How I Studied for the ASWB LCSW exam

Although time running out was a motivating factor for taking both the California Law & Ethics exam and the ASWB LCSW exam, I went about the experiences differently.  After failing the Law & Ethics by one point the first time, I knew I couldn’t do a rush job and be ill prepared for the ASWB exam.  I knew I had to study harder and study better.

It’s hard for many people to find time to study for the LCSW exams, because we’re often working and/or also caring for family members.  In my case I was working part-time and being the primary caregiver for our two young sons.  The older one was in a part-time afternoon preschool and I started to worry that the younger one was going to drop his nap – so I definitely started to make purposeful plans to study during that chunk of time when they were occupied at preschool or napping.

As the exam got to be about a month away, I also had designated study time at home on certain Saturdays, while my husband had solo time with our two sons.  I made sure to have noise-canceling headphones so I could focus and wouldn’t be distracted by noise if they were home.

I again utilized the Social Work Test Prep practice exams.  I knew I would not really study if studying meant reading chapters and articles from somewhere.  I thought practice exams would work better for me—and I was right.

Since learning my lesson about how I improperly studied for the Law & Ethics CA exam using practice exams before, I used the Social Work Test Prep practice exam really differently this time. I utilized the SWTP practice test questions rationales.

The rationales are important. The rationales provide reasons why these three options are wrong, a reason why this one option is correct, and further information on the topic. 

I combed through my own notes and the SWTP rationales from the general practice tests.  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 my document several times while studying.

In addition to taking the SWTP practice exams and really utilizing the rationales this time around, I also printed out certain documents (for example, names and categories of medication) and hung them up in the bathroom so I would look at it as I brushed my teeth.  I did the same thing with DSM diagnoses that are frequently confused with each other.

Come back tomorrow for a few more tips and my last blog post on the experience!

Background of My ASWB Exam Experience

I passed the Law & Ethics exam in November of 2016.  It felt great!  

Then I waited to hear from the BBS giving me permission to register for the ASWB Clinical exam.  Holidays passed and went into the New Year. I waited more.  Still nothing.  I tried to just register on the Pearson VUE (test exam site) and couldn’t.  I wasn’t in a big rush – my part-time job didn’t require me to become an LCSW, and I was still spending a lot of time occupied with my two small boys. 

Finally by April 2017 I decided to call the BBS and inquire why I hadn’t yet received permission to register for the Clinical exam.  Even though people say it’s difficult to have the phone picked up by a real live person, somehow it worked out for me on the first try. 

BBS said they didn’t have any specific reason for the holdup, but said that they would now mail me the permission to register and take next steps.

My PO Box is supposed to notify me via email when I get a new piece of mail.  I never got an email, but did get around to visiting the PO Box in June of 2017, and the letter was there.

I had always assumed that I would have to take the LCSW exam by November 2017, since that was a year’s expiration after passing the prior exam.  However, when I opened up the envelope, I saw that the BBS granted me an eligibility that expired in April 2018!

To my best guess, this is because they only officially served me the notification of my exam eligibility in April of 2017.  I reflected – did I want to procrastinate this process all the way out until April 2017?

NO.  I wanted to be done already.

Similar to the year before, the summer and the start of a new year in preschool for my older son was extra busy and chaotic, but in October I began to feel like there was an opportunity to get it done.

Not only was there a natural lull in life in mid-fall, but I began to feel a crunch of running out of time to study during naptime, as my youngest son approached two.  I was planning to study on the few afternoons a week when my older son was in part-time preschool and my younger son napped.  However, I remembered that my older son began to drop his nap shortly after he turned two. If I needed time during the day to study, naptime was when it happened, and naptime possibly was soon going to be gone.  I kicked studying into gear.

Yes, by the way.  The maternity leave’s ending for my second son which rushed me to take the law and ethics exam… that’s the same son who was about to stop napping, so I rushed to take the clinical exam. That is either an indicator of how long and drawn out I made this process for myself or an indicator of how quickly these children grow up.  Maybe both.

