How I passed my ASP and CSP exams in 5 days. My journey to success.

So after posting that I had passed my CSP exam the other day, I have had my LinkedIn mailbox blow up with others looking to obtain their CSP. With all the responses I received, I figured I would write an article about what I did to prepare for the tests. The first thing that I will tell you all is that not everyone prepares for tests the same, the techniques that work for me are NOT going to work for everyone! Again, this was my journey and I will share what I did to prepare for my tests.

The first thing I did to get prepared for my exams was took a prep course. I did a lot of research on the best prep courses out there. I looked long and hard at doing a certain well known ASP and CSP prep course (I will leave their name out, not that they are bad but I just don't want anyone to think they are not a good course, because they ARE!) but I decided against having to travel somewhere in the country and be away from work and my wife and 2 young boys at home. I read a lot of other posts on LinkedIn from others with the same question I had and came across Bowen EHS. So I Googled BowenEHS and browsed through their website. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was that it was all online. Another thing that stood out to me was the fact that they offered 1 course that covered both the ASP and the CSP exam. So that means only 1 class I have to take, and from home! The owner of the company, Russel Bowen, was also the instructor. He was very knowledgeable and accepted questions to the best of his ability. He was upfront with all of us stating that he does NOT know everything and he is not an expert in every subject to be covered. He was open to students teaching him and helping him improve his knowledge in the areas he was not an expert in. The course was broken out into 2 sessions per week for 8 weeks. There were 2 live session times to choose from, or if you couldn't make the live sessions, you could download or stream the class at a later time. For those of you with 2 boys under the age of 3, you will know that this can be a good option when all they want to do is play with you at night after you've worked all day. The course was well put together and also had a quiz to go with each session, which will help you retain information. At the end of the course is a final review. This is helpful to understand where you maybe need to study more. When you purchase the course, you also gain access to their Premium Membership. Part of the membership includes other ASP and CSP practice tests. I took 1 of these as well a couple of days before my exam. A few weeks into the course, I committed myself to taking the exams and scheduled my ASP exam for a few weeks after the completion of the course.

After the completion of the BowenEHS course, I decided to put together my own flashcards to help me study. I've seen others post their flashcards they put together and some have even been so gracious as to share them with others for free. This doesn't work for ME. This may work for someone else, but is not that helpful to me. It helps me when I write down the information myself, in my own terms and in a way that will help me remember them. I went to Staples and bought a 3 pack of index cards on a spiral ring and started writing down different terms, equations and other parts that were pointed out during my prep course as things to remember. I glanced through my flashcards a few times in between my course and the ASP test.

One really good word of advice that Russell gave during the prep course was, you don't need to be an expert in everything on the exam, you don't need 100% to pass either test. This couldn't be more true. Focus most of your time studying the areas you are familiar with and spend less time on the stuff you just don't get. For the life of me, I could NOT figure out the NIOSH lifting equation or the standard deviation questions. I didn't spend a whole lot of time focusing on those or trying to remember them. I did attempt a couple more of these problems in my study time and I still for the life of me could not figure them out. Instead of stressing out about these, I just moved on and never revisited them again! I spent more time on the stuff I was more familiar about. Sounds funny, I know, but like Russ said in class, you don't need to get 100% on the test!

Now that I'm typing this all up, it really sounds like I did a lot of studying after my course. In all reality, I didn't study all that much! I think in the 19 days between the prep course and my ASP exam, I maybe spent a total of 8 hours studying and the 5 days between my ASP and CSP exam, I studied another maybe 30 minutes. Again, this is what works for ME and everyone is different. One of the new requirements the BCSP put in place this year is that you must have at least a Bachelors degree in order to obtain your CSP. That means that if you are going to sit for the CSP, you have had some formal education. For some of you, that may have been awhile ago, but try and think back to the college days, no not all the college parties but try and remember what you did to prepare for all those midterms and final exams you had to take over your 4 or 5 years, or in my case 10 years to get my BS. (I couldn't figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up) Use the techniques that have worked for you in the past to get you through those college exams or maybe you have taken other certification exams, think about those and apply the same techniques to the ASP and CSP exams.

Okay, you have your test scheduled, you've studied the way that helps YOU. Try and get a couple of nights of good sleep. For me, tests give me anxiety and I can never sleep well. Plus, I had to schedule my exam in the Denver Metro area. If you've never been to Denver, traffic in the morning's is awful! Another anxiety factor. So I decided to use some of my Hilton Honors points for a free hotel stay just down the road from the test center. I brought my wife and my kids with me the night before and took a Lyft ride to the testing center. I got as good of a night's sleep as I could and showed up about 45 minutes before my scheduled time. I walked into the restroom and tried to get the rest of my test anxiety out of me. I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled and kept telling myself "I've got this!" I just maintained that confidence as I walked into the testing center and kept telling myself, "You've got this Austin, you can do it!" I stepped into the testing room and continued with this. About every 15-25 questions, I would pause for a minute and just take in a couple deep breaths and tell myself again, "You got this!" So what I'm trying to get through to the aspiring ASP or CSP is to remain positive, believe in yourself. You got this!

