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ASP exam blueprint (ASP11): the 9 domains, their weights and what they cover

Short answerThe ASP exam follows BCSP's ASP11 blueprint, in use for all candidates since 1 September 2025. It has nine domains, led by Safety Programs and Concepts at 25%; the other eight range from 5% to 12%. The table below gives every domain and weight.

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The nine ASP11 domains at a glance

BCSP publishes the blueprint as a list of domains, each with a weight and a set of knowledge areas. The weight is the share of the exam that domain represents, so it is the best single guide to where your study hours should go. The summary below is ours; the domains and weights are BCSP's (ASP11 blueprint, version V.2024.04.24).

DomainWeightWhat it covers
1. Mathematical Calculations10%Storage, rigging, ventilation flow, trench slopes, noise, heat and cold, fall clearance, incidence rates, NIOSH lifting, physics, statistics, failure probability, cost-benefit, exposure, radiation, unit conversions
2. Safety Programs and Concepts25%Management systems, hierarchy of controls, hazard and risk analysis, risk matrices, GHS, hazardous energy, electrical principles, core hazards from trenching to confined spaces, incident investigation, change management, indicators, emerging technology
3. Ergonomics8%Ergonomics programmes, risk factors, musculoskeletal disorders, workspace design, manual handling, work practice controls, analysis methods such as RULA and REBA
4. Fire Prevention and Protection12%Fire science, flammable and combustible materials, electrical ignition hazards and hazardous area classification, hot work, combustible dust, detection, suppression, extinguishers, storage, housekeeping, signs
5. Emergency Preparedness and Response10%Emergency response plans, natural, human and biological emergencies, drills and evacuation, incident command and continuity, workplace violence, lone workers
6. Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Health12%IH programmes, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, physical, chemical and biological hazards, exposure limits, routes of entry, acute and chronic effects, universal precautions, radiation, fitness for duty, Total Worker Health
7. Environmental Management7%Environmental hazards, water, air and land impacts, the conservation hierarchy, ISO 14001, waste classification and disposal, ESG
8. Training, Education and Communication11%Learning theory, training tools, safety culture, needs and gap analysis, baseline competency, training effectiveness, human factors, competent versus qualified persons
9. Legal5%Compliance and liability, contractors and multi-employer sites, contracts, records and privacy, scope limits, risk transfer, impairment

Domain 1: Mathematical Calculations (10%)

Only a tenth of the exam is labelled as maths, but calculations also turn up in fire, industrial hygiene and training questions, so a steady calculator routine pays off well beyond this domain.

Domain 2: Safety Programs and Concepts (25%)

The largest domain by far. It is broad rather than deep: the core hazards of most workplaces plus the management tools that control them.

Domain 3: Ergonomics (8%)

Domain 4: Fire Prevention and Protection (12%)

Domain 5: Emergency Preparedness and Response (10%)

Domain 6: Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Health (12%)

Domain 7: Environmental Management (7%)

Domain 8: Training, Education and Communication (11%)

Domain 9: Legal (5%)

The smallest domain, but the answers turn on exact rules, so the marks here are easy to lose without a little focused reading.

How to use the weights to plan your study

Split your study time roughly in proportion to the weights, then adjust for your weak areas. Safety Programs and Concepts alone is a quarter of the exam, so it deserves about a quarter of your hours. Do not skip the small domains: Legal at 5% still carries real questions.

Practise calculations every week rather than in one block. The Mathematical Calculations domain is 10%, but fire, industrial hygiene, ergonomics and training questions also ask you to work numbers.

Practise by domain and keep a score for each one. A domain where you are well below your average is where the next week of study should go. HSE HUB scores every practice set and the full mock exam by ASP11 domain for exactly this reason.

What the blueprint does not tell you

BCSP lists the ASP exam time as 5 hours. Its ASP page says the exam is taken by computer at a Pearson test centre and that official results are available as soon as you submit. It does not publish a passing percentage on that page, and the blueprint does not say how many questions come from each knowledge area. Treat any site that quotes an exact cut score or per-topic question count as a guess, and check BCSP's candidate information before you sit.

Important note

HSE HUB is an unofficial study tool and is not affiliated with BCSP. ASP and CSP are BCSP trademarks. The ASP11 domains and weights are BCSP's, shown with attribution; the summaries and sample questions on this page are HSE HUB's own.

