Can you pass the licensure exam without laying out a lot of money? Maybe, sort of. You can save a bunch, turns out, leaning on the web for a lot of materials. Some have been posted here: practice questions, flash cards, mnemonics. The early episodes of the Social Work Podcast cover a lot of same ground as the big company prep CDs do. The books you probably already have from school cover most of what AATBS or BTA or Gerry Grossman cram into their materials (think Corey, think Hepworth, Rooney, et al). The NASW Code of Ethics is sitting all over the web. Relaxation techniques, another part of the pay-program package, are another web-based, no-charge item.
The problem, if any, is with amounts. You’ll probably need more practice questions and less other material. AATBS melts down all of social work into about 900 pages (including a bunch of section quizzes and practice tests)–less reading than Corey + Hepworth + the code + whatever state-specific legal stuff you can find + other books just in case.
You can probably track down the course books for free (a post-test friend?) or cheap (craigslist, ebay)–though they may be all marked up. So, if you’ve got it, this is where your money goes: the online practice questions. AATBS’s “TestMaster,” for one, offers five 200-question tests with rationales for each answer. You can take each test several times. (If you can consistently score 80%+ on retaking the exams, they say you’re ready to go.) It’s the same with the other courses, give or take.
That’s one not-yet-done-prepping person’s opinion. Done it differently? Let me know (socialworkprep [at] gmail.com).
Continued good luck to us all.
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I need to study for the MSW exam. I need a book so I’m really shopping around for a cheap one. Which one would you recommend? I don’t want to be misguided with wrong materials.