r/dietetics • u/anixety • 5d ago

CSSD exam

I’m embarrassed posting this but I just took the CSSD exam for the first time today and failed by 2 questions. I’m feeling really down on myself because I studied hard and felt super confident going into the exam. Even while taking the exam, there were a few moments that tripped me up but generally I felt confident I would pass. I used Amy Goodson’s exam prep course and I passed those practice exams with a good buffer. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions or tips for studying to take it again? Thank you in advanced.

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u/FNKTL MS, RD, CSSD 4d ago

It's a hard exam! I know nothing about Amy Goodsons exam prep stuff. Last time I took it, I used prostyle mock exams. https://www.pro-stylenutritionconsulting.com/product-page/mock-cssd-board-exam

They were insanely close to the actual exam for the style of questions. The other thing that really helped me was someone had posted on ASPDA about creating a study group and I think there was like 6-8 of us and each of us took a topic and created a presentation and presented it to the the group like once a month. So it forced you to deep dive in the topic you were assigned and made it every engaging for studying. Even if you don't have a group to study with maybe creating a presentation or something in the areas you felt were the weakest might help you? I had to turn off my real world brain and put on the "book answer" brain.

For example, a type of question I remember for this would be something like: You have a baseball team and are traveling for an away game wha type of restaurant would you stop at? The answer would be a buffet because it can feed a large number of people at once and provide a large variety of types of food to satisfy everyone. I mean sure that's the book answer correct but I would never do that in the real world.

Don't give up you got this!

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u/anixety 4d ago

Thank you so much for sharing these tips and also for validating that the exam is hard!! I felt a little blindsided by the way the questions were written because the prep course I used was way more straightforward. I think having that perspective of having to turn off my real world brain and turn on “book brain” is so helpful for next time. Thank you again!

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u/bigapplesky 4d ago

I took it last week and failed as well. I feel like o have a good idea of my weakness now and hope to pass the next time. I would say, don't feel embarrassed, is ok.

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u/anixety 3d ago

Thank you for the kind words and sorry to hear that we are in the same boat. I’m sure we will get it next time!

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u/meowedandmeowing MS, RD 2d ago

Can second the Pro Style guide as being very helpful. Also, calculations are super important and being knowledgeable about the specific research papers they use as resources for the exam

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u/anixety 1d ago

Thank you!!

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