How to Prepare for the ASWB Licensing Exam

Are you preparing and studying for the ASWB exam? If so, I want to encourage you to stay focused on studying and to get connected with an reputable Study Prep Program, if you can, as it really helps. Keep in mind that you should access the ASWB website and read the information provided about test taking strategies. You should also purchase the ASWB Practice Test, as this will be the best replica of the actual exam given you. What I’ve learned from my experience is that it’s important to study everything that ASWB has enclosed in the KSAs, which stands for Knowledge, Skills, and Ability. When it comes to test day, you don't know what version of the exam you will get, so you want to prepare well. ASWB noted that there are four variations of the exam. These exams are shuffled regularly, and you could get any one of those versions.

Make Up of the Exam:
When I took My ASWB Practice Exam, I was grateful that, I passed. Going in, I did not know what to expect when I took it. However, to my surprise what I found was that the majority of the exam WERE BASED ON ALL REASONING QUESTIONS!! At first I was disappointed because it appeared to be nothing that I studied. But after seeing that I had passed, it only made sense that I review all the test questions and rationales to get an understanding of what I did right/wrong, and to gain an understanding of what the ASWB was looking for. What I quickly learned was that the exam required that I had a basic understanding of all the KSAs. That included: medications, law, theories, interventions, problem solving, crisis intervention, life cycle, stages of development, parenting etc.

How to Prepare and Study:
Yes the Practice Test was massive. But, I had the help of a prep program, you tube videos, podcasts, and study tools that Ive created to assist me through it all. I can not tell you which program to use, but I will encourage to select the one that speaks to your learning needs as well as provide you with the information that You will needed to be successful on the exam. I worked on becoming confident as a test taker and I did lots of research to sharpened my understanding of why we do what we do as social worker. With this newfound confidence, I gain the ability to work through the reasoning questions, for the most part with ease and very little anxiety.

Managing Frustrations and Anxiety:
When it came to understanding what frustrated me about answering reasoning questions, I realized that I did not understand how to RANK THE ANSWERS CHOICES IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE. Seeing the answers, I got frustrated because I knew I could answer them, but I got tied up on the proper way to rank them; by order of importance. In all honesty, I don't think I would have passed the exam if I did not know my KSAs. My advice to you, is to find a good study system. It could be gathering content related material or participating in a prep program. What ever you do, make sure your information includes the ASWB KSAs.

Also learn how to read and answer the questions. This skill is developed by understanding “Higher Order Thinking.” The ASWB uses Higher Order test questions for a reason. These questions were designed so that you cannot just answer by simple recall or by reading the information “verbatim” from the textbook. Higher-order questions expects that you to think beyond the literal questions. It requires critical thinking skills because these types of questions expects you to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information instead of simply recalling facts.

Remember there are so many ways you can approach this exam and prepare for it. What’s important is that you find a way that works best for you, stay positive along the way, and remember the exam is not meant to hurt you but to build and establish competent social works that love what they do.

This is just my bit of Advice and my opinion only, and not the facts! Now...

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