Studying for the Personal Trainer Exam: Time Management Tips

The personal trainer certification exam is used to ensure you have the knowledge and skills needed to work as a fitness professional. It is the final step between where you are now and being able to work as a certified personal trainer.

If you’ve taken other fitness training courses, you may have noticed that the textbook and study material for this program covers a lot more information than usual. This can feel overwhelming and make you want to procrastinate with your studies. 

The good news is that, if you do tend to procrastinate, you aren’t alone (1). The bad news is that, if you hold off on studying too, it can put you in a real bad spot.

The Dangers of Procrastination 

When you sign up to take ISSA’s personal training certification program, you have six months to complete the course. This may seem like a lot of time but it will pass before you know it. And if you don’t have some sort of management strategy in place, your exam will be just one week away (or less) and you’ll be wondering how to cram all of your studying in and still get a passing score.

This is the danger of procrastination. Procrastination robs you of the time you need to learn and retain the information covered on the certification test. This is especially critical if you use study tools such as flashcards. Flashcards work through repetition of the materials. Specifically, they work through spaced repetition, which means that you need to use flashcards repeatedly over time to best remember the information. This isn’t an option if you’ve decided to wait until the last minute.

Procrastination is also dangerous because the personal trainer exam covers so much information. You must have knowledge in nutrition, exercise, and exercise science, as well as several other areas. You also need to be able to apply this information to create a safe, effective fitness program based on your client’s health, physical abilities, and goal (such as weight loss or building muscle).

If you don’t give yourself enough time to learn the information versus simply memorizing it, it’s not going to help you much as a personal trainer. You won’t be able to make the connections needed to set up a nutrition or exercise program. This means that your clients won’t get results and you won’t get clients.

Preventing this type of situation requires that you make the best of your time when studying for the personal trainer exam. This begins with using your time wisely as you work your way through the certification program.

Time Management Tips for Studying for the Personal Trainer Exam

Keeping up with your school work is critical to passing the personal training course and final exam. You can dramatically increase your academic success by using a few simple, yet effective time management techniques.

Create a Master Schedule

If you’ve ever managed a project, you already know that the first thing you must do is develop a master plan. This plan outlines every step that must be completed. It also sets deadlines for each, ensuring that the project stays on time.

Having a master schedule is also important in sports. This plan tells the players when they must appear for trainings and games. Even if it is only an extracurricular sport, this helps the player prepare mentally and physically for the task at hand. 

Having a study schedule does the same for you. It tells you when you must complete each assignment. The more you plan out your homework, the easier it is to stay on course. Plus, when you know in advance what you have to do on a specific day or week, you are better prepared to handle that task mentally. Your brain is ready to soak up the knowledge needed to pass the exam.

When you first get your textbook and study guide, sit down with a calendar and create a master schedule. If you are old-school, you might feel more comfortable with a schedule book or print calendar. If you are okay with technology, use a Google calendar or some other online calendar to create this plan.

Outline when you have to complete each segment of the course, giving each one a deadline. Having this big-picture view helps you see what you have to do and when so you don’t miss your personal training certification deadline. 

Maybe you aim to do one unit a week, or an entire section if your schedule allows. The five sections in the ISSA’s personal trainer course are:

• Section One – Anatomy and Physiology

• Section Two – Kinesiology and Biomechanics

• Section Three – Health and Physical Fitness

• Section Four – Program Development

• Section Five – Nutrition

Not coincidentally, these are also the five sections tested on the ISSA exam for personal training certification. The ISSA course also has one additional section, section six, that talks about fitness for special populations. This includes older adults, youth, and people with major health conditions. This section prepares you to work with all types of clients once you are a certified fitness trainer.

Give Yourself Some Wiggle Room in Your Schedule

This time management tip cannot be stated enough because life happens when you least expect it. You or a close family member gets sick or injured. Home or work obligations take priority over studying. Having some wiggle room in your schedule helps you deal with these situations and get back on course in enough time to still meet your exam deadline.

One of the best ways to ensure that you will have enough time to handle the important things in life and still earn your fitness certification is to start to study as soon as you gain access to the materials. That way, if you have to take a day or week off, it doesn’t matter much because you’re not hard-pressed on time.

Another benefit of taking this approach is that it also gives you time to use additional study aids before taking your final exam. You can use this extra time to take a practice exam, for instance. This gives you a better idea of what to expect before you take the actual test. 

If you find that you do need to use your wiggle room—that something important has cropped up and made it impossible to do your homework as you had planned—don’t forget to go back to your master schedule and change it to reflect your new dates. 

Also Formulate a Daily Schedule

In addition to creating a master schedule, it is also helpful to break your to do list down even more. List out what you need to do each day to stay on task. This helps because it enables you to break big tasks (completing entire sections) into smaller tasks (completing one unit). Small tasks feel less overwhelming, making the studying process more enjoyable.

When developing this day by day schedule, prioritize the most important task first. Generally, this would be reading the required materials. This gives a base foundation for the topic being discussed. 

The next important task would likely to be to either watch or listen to the pre-recorded lectures. These help “cement in” what you’ve learned in your readings while adding extra little nuggets of information along the way. They also offer a different way of learning, which is good if you remember better when seeing or hearing the information provided.

After doing your reading and listening to the lecture, set aside a day to answer the questions in the personal training study guide. Then take another day to implement a particular study strategy, such as reviewing your notes or doing flashcards. Once you feel fully prepared, set aside a day to take the quiz covering that material. Then start this process all over again.

When to Take a Short Break

What do you do if your schedule says that you are supposed to read a particular number of pages in the personal training textbook or answer a few questions in the study guide, but you don’t feel like it? Do you push through and do it anyway or is it time to take a short break?

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. However, if you find that you’ve read the same paragraph about strength training six times and still have no idea what it said, it may be time to step away from studying a bit and give your mind a break.

If you’ve left some wiggle room in your schedule, this shouldn’t be a big deal. Give yourself permission to take a day off. Go through your social media, catch up on your favorite shows, or actually have a social life. The key to making this strategy work is to not let it get out of hand.

One day off here and there won’t interrupt your short term goal of completing a certain unit or section. The problem arises when you start taking one day off, then another, then another. Suddenly, it’s time to take your personal trainer certification and you’re not even through the course.

Completing any training program, whether to become a personal trainer or do something else, requires dedication. You must stick with it for the long haul if you want to gain the knowledge necessary to pass the final exam and enter the field. So, if you feel bored with the process, it may be time to shake things up. 

Change the location of your study session, for instance. Sometimes having new surroundings is enough to make it feel fun again. Another option is to join a study group. Online learning is great because you can do it at your own pace, but sometimes it’s nice to get together with others and go through the materials in person. You don’t feel quite so alone.

ISSA Certification Makes Time Management Easy

If you are still concerned about whether your time management skills are strong enough to fully prepare you for the personal trainer exam, ISSA certification can put your fears to rest. How?

ISSA’s Personal Trainer Certification program offers a guided study element. This weekly schedule tells you what units to read and which homework to complete. Follow along and you can get through the exam materials in just 10 weeks. 

With ISSA certification, you also have access to audio lectures and videos. This better prepares you for your certification exam, getting you one step closer to becoming a certified personal trainer. And one step closer to a successful career within the fitness industry.

References

Solving procrastination. Solving Procrastination. (n.d.). https://solvingprocrastination.com/procrastination-statistics/