I'm "approved" to post, thanks for creating this board it'll be great to be able to continue to share our experiences beyond just the test preparation :)
I really appreciate you sharing the comparisons w/ the various practice exams. I am getting really comfortable w/ the exercise etc. format so it's nice to know that will be helpful for the exam.
I'll still work with the other formats just to keep things interesting (also I find myself memorizing the exercise etc. answers and I want to be able to "think on my feet" :)).
I hear ya! I intend to continue to do the Exercise, Etc. disk, just to keep it all fresh...at least until it's all second nature! I did notice, though, that they have one or two questions wrong. The one that comes to mind is the one I posted at the ACE exam preparation forum. Exercise Etc. says that in a foot anchored sit-up, the erector spinae and rectus abdominus work eccentrically. I said no, they said yes. I can only assume they mean in the down phase, but they don't specify. That truly screwed me up on eccentric and concentric for a while!
Hi Tekva (do you prefer to go by Tekva here or Nora?),
I agree that there are many cases on the exercise etc. disk where there's some "funny stuff". In some cases they have the same exact answer listed for C and D :)
There's some other stuff that has confused me as well with the wording.
Of course, overall it's a great tool to practice and reinforce the material and when I get something wrong I always make a flashcard and then look thru the manual to see the background info on it.
This morning, in my very tired stupor, I made a really careless mistake on one of the examples and instead of stroke volume I clicked on ejection fraction. Of course they are related, it's just that the stroke volume is the actual amount in mL's that's ejected and the ejection fraction is the percentage ejected compared to the amount that was in the Left Ventricle at the end of diastole.
Of course I wonder if AFTER the exam will I ever actually think in these specific terms ?
I sometimes feel so swallowed up by the minutia and need to stay focused on the bigger picture. Still, I'd hate to make a dumb mistake like THAT on the exam (even though it seems, by all accounts, like those types of questions are few and far between compared to the more situational/programming stuff)
I go by either Tekva or Nora, Scott, either is fine! Tekva has been my pen name for more than ten years now, so it's almost as familiar to me as Nora!
I know that a good night's sleep the night before the exam and a really good breakfast helped me at least FEEL better...at least until I got into the testing room and was in danger of being sick!
I really did think that the written simulation part of the exam was a lot of fun...I wouldn't mind having that type of quiz at home to keep me on my toes. As I said in the other post, however, just be careful to only select the responses you think are correct. In the first part, first client, I just sorta clicked whatever sounded reasonable, thinking I could go back to change it...um, no! What you click is what you get!
One word to look out for in the simulation is PROGRESSIVE for a beginner. Progressive and beignner is a no-no!
I started using the Exercise, Etc Exam Prep disk today. I scored so badly, it blew any confidence I had built. Some of the answers- I really think were wrong (i.e.,Q: muscles used in a push-up? A:Subscapularis and tricep- no pecs, delts or serratus listed and Q: Why discourage someone with a bad cold from exercising, A: Exercise depresses the immune system...WRONG, low/mod exercise boosts immune system)! Also I felt so much of it is outside the scope of the ACE text. It made me so frustrated that for the answers I had wrong, there was no explanation so I could understand it- I don't want to spend hours researching them myself.
But I just read Tekva's post about how she wouldn't have passed without it- dang it, I guess I'll keep doing it. Tekva, did you work with all the sections or just a select few?
One other question which I don't see at the ACE site, how long does one have to complete the test? Thx, again!
I've not taken the test yet so I'm not a perfect reference for this so take what I'm writing for what it's worth :).
But just so you know, when I first started using the exercise etc disc I scored REALLY badly quite a bit in the beginning. Not only that, but I had gotten it originally when I was only about a third of the way thru the manual before I really had enough background. I then decided to put it away til I finished the manual.
When I went back to it months later I scored REALLY badly again and told my wife that I felt really stupid, that I couldn't remember ANYTHING!
I found though by going back to it for a few days in a row that I started getting better at really refining the subtleties in the questions (sometimes I'd focus on certain aspects of the questions and somehow a key word would slip by my attention, and that was usually the word that made all the difference).
Anyway, whenever I get one wrong I make a flashcard of it with the question and the four possible answers.
Then I go to the index of the manual and write down the page numbers of anything that I think might be relevant to the question and then I look up all of them until I find the pages that clarify the answer. Then I write down the relevant info in red ink on the flashcard. I will also write down why the answer I got wrong is actually wrong to help clarify it. If nothing else, this process forces you to use the manual in another context which I find helpful.
Anyway, I have a little index card file box that I use just for the exercise etc. stuff and I made little dividing sections relating to the sections on disc so I can quickly reference stuff. (I don't know if you are old enough to remember the skit from Saturday Night Live "The Anal Retentive Chef"?, well that's me with this stuff! :D).
Note that Guy Andrews from Exercise etc. clarified to me in an email that:
Personal Training, Exercise Science,Professional/Legal Issues, and Assessment & Testing
are the only sections that are supposed to be relevant to the ACE peronal trainer exam (once in a while they'll ask stuff we haven't learned, but not too often). I still sometimes go to the other sections just to keep me fresh and see questions I don't see as often.
