The CI-CPT examination identifies individuals who have the factual and applied knowledge of exercise and behavioral sciences to work with healthy and medically cleared populations to:

• Assess fitness needs and abilities, develop programs, and help individuals to learn, adopt, and continue healthy behaviors.
• Use an individual's current and historical health data to safely perform fitness testing, determine current fitness level, assess known and potential risks of exercise in preparation of individualized exercise programs.
• Design safe and effective training programs based upon an individual's abilities, needs, and goals; and implement, evaluate, and adjust training programs to ensure effectiveness, motivation, and adherence.
• Show fitness leadership by incorporating basic business principles and professional standards while providing individualized fitness training services within a professional scope of practice.

• 18 years of age
• Adult CPR certification with hands-on training. Online CPR courses are not accepted. International CPR is accepted from a recommended CPR provider in the country your exam is administered. See the CI-CPT Candidate Handbook for more details.

• 100 scored questions
• Passing score is 70 questions correct (70%)
• 4-option multiple choice
• Computer-based testing
• 2 hour exam session
• 4 Performance Domains covered (with percentage of questions):
  • Core Knowledge (30%)
  • Health and Medical Review; and Fitness Assessment (20%)
  • Fitness Training: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation (40%)
  • Professional Responsibilities (10%)

• CI-CPT exam is based on a national job analysis performed for the Personal Trainer job. An Executive Summary of the job analysis is available upon request by e-mailing cicb@cooperinst.org.
• The cut score for the examination was validated using the contrasting group method. The exam was administered to two groups known to differ in the characteristics measured by the exam. A cut score of 70% (70 correct out of 100 items) was established.
• The CI-CPT exam is developed using commonly accepted psychometric (test measurement) practices. Statistical analyses performed on the CI-CPT exam show high levels of validity and reliability.