ASWB Exam Changes

 Take a look at the latest ASWB Exam Handbook for some new additions coming to the social work licensing exam. If you've taken the exam recently, you know they've already added highlighting and strikethrough to the exams. Handy tools for some, distracting--and potentially time-wasting--bells and whistles for others.

But a bigger, more meaningful change is happening. For the first time in who knows how long, the exam will include something other than just questions with a STEM (the question part) and FOUR ANSWER OPTIONS. It will now include--drumroll please--questions with a STEM and THREE ANSWER OPTIONS! So now, you'll have a 33% chance of getting a question right even if you have no idea what it's about and can't eliminate one of the options. This is up from 25% (one out of four) for coin-flippy efforts to answer tough questions correctly. 

How the content of these questions will differ from the traditional four answer options (A, B, C, & D) is unclear. More will be revealed soon.

In the meantime, take is as good news and go pass that exam!

LCSW Exam Scoring

One of the questions that comes up again and again regarding the LCSW exam is also a very basic one: what score do you need to pass? The answer is...no one can say for sure. There are multiple exams being given at the same level, at the same time around the country. The ASWB spells it all out here.  

Generally, pass points range from 90 to 107 correct answers of the 150 scored questions.

Okay, 90/150 to 107/150. That's [opens calculator] between 60 and 71%. Meaning that on some versions of the exam, you can miss nearly half the questions and still arrive at a pass sheet after your four-hour sit. If you're checking the math, remember, it's 90 out of 150, not 170. Twenty questions are being tested for future exam use and aren't counted for scoring. 

Another tidbit from the ASWB to keep in mind: 

ASWB has multiple forms of each exam for exam security and to ensure that candidates who retake the exam do not get the same set of questions.

So asking around about what's on the latest version of the exam isn't just unethical, it's going to be unproductive. No one can say exactly what you're going to encounter on the version of the test that you're given. But, they can say--if they read you the ASWB's published content outlines to you--what topics you should reasonably expect to appear on the test. (Note: you don't have to ask someone to read it to you, exam outlines are available, free of charge, at ASWB.org.) That's the same information that a reputable test prep company uses to weight practice tests by topic area.

Not only can you miss a bunch of questions on the LCSW exam and still pass. Twenty questions that you face won't count at all. So, as you encounter perplexing and confounding questions, remain calm. It's no big deal. Keep focused, keep at it, and pass that exam. Good luck!

ASWB Exam Outline Changes

If you didn't know, you wouldn't notice, but the Association of Social Work Boards (the ASWB)--the people who write and administer the social work licensing exam--have made some changes. The minor tweaks to the old exam content outlines kicked in with the new year (2018).

The more with-it exam prep companies have adjusted their offerings to fit the new guidelines (SWTP, for example). But if you're prepping using older material, don't sweat it. The outline changes are minimal. Some areas of the exam are being stressed a little bit more, others a little bit less. And some of the areas in the outline have been merged or renamed. No matter. You still have to study all the content areas (which is what you're doing when you take a practice test, review your old social work notes, or run through the posts in this blog). If one area comprises 17% instead of 19% of the exam, does that mean you study it 2% less? If you're able to gauge such things...then, maybe. But, really, no.

If you want to know the details of the changes, the ASWB has spelled them out with nice graphs on their site: https://www.aswb.org/exam-candidates/about-the-exams/exam-development/2018-exam-blueprints/how-are-the-exams-changing/

For everyone else, just know that something changed a little and it doesn't really matter.

As you were. Prepping and, soon, passing the LCSW exam. Good luck!

What would you do first?

These questions are, quite possibly, the most annoying questions on the entire LCSW exam. I remember studying my materials, taking a practice exam, missing numerous questions and scratching my head until it felt like it was bleeding. Invariably, I would wind up missing a few of these "what would you do first" type questions.

The first thing to try and combat my own neuroses about these questions was take them to my supervisor. I would ask him the questions I missed and give him the answers. Interestingly enough we would often agree on the first things we would do, and we would often be wrong according to the materials. How did this seeming exercise in futility help me?

