Step 1. Study casually
Step 2. Take the exam
Step 3. Fail by one point
Step 4. Figure out how to do it differently
the second time
Step 5. Pass!
After that long wait to get the results in
the postal mail and learning that I failed by one point, I took a break for a
while. The experience was
frustrating and I wanted to take some time to rejuvenate.
Then, I started again. I studied differently. I studied MORE. I reviewed the NASW Code of Ethics much
more thoroughly. I went through
both my Law & Ethics notes from the NASW courses I took, as well as my own
personal notes of topics I remembered from my first exam.
Notably, I used the Social Work Test Prep Law
& Ethics practice exam really differently this time. I still used the Law & Ethics
practice exam, but now I actually also utilized the SWTP practice test
questions rationales. (Hello.
Please do this in your first round of studying. Don’t be like me.)
The rationales are
important and really do help you learn. I would get one
question right in the practice test and I gained a false sense of
confidence. I thought Oh, I got it, no worries about this concept. But if a more complicated version of
the concept arose on the real exam, I was lost! I didn’t have any significant knowledge to fall back on. The rationales provide reasons why
these three options are wrong, a reason why this option is correct, and further
information on the topic. I definitely
should have read through the rationales in the first place to understand more
examples and more of the nuance of each concept.
Tip: I combed through my
own notes and the SWTP rationales from the practice test. While doing so I wrote down by hand the details, definitions, and concepts
that I didn’t 100% know.
Then I went through and I typed these
up. I found that the process of
doing this twice – once by hand and once typing – helped really get the concept
into my brain. I printed out the
typed concepts and reviewed it several times while studying.
I wrote here
about how I had to intentionally schedule a time and a place to study – the
quiet co-working center with on-site childcare. I intentionally studied there for a month, about 3 hours at
a time, once or twice a week.
I took my second round of the Law &
Ethics exam in November 2016.
Another change was how I walked into the exam. I was prepared for the exam to be long and hard. I went in with the mentality that the
exam experience will be challenging, but I also know a lot of information. I balanced holding those two truths and
tried to feel confident.
Logistically speaking, I attempted to answer the questions in a speedy
fashion, because I remembered how tight the timing was at the end of my first
try.
If there were some questions that seemed hard
and I wasn’t sure of the answer, I left those blank and moved on. I went back
to them at the end. I didn’t mark
any (on the computer program) that I had answered but was unsure of. I decided to trust my first instinct
with those. Thus, I didn’t change
any of those answers in the end.
If I wasn’t sure of the answer, but could narrow
down to two choices, I marked on my paper which two options I thought was
likely, but it turned out I didn’t really need to refer back to the paper when
re-reviewing these questions in the end, because it was still apparent to me
which two were the likely two choices.
I just took my best guess and left it at that.
Tip: If I wasn’t totally sure, I said to
myself “That’s probably a non-scored question” and just moved on. Mentally, it was really effective.
Further, in taking the exam a second time, I
realized an important distinction in how these questions are phrased. At the end, the question pointedly asks
something involving the words LEGAL or ETHICAL. (e.g. What is your LEGAL
obligation? What is the ETHICAL
next step?) Please pay attention
to this! It’s entirely possible
that there might be one answer that speaks to law and one that speaks to
ethics, and you could get distracted easily.
I finished the exam with time to spare. I hit submit and then I saw the good news – I
had PASSED! Hooray!
