered under these domains, you may want to expand on those interests and begin to develop a personal training specialty. The continuing education credits you choose are completely up to you, so you can emphasize your own interests and goals.
Over the course of three years, you need to earn thirty continuing education hours to maintain your certification as a personal trainer through the Cooper Institute. One continuing education hour is equal to one hour spent taking part in professional training. Continuing education hours are offered through the Cooper Institute, but you can also earn your hours elsewhere. However, be sure that you document your hours correctly. You may not be asked to provide complete documentation, but some certification renewal candidates are audited and must provide full documentation of the continuing education credit hours that they earned. If you earn continuing education hours through organizations other than the Cooper Institute, find out if they specifically provide Cooper credits, as many organizations do. If they do not provide Cooper credits, that does not mean that your training will not count towards your continuing education hours; rather, you should obtain a letter from the educational program’s sponsor, which should be sufficient documentation should you need to provide it.
You can begin the official renewal process up to two months before your certification is set to expire. You will need to send in the application along with the renewal fee of $49. Your renewal application will not be accepted if you send it in more than two months in advance. When you submit your application, be sure to keep a copy for your records. Also be sure to keep copies of all documentation of your continuing education credits.
Your best bet is to renew on time. If you miss your renewal date, you can still renew your certification within a month after it has expired. However, you will have to pay an additional fee of $100. If your certification expires and more than one month of time passes, you will be ineligible to renew your certification. In order to regain certification as a personal trainer through the Cooper Institute, you would have to reapply and retake the Cooper personal trainer exam, even though you passed the exam in the past.