First, it gave me another opinion on the exam. My supervisor was an MSW, DSW and had been in public and private clinical practice for many many years. Hearing his opinion on the question helped me believe in my own gut instincts related to Social Work practice. It also added some perspective to the questions and answers.

Second, our conversations helped me laugh a bit at the exam and alleviate some of the stress and discomfort I was experiencing related to taking the test. Thankfully, we had the kind of supervisory relationship where we were able to talk freely and laugh at both our successes and failures. The relationship provided me an opportunity to study for the exam and understand that Social Work practice is a complex entity that cannot be fully encapsulated in multiple choice questions.

Finally, our conversations helped me reframe the questions so that I could take my incredulity out of my reading of the questions and answer them as best I could. For me, that reframing of the question proved vital. When I would encounter a question that me what I would do first, I would read the question as "Blah, blah, blah, what would the book do first in this situation?" (Usually with the first part of the question replacing the blah, blah, blah). I needed to "divorce" myself from the question so that I could think as the materials would want me to and answer the question appropriately.

So, how might this help you prepare?

(1) If you still have a supervisory relationship, use it for preparation when you have the opportunity. Bounce your missed questions off of the supervisor and learn from their experience in the field. If you don't have this kind of relationship, then find a Social Worker whose practice you admire and sit down with them and ask for their help. You may find that they answer a question the same way you do and you can feel some vindication. They may answer it "correctly" and can help you understand their rationale.

(2) Find a way to put the questions into words that you can stomach. Social work is a wonderful, diverse and complex discipline. Not everyone practices it in the same manner, nor should we. However, the exam attempts to measure your knowledge according to the assumption of a "perfect" world practice. Therefore, we have to put aside some of the methods we have learned and enter a "perfect" world in order to answer the questions as asked. Read the question with whatever reframing you find most helpful, then answer according to your understanding of the study materials you used rather than the experiences you have. Your experiences are important, yet for the exam your ability to study and recall is more important.

Good luck in your studies, I hope this helps.

Peace

5 tips for passing the exam

Reaching the point of taking the LCSW exam is a mixed blessing at best. It means that you have met the requisite hours of practice and supervision, which is a testament to your tenacity and clinical abilities. It also means that a new chapter of studying and anxiety is opened as you prepare to add four new letters behind your name and take a timed test that covers a broad range of topics.
From time to time I will receive emails from people who are preparing to take the exam or who have taken it and not passed. Inevitably, these emails include some request for advice about how to study or prepare for the exam. So, I thought I would cull the advice I have given over the past year or two into one post.
I am not doing this so that you will no longer email me. I do the best I can to respond to each one that I receive. I also know that I will not cover every anxiety or frustration with one post, but for those who like lists and things in a neat little package here are my tips for passing the exam.

1. Think about the way you study best and do that more often. There are a myriad of materials out there to help you prepare for the exams. These range from practice exams to study guides to study guides with practice exams, etc. Most, if not all, of these guides are dry as a bone and merely regurgitate the material you need to know to pass the exam. They have their formulas for getting the material across to you. However, they do not know you best, you do. So, take the materials you choose to study and adapt them to the ways in which you learn. For me, this blog is the result of the way I learn. I needed to re-write the material I was studying in my own words in order to really get a grasp on it. Instead of a pen and paper I took to my laptop and wrote a series of notes that became my study guide. All of the posts on this blog concerning the theories and methods were the result of my homemade study guide. So, think about the ways you learn: flashcards, quizzes, study groups, putting things in your own words, etc. and adapt the study guides to your taste not vice versa.
2. The exam doesn't care how you practice social work. This is one of the hardest lessons to learn and it took me a while to really grasp its meaning. My impression of the exam is that it does not measure real world application of Social Work principles and guidelines; instead, it measures "ideal" (read textbook) applications of these principles. One of the helpful things I took into the exam was a sense that I needed to reframe the questions so that my answers reflected not what I would do first but what "the book" would do first. Therefore, when I encountered a "what would you do first" question I could usually eliminate two of the responses right off the bat. Then I would generally choose the more conservative response from the remaining choices. This may not work for all of these questions but it helped me get into a frame of mind that had me answering questions as the book would want me to answer them rather than the way I think the questions should be answered.
3. The exam measures your ability to remember data. This is not an exam that measures the efficacy of your practice or your ability to help people in a way that empowers them. This exam measures your skills at memorization. Now, I realize this is a fairly cynical view of a standardized test. However, I cannot think of another way to put it. The national exam was created as a method to take the subjectivity of licensure committees out of the process and have an "objective" tool that measures knowledge of social work practice and principles. If you don't pass the first time around, it says absolutely nothing about how good a social worker you are. The only thing a failing score reveals is that you might need more time memorizing the material and putting it to use the way the test wants you to.
   
