How hard is the NSCA-CPT, ACE, and ACSM?

Little background about me:

3rd year student in Clinical Dietetics and Nutrition
Took 2 courses in school to prepare for CSCS, going to study for it and take it this summer
Been a certified lifeguard (lifeguard/cpr/first aid/aed) since I was 16
Constantly reading about fitness/nutrition on my own, as well as at school

How hard would picking up these certifications be? Should I even bother (i.e. are any of these certifications even looked upon highly)? I'd just be doing it to beef up a resume over the summer - I'm for sure getting my CSCS, just wondering if I should tack on some other certifications

Should note that i'm not saying I'd walk into these exams cold. I'd get the materials and study for them, but I'm hoping not much more than ~20hrs per cert.

Thanks!

edit: should also note i'm doing this because I'm going for my masters in sports nutrition. not just for nutrition.

[QUOTE=TheHybrid;485284681]Little background about me:

3rd year student in Clinical Dietetics and Nutrition
Took 2 courses in school to prepare for CSCS, going to study for it and take it this summer
Been a certified lifeguard (lifeguard/cpr/first aid/aed) since I was 16
Constantly reading about fitness/nutrition on my own, as well as at school

How hard would picking up these certifications be? Should I even bother (i.e. are any of these certifications even looked upon highly)? I'd just be doing it to beef up a resume over the summer - I'm for sure getting my CSCS, just wondering if I should tack on some other certifications

Should note that i'm not saying I'd walk into these exams cold. I'd get the materials and study for them, but I'm hoping not much more than ~20hrs per cert.

Thanks!

edit: should also note i'm doing this because I'm going for my masters in sports nutrition. not just for nutrition.[/QUOTE]

It doesn't hurt to have any reputable cert. It adds to your credibility when dealing with employers and clients. So go for any of them.

Despite you having a background in fitness and nutrition, the only problem you might have will be program adherence. Each certifying agency has a different slant on their programs.

ACE for instance is very conservative with workout design and nutrition/supplementation and focuses more on legalities than workout design, while a cert like ISSA is a bit more liberal with the design and supplementation and focuses a bit more on the program design than ACE. Also, between the two certs one uses an older version of the BMR formula while the other uses an older version of BMI... Which can be confusing on the final exam if you don't read their program design.

ace is accredited by the ncca. issa isnt. thus ace>issa

in level of difficulty i would say acsm and nsca are harder than ace.

yes, 20 hrs for the NSCA would get you - fail

each of these has their own philosophy on how things should be done, so there is some crossover, but not between the exams, you have to answer how they WANT you to answer, which sometimes does not make sense

I would do NSCA, but I prefer to focus on strength training
pick the one that would do you the most good, where you would use it.

I would go with NSCA personally. Better prepares you for the CSCS (which would justify having a bachelor's degree) later on if your so inclined.
My little sister has an ACE cert she got for class credit. Differences I see are that she knows the form of all the exercises, but has little idea how to program properly.

IMO the NSCA - CSCS test is not that hard.

I took the ACSM in college a few yeras ago and passed it the first go around. There are a lot that was covered on the test and I was very surprised at how detailed it got with the anatomy and biology. I would recommend you spend some time reading through the book and making sure you know the terms the certification likes to use and then take a large amount of practice tests.