Get our ASWB Clinical Practice Test questions. Learn more about the ASWB Clinical test. Visit today!
Write it down, put it on your mirror, say it to yourself over and over--because it's true! You will pass the social work exam. Now go do it! Congratulations in advance!
The mental status exam (MSE) is a basic assessment framework used in psychiatry for ongoing evaluation of a patient with mental illness.
100% Money-Back Guarantee No questions asked, 100% money-back guarantee anytime within 60 days of purchase + you pass or your money back! Hurry, the
Most states use the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) exam which candidates must pass to gain licensure as a social worker. Some states require licensure at the Bachelors level, Masters level, and Clinical level, while other states only require Clinical licensure. (For a state-by-state listing of licensing requirements, visit this informative website.) My students want to know how to prepare for the exam, and I have some suggestions. 1. Plan ahead. Most states allow graduating students to test up to a month before graduation, which allows you to graduate with licensure. Some jobs may require a license in hand prior to applying or interviewing. You may have to register for the exam as much as a month early, and you may have to travel hours to a test site. Therefore, start planning for a test date several months ahead of time. 2. Know your state's hurdles. Some states require finger printing ahead of time and an application to the state before you can be approved to take the test. Other states require you to test before applying to the state's licensure board. If you are graduating in one state and moving to another after graduation, know the rules in the state where you plan to move. You can transfer test scores but will have to apply to the board in the state where you plan to practice. 3. Develop test-taking skills. Multiple-choice tests are similar in many ways. They require carefully reading options and eliminating bad ones. If you have a methodological approach to analyzing your answers, you will do better. This document lists some strategies to use when you have to guess. The questions often ask for the "best" answer and offer several potentially correct answers- but only one answer can be "best." Look for context and rule-out clues, like "always" and "never." If you have to guess, answers with more detail are often better, and answers related to client safety or confidentiality are often answers to the "what should you do first" questions. 4. Use multiple learning tools. Lots of people like study guides. They have varying quality- you can read reviews on sites like Amazon. Many of the questions relate to developmental theory, and podcasts can help with that sort of information. Here are some podcasts to listen to, either directly at these sites or search for them on youtube. 1. The Social Work Podcast. You can find a list of all the podcasts and direct links here. 2. Social Work Exam Prep. These brief audio clips are direct and to the point. 5. Make it mobile. There are a few exam prep apps you can download on your smartphone. I like the free app called "Social Work Lite" which allows you to choose how many questions you want to practice at one setting. You can turn waiting rooms in to study time. Similarly, if you do have paper-based study materials, scan them and save as a pdf document so that you can open them on your smartphone and read on the go. 6. Look at the free sample questions and the content areas listed at the ASWB website. This will help prepare you for the style of questions and the areas that you are expected to know. ASWB offers a paid online exam and a small booklet with more sample questions. The online exam is a good way to prepare for what it's like to answer questions on a computer, but your mileage may vary- you may not need these paid resources if you are good at using the other free resources I've talked about on this page. 7. Use a buddy system. Plan study dates with another test-taker so that you can hold each other accountable to study time. Use what works together- flashcards, quizzes, reading out loud, or just quiet time together. 8. Consider a local or online test prep workshop. Often your local social work department or chapter of NASW will know who is offering classes locally. Online classes are available- look around the web for reviews before signing up. These can be costly, at about $300 for the class offered by the Extension office at University of Michigan. However, if this is going to grab your attention it may be worth it- it's cheaper than retaking the exam in most cases. 9. If you plan to take the clinical license exam after your supervision hours are complete, enlist your clinical supervisor in test prep. Let your supervisor know your anticipated test date, and about six months early make a concentrated effort to fit some exam study practice in to each of your supervision visits. This may be via discussing theory, clinical scenarios, pharmacology, etc. 10. Do the things that will ease your anxiety. Your first step to a calm test experience is adequate study preparation, so make a plan that is SMART. The week before you drive to your test site, make sure you know the route, have plenty of time, have adequate rest and a good snack, and know the requirements for the test center regarding proof of identity and what you can take with you. Consider some mindfulness or breathing techniques to help you relax. Remember: The test is difficult, but not impossible. Most people pass the first time, and you only need a score of about 75%. Study, think good thoughts, think about the kind of supports that work for you, and relax. Best test-taking wishes to you!
Visit the post for more.
Explore our practice test questions and other counseling and social work resources. Get started on the path to your new counseling career.
Two helpful acronyms for social workers taking the LMSW (or LCSW) social work licensing exam.
The mental status exam (MSE) is a basic assessment framework used in psychiatry for ongoing evaluation of a patient with mental illness.
Social Workers always need to be familiar with mental health-related medications especially when preparing for the exam. Below you'll find i...
Explore our practice test questions and other counseling and social work resources. Get started on the path to your new counseling career.
Some questions on the social work licensing exam are simple to get right or wrong. You either know the answer or you don't. This Eriksonian ...
(image courtesy of OpenClips ) It can be overwhelming to try to figure out what you should study and how to remember everything...