So the curveball, we all run into these from time-to-time and they always seem to come at the most inconvenient times. Mine happened a couple of times throughout this process. My BowenEHS course ended on July 12th and I had already had my ASP exam scheduled for August 1st. The night of July 14th while sleeping in my bed, I had a fairly significant seizure. I don't remember much of the night but remembered waking up in the emergency room with the worst pain I've ever experienced in my left shoulder. During my seizure I had dislocated my shoulder to the rear, which is very rare. They set my shoulder back in place, gave me anti-seizure medications and set me up with appointments with an orthopedic surgeon and a neurologist. The neurologist scheduled more tests for me, a brain MRI and an EEG to see if he could find out why I had the seizure in the first place. Sounds familiar, sounds a lot like incident investigations we do in the safety profession! I had my brain MRI the morning of July 26th, was still positive and optimistic they were going to find nothing. Later that evening, I received a phone call from my neurologist, I'm just thinking he's going to tell me nothing came out of the MRI. But I was wrong! I received the worst news I've ever received in my life and news I hope no one else has to go through. I had a brain tumor that was about 1" in size. I got this news 6 days before my test and my wife was travelling for her job. I didn't have her here to share the news with in person. I was devastated by what I had just found out, who wouldn't be! But I didn't let this news bring me down. I had talked with my boss and he mentioned trying to move my exam. I refused. It gave me something to think about other than my tumor and something to look forward to. I am still positive and optimistic of my outcome and I'm still fighting through all of this and having more and more testing done, as well as dealing with my shoulder injury and awaiting surgery on my shoulder as well as my brain. It is actually helpful to me to share my journey which is the reason I decided to post my very first LinkedIn article.

The biggest thing I want to get through to everyone, no matter which certification or test you are trying to prepare for is to remain positive! I remained positive even through all I went through and continued to not let it get to me and I came out victorious on both exams within 5 days! I may or may not know you, but I have faith in you and believe you can do this! I have read a couple of books by Charlie Papazian, no he's not an author of safety books, homebrewing (beer and mead). He constantly says in both books of his I've read, "Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew." This can be used in your preparation as well, just relax, don't worry, and heck have a beer or whatever calms you down. You've got this!!!

A little about me. Immediately after high school, I went to a community college for auto mechanics. I went for 1 year and found out this was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I changed my major to Paramedic science where I received my EMT certification. During this I had landed a full time job paying very well. When you're 19 years old and someone is going to pay you over $20/hour, who's not going to take it! I continued taking classes here and there, had switched my major once more to fire science. I had already had a few years of volunteer firefighter experience and my father was a career firefighter. I was working in a factory welding and was getting bored of doing the same thing day in and day out. I spent 4 years working in a factory, had married the love of my life, my college sweetheart, and had bought our first house. Going back to school full time was not going to work out as my wife was also going to Iowa State to get her bachelors degree at the same time and I needed to keep my good income to pay for our house. After she graduated, she started working in a pork slaughter and processing plant. A year in she told me about a potential opening in the safety department in the plant she worked at. I thought, I like helping people, I volunteer on an ambulance and a fire department, I think I could do it. So I applied for the position of Safety Trainer and I ended up landing the job. My first "career" position in a field I didn't feel I knew much about. Turns out I was wrong, I knew a lot more than I thought. I loved my career and decided I was going to go back to finish a college degree, this time in Occupational Safety and Health. I found an online college, Columbia Southern University, and applied and started taking classes. 1 year into my safety career, there was an opportunity within the company at a different location for an assistant safety and health manager. I applied and got that job as well. Life was great! But I was getting bored with my job, I was working nights and we had just had our 1st born son, Lane. Night shift was NOT working for me! I tried moving within the company and was not having much luck at all, so I started looking outside the company. I landed an EHS manager role with a leader in the pharma field. This was the first time this site has had an onsite safety professional and I had a lot of work to do. I learned a lot working for this company and enjoyed working there a lot but sitting in an office was not for me. I needed something more. I received a call from an old colleague I worked with in the packing plant and said they were looking for a safety manager out in Colorado, the place my wife and I have dreamed of living for a long time! The plant was under a new company and I thought this was it, this is my last job. Well, turned out this was not meant to be. I had lost all my faith in my career and was starting to look for a different job in a completely different field. This was my rock bottom of my career. I ended up getting a job with the company I am with now in the construction industry. This is my career! This is where I'm meant to be. I love what I do again. This company has invested a lot into me; paying for me to become an OSHA outreach instructor, paying for my BowenEHS course and both my tests. I am in my element again. I didn't completely give up on this field and now that my heart is back in it, I won't lose faith again, I'm here to stay!

Feel free to message me any questions or thoughts. You can even email me if you would like and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have or you just need some motivation, I'm here! My email address is [email protected].

Glancing back through all of this, I can't believe I've had this much to say about my journey and decided to add to my headline, "my journey to success". Not only by getting my CSP, but my journey through the safety field and my ups and downs. Again, all of this to try and keep you positive! Thanks for reading!

-Austin