I do agree with you that there are a few that didn't seem right to me, but just so you know, you can write to Guy Andrews at exercise etc and he'll explain why the answers are what they are.
guy@exerciseetc.com
is his email address and he usually responds quite quickly during the week. I haven't written to him every time I thought something was wrong but he answered me pretty clearly each time that I did inquire.
One time there were several risk factors that had to do with cholesterol levels, I counted the high total cholesteral level and the high LDL as two risk factors and I got it wrong. He explained that since both were dealing w/ hypercholesterolemia that it was still only ONE risk factor (then also if you have a HIGH LDL it cancels out a risk factor so you have to watch out for that).
Anyway, I found that doing exercise etc. helped me when I did the online practice test (I didn't get it perfect, I got like 5 wrong but I'm sure it would've been half wrong had I not done the disc) because I got used to the mindset of dissecting the questions.
As I mentioned above, I haven't taken the exam yet so I'm not as valid a person to speak to the value of the exercise etc. disc as Nora (Tekva), Shawn (Akyoda) or the other folks who have already passed, but I do think that it's gotten me more comfortable overall with analyzing the questions.
I just wanted to respond to your post to let you know that you're not the only one who has had to deal with exercise etc disc anxiety, I've wanted to slam my head into the wall more than few times (and STILL make dumb mistakes from time to time). Most of the time though when I look up the stuff in the text I find that I was in fact wrong (though not always).
Oh, another thing I've been doing is rotating from doing some questions from the "Practice test" that came w/ the set, plus the "Home study questions" up at the ACE site as well as the printout I got (that 40 page pdf) from the Diagnostic exam you can purchase for about $30 dollars at the ACE site.
I feel that hopefully working w/ all those different contexts, and not only the exercise etc., will help prepare us more thoroughly for the actual test (I hope I'm right! :)).
I've not taken the test yet so I'm not a perfect reference for this so take what I'm writing for what it's worth :).
But just so you know, when I first started using the exercise etc disc I scored REALLY badly quite a bit in the beginning. Not only that, but I had gotten it originally when I was only about a third of the way thru the manual before I really had enough background. I then decided to put it away til I finished the manual.
When I went back to it months later I scored REALLY badly again and told my wife that I felt really stupid, that I couldn't remember ANYTHING!
I found though by going back to it for a few days in a row that I started getting better at really refining the subtleties in the questions (sometimes I'd focus on certain aspects of the questions and somehow a key word would slip by my attention, and that was usually the word that made all the difference).
Anyway, whenever I get one wrong I make a flashcard of it with the question and the four possible answers.
Then I go to the index of the manual and write down the page numbers of anything that I think might be relevant to the question and then I look up all of them until I find the pages that clarify the answer. Then I write down the relevant info in red ink on the flashcard. I will also write down why the answer I got wrong is actually wrong to help clarify it. If nothing else, this process forces you to use the manual in another context which I find helpful.
Anyway, I have a little index card file box that I use just for the exercise etc. stuff and I made little dividing sections relating to the sections on disc so I can quickly reference stuff. (I don't know if you are old enough to remember the skit from Saturday Night Live "The Anal Retentive Chef"?, well that's me with this stuff! :D).
Note that Guy Andrews from Exercise etc. clarified to me in an email that:
Personal Training, Exercise Science,Professional/Legal Issues, and Assessment & Testing
are the only sections that are supposed to be relevant to the ACE peronal trainer exam (once in a while they'll ask stuff we haven't learned, but not too often). I still sometimes go to the other sections just to keep me fresh and see questions I don't see as often.
I do agree with you that there are a few that didn't seem right to me, but just so you know, you can write to Guy Andrews at exercise etc and he'll explain why the answers are what they are.
guy@exerciseetc.com
is his email address and he usually responds quite quickly during the week. I haven't written to him every time I thought something was wrong but he answered me pretty clearly each time that I did inquire.
One time there were several risk factors that had to do with cholesterol levels, I counted the high total cholesteral level and the high LDL as two risk factors and I got it wrong. He explained that since both were dealing w/ hypercholesterolemia that it was still only ONE risk factor (then also if you have a HIGH LDL it cancels out a risk factor so you have to watch out for that).
Anyway, I found that doing exercise etc. helped me when I did the online practice test (I didn't get it perfect, I got like 5 wrong but I'm sure it would've been half wrong had I not done the disc) because I got used to the mindset of dissecting the questions.
As I mentioned above, I haven't taken the exam yet so I'm not as valid a person to speak to the value of the exercise etc. disc as Nora (Tekva), Shawn (Akyoda) or the other folks who have already passed, but I do think that it's gotten me more comfortable overall with analyzing the questions.
I just wanted to respond to your post to let you know that you're not the only one who has had to deal with exercise etc disc anxiety, I've wanted to slam my head into the wall more than few times (and STILL make dumb mistakes from time to time). Most of the time though when I look up the stuff in the text I find that I was in fact wrong (though not always).