Try one question from each domain

Nine original HSE HUB practice questions written to the ASP11 blueprint, one per domain. Pick an answer to see the explanation.

Score: 0 of 0 answered

Domain 1. For hearing conservation purposes, a press operator's shift is measured as 2 hours at 95 dBA, 4 hours at 85 dBA and 2 hours at 78 dBA. Using OSHA's reference duration T = 8 / 2^((L - 90)/5), what is the noise dose?

Answer: 75%. Only levels from 80 to 130 dBA are integrated, so the 78 dBA time is excluded; T is 4 hours at 95 dBA and 16 hours at 85 dBA, so D = 100 × (2/4 + 4/16) = 75 percent, an 87.9 dBA TWA that is above the 85 dBA action level. Including the 78 dBA period (T = 42 hours) gives about 80 percent, and ignoring the 85 dBA time as if only 90 dBA and above counted gives 50 percent. 100 percent uses 8 hours as the reference duration at 85 dBA.

Domain 2. A single-phase motor winding at a water pumping station is modeled as 30 ohms of resistance in series with 40 ohms of inductive reactance, supplied at 120 volts. What current does the winding draw?

Answer: 2.4 amperes. Impedance is the vector sum of resistance and reactance, Z = square root of (30^2 + 40^2) = 50 ohms, so I = 120/50 = 2.4 A. The 1.7 A answer is the most tempting error because it adds resistance and reactance directly to 70 ohms, ignoring the 90 degree phase relationship. Using only resistance gives 4.0 A, and using only reactance gives 3.0 A.

Domain 3. A foundry fettler has used pneumatic chipping hammers and grinders for 12 years. On cold mornings his fingertips turn white, then ache and tingle as they rewarm, and his grip strength and dexterity have declined. Which condition best fits?

Answer: Hand-arm vibration syndrome, also called vibration white finger. NIOSH describes vibration syndrome from vibrating hand tools as attacks of finger blanching that are usually brought on by cold, with tingling or numbness in the fingers, blanching, pain and flushing, and in later stages a loss of dexterity and of the ability to do fine work. NIOSH also states that temporary tingling or numbness during or soon after use of a vibrating tool is not considered vibration syndrome, whereas repeated cold-triggered blanching after 12 years of exposure is. Carpal tunnel syndrome does not cause fingertip blanching, and frostbite is a cold injury unrelated to the vibration history.

Domain 4. A printing plant's carbon dioxide total flooding system uses refillable cylinders that each hold 100 lb of agent when full. At the semiannual check, cylinder 1 holds 96 lb, cylinder 2 holds 94 lb, and cylinder 3 holds 98 lb. Which cylinders must be sent for maintenance under 29 CFR 1910.160?

Answer: Only cylinder 2. Refillable containers must be checked for weight and pressure at least semiannually, and a loss in net content or weight of more than 5 percent requires maintenance. Cylinder 2 lost 6 lb of 100 lb, or 6 percent, while cylinders 1 and 3 lost 4 and 2 percent, which are within the limit. Counting the 4 percent loss as excessive wrongly adds cylinder 1, and treating any loss as a trigger sends all three.

Domain 5. A depopulation crew worked on an H5N1-infected poultry farm from September 28 through October 3, wearing the recommended PPE. Following CDC recommendations, over what period should the crew be monitored for symptoms such as respiratory illness and conjunctivitis?

Answer: From September 28 through October 13. CDC recommends monitoring people exposed to H5N1-infected birds or animals from their first exposure through 10 days after their last exposure, even when they wore recommended PPE, so monitoring runs from September 28 to October 13. Counting 10 days from the first exposure ends monitoring while exposure was still recent. Starting at the last exposure misses symptoms that begin during the work period, and October 17 uses a 14 day window.

Domain 6. A field radiographer measures 400 mR/hr at 2 m from an unshielded gamma point source. The crew sets up a work position at 4 m and places lead 3 half-value layers thick between the source and the workers, where each half-value layer halves the dose rate. What dose rate should the crew expect at the new position?