4. The exam is not always "right." The earlier you give up fighting the questions and their "right" answers, the earlier you can get on with studying the material as needed. I remember studying for the exam and talking with my supervisor about some of the questions and answers. He and I would read some of the questions and talk about how we would answer them given the choices on the test. In each one of these Q&A sessions there would be one or two questions that we would agree on that the test would count as wrong. He had his doctorate in social work and was a successful private practitioner for many years and he still couldn't always get the right answers according to the test. You have to remember that the correct answer for the test may not be your way of answering the question, but it is still the correct answer. Unfortunately, you will not get very far by arguing with the computer over which "answer" you should perform first in a particular situation. Instead, study for the purpose of the exam and remember that the real world is a lot messier than answer A, B, C, or D.
   
5. You have already passed. Remember that the exam is merely the culmination of a long road of clinical practice and supervision. To get to this point in your career you have most likely been through 100 hours of supervision and thousands of hours of clinical practice. Your supervisor has signed off on your capabilities as a social work practitioner. People have come to you for therapeutic help and returned again and again because they believe you can help them. All in all, to get to the point where you can even take the test requires the implicit and explicit approval of a number of people in your life. They know you are a good social worker, regardless of the outcome of your exam. The LCSW exam does not prove that you are a good social worker, that you care about the self-determination of others, or that you stand for justice and provide a voice for the voiceless. Clients wouldn't return if you were a bad social worker, supervisors wouldn't sign the necessary forms if you weren't a good clinician. The fact of the matter is that you have a crowd of people who know that you are ready to take the exam and approve of your doing so. In essence, you have already passed the difficult part; the exam is more a formality than a gate-keeper.

So, there you have it. These five tips helped me put the exam in what I felt was the proper perspective. To be sure, I studied hard and often. However, I was not about to let the exam dictate how I felt about my abilities to practice as a clinical social worker. I merely thought of it as one more step on an already long and most completed journey, a step that affirmed what I already knew from experience. Namely, that I was a good social worker and that I could practice effectively, ethically and compassionately.

Peace

Studying for the Exam

The hardest part about giving advice for the exam is that everyone studies differently and has different needs. However, I will tell you what was helpful to me.

The exam breaks down in this way:

Human growth and development - 22% of the questions
Diagnosis and Assessment - 16%
Clinical Theories and Practice - 16%
Professional Values and Ethics - 10%
Communication - 8%
Therapeutic Relationship - 7%
Diversity - 6%
Service Delivery - 5%
Clinical Practice and Management - 5%
Clinical Supervision, Consultation and Development - 4%
Research - 1%

I spent most of my time working through the first seven things on this list. This blog was my study guide as I wrote and rewrote the theories and methods in my own words.

The first seven categories make up 85% of the exam, and I figured if I knew them well enough to answer most of the questions related to their content accurately then I would have a good chance of passing the exam.

I did not neglect the other portions of the exam, I made sure I knew enough to make an educated guess with relationship to their content and to be relatively sure I would get about half of them right. I can't remember my score exactly, but I believe it was between 78-85, enough to pass in my jurisdiction.

I hope this helps, good luck to all who are taking the exam.