Tis the season to shower gifts on your loved ones and co-workers (and your favorite helpful bloggers?). That all costs money. Maybe you don't have lots left over to spend on exam prep. Well, happily, a certain amount of your studying can be done free of charge. Googling around will take you to free flash cards and free exam questions. SWTP has a free study guide (sign-up required). Price? Zero. And, if you haven't seen it, here's a set of 27 free practice questions from simmons.edu. They're good questions. But you'll have to figure out why the correct answers (included at the bottom of the doc) are the correct answers. Rationales were probably reserved for whatever class these were created for. Good study group fodder, if you've got a study group. Also check out the Eye on Ethics column in Social Work Today magazine. Each column contains a vignette which poses just the kind of ethical and procedural quandaries that make up the exam. Only, they're not laid out in ASWB question form. You'll have to imagine what those might look like yourself. Same goes for the information-rich episodes of the Social Work Podcast, mentioned in the previous post. You can also piece together a half-exam's worth of free questions by trying out the free samples from various companies. Links to several of them are here. That should keep you busy for a while. Of course--this kind of goes without saying--there's nothing like a full-length practice test to get you ready for the real thing. Include those in your study plan as well, if and when you can. If you have additional resources to suggest, please don't hesitate to post them in comments. Social workers are helpers, but also need help sometimes. Happy studying!
Do you want to pass your LMSW exam on your first try? 74.5% of those who take the LMSW exam nationally pass on their first try; however, 90% of those who take the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) course pass the exam on their first try. Below are some helpful study tips from […]
SWTP's been busy generating a series of free questions based upon each section of the NASW Code of Ethics. (Sound familiar.) As of this writing, 1.01 - 1.04 have been covered. So, four free questions and explanations. If they continue on through the entire code, that'll be, um, lots of free questions. (If you feel like counting the sections in the Code, please go ahead and let us know what you get!) You can search "Ethics" or "Practice" on the SWTP blog. Or we'll make it easy for you. Here are the free exam questions.
Social Workers always need to be familiar with mental health-related medications especially when preparing for the exam. Below you'll find i...
Years in the making, years in the dreading, it's finally upon us: it's time for DSM-5. July 1, 2015 will forever live in memory as the day...
Get prepared today with ASWB clinical exam practice questions. Learn about the ASWB exam with study tips and sample practice questions.
Every time an ambitious PhD gets hold of a grant, it seems like a new approach to psychotherapy is born. Which is great, but can be overwhelming. Just look at Wikipedia's list of psychotherapies for a sense of how vast the literature on psychotherapy is. If you're preparing for the social work exam, not to worry. What you might reasonably expect to see appear on the exam doesn't include that whole list. Far from it. The Code of Ethics directs social workers to utilize empirically validated forms of psychotherapy. Social work schools like students to be grounded in the history of psychotherapy. In those two categories, you should be able to locate everything that might possibly show up on the exam, theory-wise. If it's not empirically validated or historically relevant, it might be interesting to learn about, but that's learning that won't necessarily help you on exam day. Here's a quick list of therapy's greatest hits--with links to Wikipedia, pruned from the longer list. A cheat sheet for your exam prep: Behavior modification Behavior therapy Brief psychotherapy Client-centered psychotherapy Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) Existential therapy Family therapy Freudian psychotherapy Gestalt therapy Group therapy Motivational interviewing Object relations psychotherapy Play therapy Psychoanalysis Psychodynamic psychotherapy Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) Reality therapy Rogerian psychotherapy Play Therapy Solution focused brief therapy Systemic therapy Transtheoretical model Twelve-step programs Remember not to overstudy. You don't need to know all of these inside and out for the social work exam. You just need a general idea of what's what with each (if that!)--some key concepts and no more. Anything missing? Comments are open.
Free SWTP Study Guide
Launched: CA BBS Practice Exam Using DSM-5
SKUCET 2021 notification is out. Check the latest update about SKUCET exam dates, notifications, and eligibility criteria here.
Are you a social worker looking for a study group in order to prepare for the LMSW exam? If yes, you’ve come to the right place! Earlier posts on this site had addressed this topic, but you had to dig through two or three different LMSW exam prep articles to locate the groups [furthermore, some […]
Do you remember Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development? 1. Preconventional- This is that lil' kid who follows all the rules stated to him by authority figures. The age for this stage typically is up to the age of 9. They act morally but only out of their own self-interest and to simply avoid getting in trouble or to get something out of it. 2. Conventional- An example of reasoning in this stage is one who refuses to steal bread for a starving family because it is against the law. This stage lasts from around 10-14 and focuses on not getting in trouble as well as being approved of. 3. Postconventional- High Schoolers up to adulthood fall into this stage. Becoming a vegan is one example. To some, not eating meat or animal products is personally ethical and helps reduce harm to living animals. To see a full review check the wikipedia link.
How to Answer FIRST and NEXT Questions on the ASWB Exam
Licensed Master Social Workers of the future, take heart. The LMSW exam is passable. It has been passed or will be passed by somebody within hours of your reading this. Thousands of people pass the LMSW exam each year. You're next! Just because it's doable, doesn't mean it won't take some work to do. Get help where you can. Keep your study prep focused. Here are some useful links for easing your way to your LMSW on the web: From Social Work Test Prep From Social Work Career Development From Aunt Bertha From Quizlet Good luck!
We all know how important it is for Social Workers to ask and understand what medications someone we are serving might be taking, as it giv...