Answer: 12.5 mR/hr. Doubling the distance from 2 m to 4 m reduces a point-source dose rate by the inverse square, to 400 x (2/4)^2 = 100 mR/hr, and three half-value layers halve it three times, to 100 x (1/2)^3 = 12.5 mR/hr. Treating distance as a linear reduction gives 25 mR/hr, the most tempting slip. Dividing by the number of half-value layers instead of halving three times gives 33.3 mR/hr, and ignoring the distance change gives 50 mR/hr.

Domain 7. A pickling line cannot avoid generating a spent acid stream. Following the Pollution Prevention Act's national policy hierarchy, which management option should come next after prevention?

Answer: Reclaiming the spent acid for use as a feedstock by another manufacturer. The Pollution Prevention Act's hierarchy says pollution should be prevented at the source where feasible, then recycled in an environmentally safe manner, then treated, with disposal or release only as a last resort. Reclaiming the acid for reuse is recycling, which ranks above neutralization, a form of treatment. Diluting a characteristic waste to escape a standard is impermissible dilution, not a ranked option.

Domain 8. A distribution company's forklift operator training program had fully loaded first-year costs of $48,000. First-year monetary benefits from fewer product damage claims and injuries, after isolating the program's effect, were $78,000. What is the program's return on investment?

Answer: 62.5 percent. ROI expresses net program benefits as a percentage of program costs: (78,000 minus 48,000) / 48,000 x 100 = 62.5 percent. Dividing benefits by costs without subtracting gives the benefit-cost ratio of 1.625, which becomes the tempting but wrong 162.5 percent when multiplied by 100. Dividing net benefits by benefits gives 38.5 percent, and dividing benefits by net benefits gives 260 percent.

Domain 9. A hospital is completing its OSHA 300 Log. Under 29 CFR 1904.29, which of these recordable cases must be entered as a privacy case, with no employee name on the Log?

Answer: A tuberculosis infection that a respiratory therapist got from a patient. Section 1904.29(b)(7) lists the privacy concern cases, including HIV infection, hepatitis or tuberculosis, and (b)(8) says the list is complete. A voluntary request to keep a name off the Log applies only to other illnesses under (b)(7)(vi), not to an injury such as a fractured wrist, so option B fails. A sharps injury is a privacy case only if the sharp was contaminated with another person's blood or other potentially infectious material, which an unused blade was not.

Questions people ask

What is the ASP exam blueprint?

It is BCSP's outline of what the ASP exam covers: nine domains, the weight of each and the knowledge areas inside them. The current version is ASP11, and it is the best guide to where your study time should go.

When did the ASP11 blueprint start?

BCSP's 2025 changes index says the ASP exam was updated for all candidates on 1 September 2025, with details in the ASP exam blueprint on bcsp.org. The blueprint version is V.2024.04.24.

Which ASP domain carries the most weight?

Safety Programs and Concepts, at 25%. Fire Prevention and Protection and Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Health follow at 12% each, then Training, Education and Communication at 11%.

How much math is on the ASP exam?

Mathematical Calculations is 10% of the blueprint, covering noise, ventilation, fall clearance, incidence rates, the NIOSH lifting equation, statistics, cost-benefit, exposure, radiation and unit conversions. Calculations also appear in other domains, so practise them regularly.

How long is the ASP exam?

BCSP lists the ASP exam time as 5 hours. It is taken by computer at a Pearson test centre, and official results are available as soon as you submit. If you need another attempt, you can schedule it no earlier than six weeks after your last one.

Do I need the ASP before the CSP?

You need a BCSP qualified credential for the CSP, and the ASP is the most common one. Others on BCSP's list include the GSP and recognised credentials such as the CIH and CMIOSH.

Is HSE HUB affiliated with BCSP?

No. HSE HUB is an unofficial study tool. Its questions are written by HSE professionals to BCSP's published blueprint, with a full explanation for every answer.

Sources

Practise every ASP11 domain with a full explanation for each answer. Ten questions a day are open to everyone.

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Free download: the HSE Formula SheetTRIR, noise dose, TWA, WBGT, fall clearance, sling angles, the NIOSH lifting equation and more, on two pages (PDF).
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Related guides

HSE HUB is an unofficial study tool and is not affiliated with BCSP. ASP and CSP are BCSP trademarks. Facts about eligibility, the exam and fees are summarised from bcsp.org; check BCSP for the current rules.