Fear is a great motivator.  Fear of losing the chance for naptime studying motivated me hard.  I started studying, and I’ll share more about how I studied in the next post.  While in early stages of studying, I also looked into the logistics of scheduling the exam.

Tip- after you receive your eligibility, log on to Pearson’s site just to begin to gauge the availability of test slots.  I remember there being several different days and times to select for the Law & Ethics (which is at the PSI exam center), so I thought it would be the same for the LCSW at a Pearson center.  Wrong.

Perhaps a complicating factor in my situation was that the ASWB was going to be changing the format of the Clinical exam slightly starting on January 1, 2018, so maybe extra people were rushing to take (or re-take) the exam in the format in which they were most familiar.

Between my local Pearson test center and the one about 20 miles away … there were only three or four testing times, total, open for the next four months!  This was unexpected and unwelcome news.

I ultimately registered for an exam date in January 2018. However, once a day for a week I kept logging back in to see if any other earlier dates opened up.  I began to see other dates becoming available that were earlier but wouldn’t work with my schedule. My best guess is that people register for a certain date, but because there is no fee to change the exam day as long as you do it within a certain time frame ahead of the exam, you can change it.  People postpone their time slots if they’re not feeling ready, and then those exam times become available for anyone else. 

One day while checking I saw an exam time open in late November at my very local and convenient Pearson VUE center.  I booked it.  It was official!  I was going to be taking (and hopefully passing) the ASWB clinical exam!

Did I pass that?  Spoiler alert, yes.  Next post, learn how!

How I Passed the LCSW California Law & Ethics Exam

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!

How NOT to Pass the California Law & Ethics Exam

So before I dive into the post about how I studied differently to pass the California Law & Ethics exam (LCLE) the second time, let’s first touch upon why I think I failed the first time.

I studied while at home taking care of my second baby and kind of rushed to take the LCLE exam before I went back to my hospice job when he was two months old, but really, the reason why I failed the LCLE I took in February of 2016 is because it was harder than I expected. 

To study, I had reviewed the Law & Ethics online courses I took from the California NASW (the content as well as the mid-course and end-course quizzes), I read through the NASW Code of Ethics, and I took the Law & Ethics SWTP practice exam.  Everything I read through I sort of assessed with a “Yes, ok, sure, I understand” kind of attitude.

Looking back, I have a couple memories of taking my baby on a walk to a local boba tea shop and then almost casually leafing through my printouts of the CA NASW course material – and basically flipping through the Code of Ethics booklet while waiting in the car to pick up my older son – and knowing what I know now, it’s hysterical!  I want to shake myself and say “You fool!  This style of preparation is not adequate!”

Plus, when I would take the SWTP LCLE practice exam a second or third time (trying to go over content again, as well as practicing answering test questions in a timed exam experience), I would easily remember what the right answer was from when I reviewed my wrong answers the first time.  So I learned the right answer to that question, but I didn’t really learn the important concept or the nuance to the question.

On the day of the test, I learned that the LCLE questions were longer than expected – I didn’t manage my time well. I had finished the practice exam with plenty of time to spare, so I was overconfident about my time.

The questions were also harder than expected – just to give one example, let’s imagine there’s a question about a new teenage client of yours reporting an episode of sexual abuse from her previous therapist.  There are so many layers to a question like this! 

•       You have to think about if this is a situation where you keep confidentiality or break confidentiality—would you have to report it, or would you encourage her to report it? 
•       If you report, would it be to the police or to the state licensing board or somewhere else? 
•       If sexual assault is a crime that takes away the victim’s own power and control, do you help give that sense of power and control back to your client and let her make the decision about reporting this or not? 
•       How much impact does the client’s specific age make?  Does it make a difference that she’s a minor?
•       How much does it matter that the alleged perpetrator is a therapist? 
•       How much does it matter if the alleged perpetrator has continued access to minors? 
•       Which factor is the most important piece that you have to think about here? 
•       Does that California-specific brochure, aptly named “Professional Therapy Never Includes Sex,” get given out in this instance? 

