Just passed the CSP today without studying. Wanted to share my experience since I’ve seen so much out there on the internet on how scary the CSP is. For some background, I have four years of safety/IH experience primarily working for a large chemical company. Since the company I work for has pretty mature safety programs, I think this helped me out a ton. I was able to rely a lot on previous work experience (despite only being in industry for four years). I took the ASP about three years ago and felt really over-prepared using pocket prep and SPAN. In fact, this was a large reason I decided to take the CSP without studying. The ASP just felt a little too easy. That and seeing people on Reddit say they felt the ASP was harder for them than the CSP made me question how difficult the CSP would be. I will say the CSP was definitely more difficult in my opinion. Much more geared towards management/business, which is not my strong suit. My test seemed to be a mix of really difficult questions and easy softballs. I don’t want to speak much on the content of the test, but the CSP11 seemed pretty accurate to what I read on some other Reddit posts.
Anyway, I’m curious what my actual score was because I’m sure I didn’t pass by much. I mainly took the test without studying because I had major test fatigue from preparing for and taking the CIH last fall. I just didn’t want to commit the time and effort for studying if I thought I had a shot of passing without doing so. Also one other confidence booster that pushed me to test is I got a 69% on the BCSP self assessment. I figured since you only need a 63% (110/175) to pass, I had a shot.
I really hope this post does not come off as me bragging. I just wanted to post my experience in case anyone else was in the same boat as me. Figured why not share my experience so if someone wanted to take a chance on themself, maybe this would help them do it. In my opinion, these safety certs are just money grab that unfortunately seem to open doors to higher positions. Doesn’t mean you’re a great safety professional. Just means you’re a good test taker. There are several safety professionals I’ve met that know way more than me and don’t have a single certification to their name.
Anyway, that was my experience with the CSP. I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about taking any more certification tests because THE TEST FATIGUE IS REAL-lol.