Oh, another thing I've been doing is rotating from doing some questions from the "Practice test" that came w/ the set, plus the "Home study questions" up at the ACE site as well as the printout I got (that 40 page pdf) from the Diagnostic exam you can purchase for about $30 dollars at the ACE site.
I feel that hopefully working w/ all those different contexts, and not only the exercise etc., will help prepare us more thoroughly for the actual test (I hope I'm right! :)). Take care, Scott
Scott- Once, again your response is so helpful and entertaining~ I'm going to keep with the disk and use your system w/ flashcards. After all, I'm just as OCD as the next person! OK, busy day of studying- I'm going to schedule my test for July 17th- and I've cleared my schedule to CRAM until then... It will be OK, we need to get 500/ 800 points to pass (that's 63%) ~ That seems like a lot of leeway to me... Have a good study day! Von
Scott- Once, again your response is so helpful and entertaining~ I'm going to keep with the disk and use your system w/ flashcards. After all, I'm just as OCD as the next person! OK, busy day of studying- I'm going to schedule my test for July 17th- and I've cleared my schedule to CRAM until then... It will be OK, we need to get 500/ 800 points to pass (that's 63%) ~ That seems like a lot of leeway to me... Have a good study day! Von
Hi Von,
I'm glad that what I wrote was helpful. Having this board (thanks Nora!!!!) and the ACE board are so helpful to know we aren't going thru this process alone. Most of us are going to have our share of struggles trying to learn such a large (and diverse) amount of material.
Making the flashcards w/ the exercise etc disc have really seemed to help. Not only do you then have a reference that you can use to quickly review, but the process itself is very helpful.
Also, one thing I have found helpful is to remind myself, before I study or do the practice tests, to "Get my mind right". I close my eyes and take some deep breaths and work on being focused in the present moment rather than getting caught up in the "what ifs" (such as "What if I go brain dead when I need to be able to think" :))
That's great that you can schedule your test so soon, I have to wait until August 14th for mine because no other dates were available in my area when I went to book it. I just keep telling myself it's more time to keep studying.
It's nice to know that they do give us a wide margin for error in order to pass.
I hope you have a great day of studying, I hope you start feeling better w/ the exercise etc stuff. I think the more you do it the more comfortable you'll get with it. There seems to be a definite "test mindset" that can be practiced.
I'd definitely recommend the online diagnostic exam in the near future to give you another test format to work with, plus as I mentioned earlier, that PDF you can print out was for me, worth the price of the test.
Take care and best wishes, I'll be hitting the books within the hour myself before I have to run some errands! I use the time in the car to listen to the audio stuff I recorded of the ACE materials.
I started using the Exercise, Etc Exam Prep disk today. I scored so badly, it blew any confidence I had built. Some of the answers- I really think were wrong (i.e.,Q: muscles used in a push-up? A:Subscapularis and tricep- no pecs, delts or serratus listed and Q: Why discourage someone with a bad cold from exercising, A: Exercise depresses the immune system...WRONG, low/mod exercise boosts immune system)! Also I felt so much of it is outside the scope of the ACE text. It made me so frustrated that for the answers I had wrong, there was no explanation so I could understand it- I don't want to spend hours researching them myself.
-- Edited by Vonni at 21:53, 2008-06-28
-- Edited by Vonni at 21:54, 2008-06-28
well for starters the subscapularis and triceps are very involved but you are right about the rest serratus delts pecs abs etc
as for the immune system question...the bottom line is that exercise is a STRESS and if you are already stressing your immune system you will cause a further breakdown and not recover as quickly, but on the other side of that coin depending on if the COLD is systematic or symptomatic is whether not you would continue to train.. remember as trainers we are always to err on the side of caution and everything that we do should improve health not assist in a breakdown of the immune system, but we are not doctors so we can not determine systematic or symptomatic that is why we shouldnt train a sick client but as for training ourselves....I train through colds but only by active rest and no resistance training at all, because I feel better not just sitting there withering away.
-- Edited by akyoda32 at 17:36, 2008-06-29
__________________
If a person wants something that they have never had, they have to do something that they have never done. - Shawn Fears, CPT
Vonni, I can only reply quickly tonight (no time!), but did want to respond. Exercise, Etc. is, indeed, daunting...which is what makes it so exciting when you suddenly realize you're getting most of them right! Getting almost every answer wrong in the beginning REALLY worked in my favor. I would dictate into a recorder all the ones I got wrong (with the right answer supplied) and I would listen in the car, or whenever I had a spare moment. Pretty soon, it all started making sense! Then when I read the text book or supplemental reading that related to the questions on Exercise, Etc. it really stuck in my mind.
Don't be discouraged that you're getting them wrong in the beginning...in a way, that's a plus! You know what to study and you know what questions now to ask.
Getting almost every answer wrong in the beginning REALLY worked in my favor. I would dictate into a recorder all the ones I got wrong (with the right answer supplied) and I would listen in the car, or whenever I had a spare moment. Pretty soon, it all started making sense! Then when I read the text book or supplemental reading that related to the questions on Exercise, Etc. it really stuck in my mind.