The CRSP® and the CRST® Examinations have four main purposes:
- To promote high national standards of occupational health and safety;
- To provide a mechanism for practitioners to validate their competence;
- To identify, through a recognized credential, those practitioners meeting the national standards; and
- To determine whether or not examinees are prepared to practice occupational health and safety, without risk to the public and to the environment.
What are examination questions based on?
All examination questions are based on the competencies found in the examination blueprints for the CRSP® or CRST® certification. Each examination blueprint profile establishes a minimum standard, upon which to build higher levels of competency. CRSP® and CRST® certificants are expected to develop further, based upon experience and ongoing learning.
CRSP® Examination Blueprint
The CRSP® Examination Blueprint was developed to guide those involved in the development of the Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP®) Examination and to provide the public (e.g., examinees, educators, administrators, employers) with practical information about the examination.
Commencing January 1 2025, a new CRSP Examination Blueprint will be in effect.
CRST® Examination Blueprint
The CRST® Examination Blueprint was developed to guide those involved in the development of the Canadian Registered Safety Technician (CRST®) Examination and to provide the public (e.g. examinees, educators, administrators, employers) with practical information about the examination.
BCRSP Lexicon
The BCRSP lexicon provides definitions for health and safety terms that vary for each Province and Federal Governments. This is not a dictionary of safety terms, rather its purpose is to establish a common understanding of terms that have the same meaning to assist candidates in writing the CRSP® and CRST® examinations.
BCRSP Examination Updates
BCRSP Examinations are constantly under review as the BCRSP ensures that the certification schemes remain the foremost certifications for OHS professionals and OHS technicians and are reflective of current OHS practice. The BCRSP conducts a review of the competencies required of a CRSP® and CRST® at least every five years and updates the CRSP® Examination Blueprint and CRST® Examination Blueprint accordingly.
Examination Candidate Information
Please review the BCRSP Examination Candidate Handbook for more information on examination administration, scheduling procedures, identification rules, etc.
Examination Development and Validation
Subject matter experts from across Canada, form the CRST® and CRSP® Examination Committees. These committees are responsible for the development of the examination forms. The committees validate the examinations to ensure they are fair and assess the minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities required for practice as either a CRSP® or CRST® (minimally qualified). This level is set in consideration of the eligibility criteria for each certification (years of experience needed to apply and academic profile).
Examination Pass Marks
Every examination has a pass mark, which is the total percentage score a candidate must reach to pass. Anyone who achieves this mark or higher, passes the examination. There is no limit to the number of candidates who can pass.
The pass mark, which is set by the modified-Angoff method, varies from examination to examination depending on the determined difficulty of the examination form.
Numerous quality assurance measures are undertaken throughout the scoring process, and each examination question is statistically analyzed.
Once the examination scoring quality assurance process is complete, candidates are issued their examination results.
This process can take up to 6-8 weeks to complete (from the last date of the applicable examination window).
Successful candidates, receive a letter of approval from the Governing Board, and then they must return the declaration to the Code of Ethics & Professional Practice, and the invoiced certification fee before certification is granted.
Upon return of the declaration and fee, a certificate and digital verification are issued to the candidate. Once certified, individuals must maintain their certification by annually paying a renewal fee and participating in the mandatory continuous professional development program.
Unsuccessful candidates, receive a letter advising of the result and a copy of their individual performance on the examination. The performance profile will identify how they scored on the examination, and their performance in each of the domain areas. This profile can be used by the candidate to consider areas of improvement for future examination attempts.
Modified Angoff-Method
Using this method, a panel of representative content experts from across the country and from various areas of practice reviews each examination question and produces ratings based on a common understanding of a competent safety professional or technician who has met the eligibility requirements to write the examination. In addition to these ratings, a variety of relevant data are carefully considered to ensure the standard that candidates must achieve on the examination is valid and fair.
Based on this information, an appropriate standard or pass mark is set. This procedure is repeated for every newly-created examination form.
Unrealistically high pass marks exclude competent candidates and inappropriately low pass marks allow non-competent candidates to pass.
The pass mark is based on the content of the examination and not on an arbitrary percentage or group performance.
The examination pass mark is the minimum score required to pass the certification examination. The pass mark is also known as the cut score, Angoff score or passing score. The pass mark for BCRSP certification examinations varies with each exam type and form. The pass mark for each BCRSP exam type and form is set independently and is base don the difficulty of the form. This means that pass marks may be different each time a certification test is administered, as different examination forms are utilized.
Examination Format
- The examination consists of multiple choice questions (see Examination Blueprint).
- There will be 190 to 210 multiple choice questions on the examination.
- Candidates for the CRST examination will have three and one half (3 1/2) hours to complete the examination with no scheduled break provided.
- Commencing January 1, 2025 candidates for the CRSP examination will have 4 hours to complete the examination with no scheduled break provided. The October 2024 CRSP Examination window remains 3.5 hours.
- The examination is written via Computer Based Testing at an authorized Pearson VUE host test centre.
- Candidates who are based more than 400km from an authorized testing centre may request an alternative method of examination delivery (client proctored or remote proctored, both subject to availability). Requests for consideration should be submitted as soon as authorization is granted for an examination to ensure adequate time to arrange a delivery method. Delivery will still have to occur within the testing window.
- Following recommendation to proceed to the examination, candidates have one year in which to write the examination during one of the prescribed examination windows (CRSP® windows are February, June, and October; CRST® windows are March and August).
- If a candidate does not appear to write an examination in the 12-month period (initial or supplemental), they will have their file closed and must wait a minimum of twelve months before resubmitting a new application.
- Candidates who fail the first writing of the examination are permitted up to two supplementary writings over the next 12 months (within the prescribed windows).
- The 12 month supplementary writing period begins as of the failing of the first examination writing.
- Candidates rewriting the examination will be required to write the full multiple choice examination.
- Candidates failing all three (3) writings, or if the eligibility window has expired, will have their file closed and must wait a minimum of twelve months before resubmitting a new application.
Examination requirements are mandatory
The BCRSP examination requirements cannot be waived.
Organisations that offer Examination Preparatory Courses
The BCRSP does not offer preparatory courses. However, there are a number of organisations that offer Examination Preparatory Courses. While none of these courses is endorsed/accredited by BCRSP, nor is enrollment in any of these courses a prerequisite for pursuing the designation, BCRSP provides interested persons with contact information for these organisations.