(... Y’all, I was not prepared for these types of questions.)

Generally, quite a few of the answers seemed to have two right answers, and I had a hard time narrowing them down.  I marked some that I answered but was unsure of, and I also had a list of the unanswered ones that I had skipped.  At the end, I went through all of the marked/unanswered questions – I answered the unanswered ones – and I changed some of the marked but answered ones.

So yes, you can see, this was not a recipe for success.  BUT!  I was successful in the second go around of the LCLE, so come back to read more about that.

Demoralized… no MORE!

Remember me?  Took the California BBS Law & Ethics exam, failed by one point, then fell off the face of the Earth?

 

Right around the time I posted last, in May 2016, my family’s childcare situation changed dramatically.  SO I had a lot less help with my two little kids, and therefore significantly less time to study and think about retaking the exam.

I did receive the Board of Behavioral Sciences letter at my PO Box sometime in the summer, giving me permission to register again to retake the exam. By the way, I still received lots of Chase spam mail at the PO Box the entire time, continually tricking me into thinking it was mail from the BBS, so it seems like calling Chase to remove my PO Box address didn't even work.

When I got the letter giving me permission I suppose I felt good that it wasn't lost in the mail and that the process was continuing, but I didn't feel eager or ready to start studying to take it again. 

All you test-preppers out there, you know what this is like. I did not know when I would find the time! Whenever I had babysitters available, there was hospice work to be done, and no free time ever serendipitously emerged for me to study. 

I finally realized after my older son started and adjusted to preschool and we had settled into a routine that I would need to intentionally make some child-free time so I could study and get a move on. Otherwise the winter holidays would approach, the new year would be here, and my test eligibility would expire in February, a year after I failed the LCLE the first time.

My intentional studying took place at a new space I found nearby, which is a quiet co-working center with on-site childcare. I grit my teeth, bought a package, dug my heels in, and got it done. I gave myself a month between when we started at the center (spending about 3 hours there at a time, once or twice a week) and when I scheduled my exam.

I took the BBS Law & Ethics exam (LCLE) in mid November and I PASSED!  Yes it felt good!

Next post I’ll write will discuss how I studied differently to pass this time. Tune in!

Current Status: Demoralized

I understand about California BBS/licensing regulations/red tape/understaffing, and I wasn’t expecting the licensing process to be easy or quick, but I wasn’t necessarily expecting this process to be so demoralizing.

I received the mass BBS email last week with title “***BBS Exam Update – Please Read Carefully***” and body of email stating “The BBS has concluded analyses for the following exams: LCSW Law & Ethics (LCLE) – Passing score: 34.”

You might remember I got a score of 34 in February when I took it.  I failed by one point.  Now they’re stating that passing score is 34. 

I thought this miiiiiiight have meant that there was renewed analysis of all the LCLE exams since the BBS first started giving it in January of this year. 

After all, they didn’t specify anywhere in any of these announcements (via email, Twitter, and Facebook) that this analysis is for only a specific group of test takers. 

They also did not send an email like this when analysis was completed for the Jan-March group of test takers, so this type of announcement was unprecedented.

I reached out to BBS with my question – does this mean that someone who scored a 34 in February is now considered to have passed?  I emailed, commented on their Facebook announcement, and responded to their Twitter announcement.  They haven’t responded to my email at all, but the response via Facebook and Twitter was “No.”

I understand the process—they tweaked the exam for the April-May group of test takers, and after analysis, there is a different passing score for this exam version than the version I took in Feb.

But honestly, I think my hopes have been raised and then crushed enough in this process.  They could have just clarified “For candidates who took the exam in April and May” in the initial announcement to be as clear as possible.

