Where do the questions come from, and who checks them?

CSTSetup's exam questions come from two places: questions written for each exam and checked against published sources, and instrument questions built from the instrument library's photos.

Written questions

Each written question is filed under an area of its exam's official content outline and checked against published references: the textbooks on NBSTSA's reference list (Alexander's, Kotcher Fuller, Frey, Tortora and Derrickson, Howe and Burton, Taber's and Nemitz), the Central Service Technical Manual, and the AST, AORN, CDC and OSHA standards. The source is printed under the answer, so you can look it up.

Every answer explained

After you answer, you see why the right answer is right and, on written questions, why each wrong answer is wrong.

Instrument questions

Instrument photo questions are built from the instrument library when you're asked: the instrument's real photo, with wrong answers taken from instruments that do the same job. You're telling look-alikes apart, not ruling out the obvious. A question that would give away its own answer is never asked.

Not one book

No certification exam is written from a single textbook. NBSTSA publishes a reference list for the CST and CSFA. HSPA names a manual and two sets of national standards for the CRCST. NCCT and CBSPD build their exams from national job analyses. Each exam's page shows what its certifying body says, and every source our questions cite, with how many questions cite each.

One question, two exams

A question that belongs on two exams, like a CST question that is also on the TS-C, is one question filed under both exams' outlines. A correction to it reaches both.