Passed the CSC exam - 3 months of prep, here's my breakdown

Cleared the Certified Sustainability Consultant exam last Thursday with a score of 76%. I work in corporate sustainability for a mid-size manufacturing company, about 5 years in, and I still needed roughly 3 months of structured study to feel confident going in. This isn't a test you can wing based on work experience alone.

The exam covers a wide range — environmental management systems, reporting frameworks like GRI and SASB, carbon accounting, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory compliance. My strongest areas were reporting frameworks and carbon accounting since I deal with those daily. My weakest was the regulatory and policy section, which I'd estimate made up about 20% of the exam.

I used the official study guide, the ISSP body of knowledge documents, and about 400 practice questions across two prep platforms. I averaged around 8-10 hours of study per week. The last two weeks I bumped that to 15 hours and did three full practice exams. My practice scores ranged from 68% to 82%, so a 76% on the real thing felt about right.

A few things I'd tell someone starting: the sustainability metrics questions can be calculation-heavy, so brush up on your formulas. And the case study questions at the end require you to apply multiple concepts at once — don't skip those in practice even if they feel time-consuming.