I also received a notification about new mail in the PO Box the day after the BBS announcement, while I was still waiting their response about what it meant if I got a 34 earlier in the year. 

After hearing their “No,” I felt consoled that at least the BBS was sending me my authorization to register for the re-take of Law & Ethics.  I’ll get the permission, refresh my memory on the content, just take it, pass, and move on, I thought.  It has to be the BBS, It can’t be Chase AGAIN, I thought to myself, since the Chase rep promised me that now my PO address is removed from their solicitations. 

My husband checked the PO Box and texted me a picture of a Chase advertisement in my PO Box.  HA!  Hahahahahahha.

I feel like the BBS and Chase are working together to haze me into the exclusive LCSW club. 

In the meantime, I just continue to wait to receive permission to take Law & Ethics exam again.  Fun times in the licensing process! 

Where Have I Been?

It’s been a month since I last posted!  Where have I been, huh?!

Kate McAk IG

Well, across the country, for one.  We took a trip out to Chicago to see family, and undergoing travel preparations for a family of four is a time-consuming feat, not to mention the days spent out of town and then the time playing catch-up after our return.  Good news is that both boys were great on the planes and we also had a wonderful time with family.

BY THE WAY shout-out to my aunt, who I saw at a family party, and inquired about why I hadn’t posted in a while!  That, coupled with the fact that I realized this morning that I had 3 comments on the blog itself from unknown readers, feels very motivational for me to keep up!  I have readers!

Reflecting on this past month, there have also been some seasonal activities that kept me busier than usual lately (I’m a Room Parent for my 2 year old’s preschool class, so there was heavy involvement in Teacher Appreciation Week earlier in May) but the main reason is two-fold:

Kate McAk IG

Hospice work.  I work per diem as a social worker with a hospice agency, and my caseload has been ramping back up since I returned from maternity leave in February.  I now have about twice as many patients on my caseload as I had earlier this year.  I’m definitely happy with this, since in the per diem world, more patients = more income, but I was somehow surprised at how much more time it took each week.

It’s as if I have units of the day for my professional life, and hospice has been using all of them, with little to no time left to study and blog.  And I can’t exactly borrow units from anywhere else.  From where would I take them? 

The time spent caring for my baby, my toddler, my husband?  Non-negotiable. 

Managing the house, cooking, cleaning?  Hmm, I already do the bare minimum with cleaning. 

The time spent on my own health and my sleep?  Sometimes this is compromised, but it shouldn’t be. 

Time for extended family and friends? That’s already neglected far too often.

I know I’m not the only one struggling to find a balance between all of these.  It seems like every other little family I know is similarly hustling.  I imagine it’s also a familiar tune for other social workers out there reading this – navigating spending your time doing the actual social work job that you have and also preparing for the LCSW exam.

Kate McAk IG

 The other reason is that I’m still in limbo with the Board of Behavioral Sciences.  I can see that they cashed my $100 check to process my application to re-take Law & Ethics exam, but although we are past the mandated 90-day waiting period, I have not yet received official word from them that I can schedule my exam. 

There’s even an option on PSI’s website to select “register for a RE-test” in connection with my 2/10/16 Law & Ethics exam, but I get an error message when I try, because clearly the permission has to first get to PSI from BBS.

A friend of mine who passed Law & Ethics in March is also waiting around for BBS to send permission to the ASWB for him to sit for the ASWB Clinical exam, so it seems there’s a backlog going on… and frankly that makes me lose motivation.

A couple weeks ago I got notification about new mail in my PO box, so I thought it may have been BBS sending me info on registering for my re-test.  Nope, it was Chase junk mail again.  HA!  I was able to talk to Chase Solicitations department and remove that PO box address from their mailing list, since I already had to call Chase about fraudulent charges/stolen identity on my credit card (oh yeah, that’s another thing I’ve been dealing with).

So that’s where I am—just acknowledging my current place in the LCSW process.  Putting it aside a little bit while I wait for BBS permission again.  To be continued!

