About this site, and where its facts come from

Who makes it

The site is built by a small group that develops exam-prep apps, and those apps, reached through the buttons on each exam page, pay for it. There are no ads and nothing to buy on the site itself.

We do not present a credentialed author, because none of us signs these pages as a coach, athletic trainer or exercise physiologist. Trust has to come from the record instead: each figure in a table links to its source document and shows when we last read that document.

The documents behind the facts

Facts about the exams are taken from the certifying bodies themselves; other prep sites are never a source.

1. NSCA: its handbook in force since July 1, 2026, the job task analysis summaries that the CSCS and TSAC-F outlines rest on, and the annual exam report. That report page refuses automated readers, so we cite dated Internet Archive copies.
2. ACSM: the July 2025 Candidate Handbook, the EP and CEP outlines in force since July 10, 2025, and ACSM’s pages on eligibility changes, scoring and pass rates and renewal.
3. BOC: the candidates page, the 2026–2027 candidate handbook, the PA8 outline, the 2024–25 annual exam report and the August 2026 PA9 update; program counts come from the CAATE analytic report.
4. CSCCa and ISSA: the SCCC pages and ISSA’s course page and FAQ, for the credentials listed without practice sets.
5. Pay: BLS wage estimates for May 2025.

A fact lives in a single record that all pages draw from. Fixing it once fixes every page, and its check date moves with it.

When sources disagree

Even primary documents contradict each other. When they do, the more recent and more specific one decides, and the list below says what we left out:

• CSCS pass rate. A figure of 63% still circulates. It is the 2019 rate for US candidates, carried in the 2022 handbook; our tables use the 2025 exam report and name the candidate pool beside each rate.
• BOC fee outside the US and Canada. The handbook total and the candidates page are five dollars apart. ATC cost shows $495, the exam fee plus the published surcharge.
• ACSM score breakdown. An ACSM web page implies that everyone receives results by domain; the handbook limits that to failing candidates, and the handbook is what we follow.
• ACSM textbook edition. ACSM’s exercise physiologist page lists the 11th edition of its Guidelines among its books yet aligns the exams with the 12th. We go with the 12th.
• ISSA passing score. The ISSA FAQ gives two figures, so both appear, flagged as unconfirmed.

How the questions are made

• Each question starts in the question bank behind our study apps. For this site it was reworked: tied to one domain of the exam’s current outline, solved blind, given an explanation for each option, right or wrong, and then passed by a second, independent reviewer who audits the key and each explanation. A question that fails that review is rewritten or dropped. None is an item from a certifying body’s exam.
• One topic has one home. Training science and programming are explained on the CSCS pages, tactical work on the TSAC-F pages, screening of healthy adults on the ACSM-EP pages, clinical testing on the ACSM-CEP pages, injury and emergency care on the ATC pages. A scenario with the same answer does not appear under two exams.
• Emergency, screening and clinical content follows the current editions of the guidelines the exams cite, such as the 12th edition of ACSM’s Guidelines. Questions are study material, not medical advice.

Spotted an error?

Where a table and the current handbook disagree, go by the handbook. The contact page explains how to trace a figure to its document and which body handles applications and scores.