Social Work Values and the Social Work Licensing Exam

How best to prepare for the social work licensing exam? One simple way to get set is to get a clear picture of what to expect to see on the exam. The ASWB publishes content outlines, available on their website. Everything's spelled out right there.

In the clinical outline, 18% of the exam is set aside for "Professional Ethics and Values." Take note, it's not just "Professional Ethics"--it's values too. The "Value Issues" section gives an idea just what may be included in values questions on the exam: questions about how the social worker's values may influence work with clients, the effect race, culture, and ethnicity on work with clients, and so on. Perhaps most vague--and most important--is the bullet "Professional values and ethics." What are those? Well, they're spelled out in the NASW Code of Ethics, right at the beginning. Looks like this:

The following broad ethical principles are based on social work's core values of service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. These principles set forth ideals to which all social workers should aspire.    

1. Service
2. Social Justice
3. Dignity and Worth of the Person
4. Importance of Human Relationships
5. Integrity
6. Competence

Click through for paragraphs about each value. If you haven't already reviewed these, do! These six values can help guide you through a lot of the social work exam. Unclear about which is the best answer on a given question? Think which more closely adheres to the values listed in the code. Same goes for decisions you make in social work practice. Service! Social Justice! Dignity and Worth of the Person!... These are the social work basics. Soak 'em up, pass the exam!

How to Pass the LCSW Exam

How do you pass the LCSW exam? Concrete reply: correctly mark enough answers to satisfy your state licensing board. (Remember "concrete"? It's on the MSE.) Okay, but how do you go about doing that? How do you prepare to pass the social work licensing exam?

There are countless paths to the goal. Some people prepare for a couple of days and trust their nurture-born test-taking skills. That can work out just fine. Others set a test date a couple of years in advance (yes, years!) and study ever last scrap of social work knowledge over the 700-plus days that follow. That can work out just fine too (if you don't mind all the hours lost to studying). For most, the middle road is the one chosen. It's Goldilocks' just-right porridge (if exam prep was breakfast mush). 

Somewhere between the hyper-confident two-day prep and the anxious, overlong mega-prep lies that middle path. Only you (and your initial practice test scores) know how much prep you need. What kind of test taker are you? How long has it been since you were in school? Does your work experience help with getting exam questions answered right? How much time do you have in an average week to set aside for studying? Have you already tried the exam and didn't reach that golden "PASS"?

You get to make your own self-assessment. You get to set your own schedule. You get to choose how to spend your time.

There's a lot of material that could show up on the exam. Try searching ASWB.org for the current clinical content outline--the current list of KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities being tested for on the licensing exam)). Yes, 170 is an awful lot of questions, but it's not enough to cover everything listed there. What's most likely to show up you can probably guess. Meat and potatoes social work. Basic assessment, basic diagnoses, basic interventions. Close call vignettes that test your familiarity with the principles contained in the NASW Code of Ethics. Duty to warn, scope of practice--that sort of thing. What the test basically aims to discern: Are you a competent social worker? Can you be trusted with client care? Will you do you best to respect and help your clients?

For some of the exam, you need specific information (e.g., DSM criteria). But for a lot of the exam, you can go with your gut. You're a social worker. You know how to do the job. Now just apply it to the test. You'll be licensed soon!

Good luck!

REBT and the Social Work Exam

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) was Albert Ellis's precursor to CBT. It too aims to identify and challenge irrational thinking. Or, as they say on albertellis.org:

REBT is an action-oriented psychotherapy that teaches individuals to identify, challenge, and replace their self-defeating thoughts and beliefs with healthier thoughts that promote emotional well-being and goal achievement.

Will REBT show up on the social work licensing exam? Maybe, maybe not. It's not CBT, which, if you don't see it at least once on the exam, let us know. It'd be a big surprise. Still, it's worth brushing up on REBT...and Gestalt Therapy...and lots of different types of therapy. The knowledge may only get you one answer right on the exam. But a PASS on the big test is made up of lots of individual right answers, right?

Here are some places on the web to get up to speed on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy:

• Rational emotive behavior therapy (Wikipedia)
• What is Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT Network)
• Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (About)

Enjoy and good luck on the exam!