Next Steps

If you failed your BBS California Law & Ethics exam, here is information about what to do next. 

First, you need to take additional courses before you can re-take the Law & Ethics exam.  Specifically, you need 12 hours worth of California law and ethics courses.

You can take courses in person or do it more quickly, and on your own time, online.  I chose to do mine through the NASW-California chapter online.  I selected four courses, which added up to the total 12 hours.

I even got to do one course for free!  Here is a course on the NASW Code of Ethics, worth 2 CEUs (continuing education hours), at no charge.

I paused for a minute, wondering if this course on the national code would count specifically toward the California requirement, but the course details specify that it is eligible to be used towards the 18 hours on law and ethics that California ASWs need to accrue, as well as the biannual 6 hours for California LCSWs renewing their license, so I think we’re OK.

Image Credit Pixabay

The letter informing me that I failed didn’t give a lot of instruction on where to find the application to re-apply for the exam—it just directed me to the general BBS website.  I had to click around for a while before I found it under Forms and Publications.  Let me save you some time -- here is the Request for Re-Examination.

You’ll need to fill out the application, write a check for $100, and include printed certificates of completion for the courses in the packet.  I also scanned a copy of the application to keep for my own records.

I sent my packet to the BBS with a tracking number and return receipt, so I can verify that they received it, and then I plan to monitor my checking account to see when they cash my check.

BBS recently updated their site with processing times – minimum of 30 business days for Request for Re-Examination.  There is also a mandated 90-day waiting period between exams.  That puts me at taking the exam no earlier than mid- or late-May.

When I get approval, I’ll sign up for a test spot online, go back to the PSI location, reflect on the benefits of taking this exam, and do it again! (…and pass!)

Saving Money

On top of the reasons why the social work life can be challenging, we as a profession also don’t tend to make a great amount of income.  Save your hard-earned money while you’re in the LCSW process by following these tips.

Image Credit Kate McHugh Akbar

PO Box

The link above discusses why to use a PO box for BBS correspondence.  To do that, you can go online to price check different sizes of boxes.  In my experience all of my local post offices were sold out of the smallest and most affordable boxes.  I knew I didn’t need an expensive, larger box – I only get mail a couple times a year.  Instead, I chose to get a small PO Box in a neighboring town.  I then utilized the Real Mail Notification™ program that emailed me whenever I got new mail, so I only had to go there when I knew there was mail.

Online Courses

You may need to take courses before you can apply for your LCSW exam-eligibility (like me, since my MSW was from out of state) or take additional courses before you can re-take the Law & Ethics exam (me, again).  One of the many providers for these courses is the California chapter of the NASW.

If you are an NASW member, you can get a discount on all the courses, anytime.  Additionally, NASW-CA sends out occasional emails with discount codes.  As perusal of my email history shows that these get sent out on Thursdays, so if you’re about to buy some courses on a Wednesday, wait a day and see if a new coupon code gets sent out.  Sign up for the NASW-CA emails.

Right now, in honor of Social Work month, NASW-CA is giving 10% off all courses using code 2016SWMonth – add courses to your cart here.  Only through March 31, 2016.

Exam Prep

Social Work Test Prep is doing a special coupon code for March 2016 to celebrate Social Work month, and it's for 15% off exams and bundles -- just enter SWMONTH15 at checkout. Or, if anyone sees this after March ends and still wants a coupon code, you can use SWLEP10 for 10% off.  If both are expired, you should “like” SWTP on Facebook because they post occasional discounts there, too. 

Free Ethics Course!

Want a totally FREE ethics course?  Here is a course on the NASW Code of Ethics, worth 2 CEUs (continuing education hours), completely free! 

Both California (where I’m aiming to achieve my LCSW) and Illinois (where I previously held an LMSW) required a certain number of Ethics CEUs each and every renewal, so this free course is useful for so many social workers. If you get as excited about this as I did, you’re welcome! 

Any other money saving tips you want to add?