Have you taken the social work exam using these or any other resources? How’d it go? What helped? What didn’t? What do you suggest to the next wave of hopefuls?
Haven’t gotten there yet? How’s it going? How are you studying? If you signed up for a course, how is it? How many hours a week are you studying? What would you advise people who are just starting out?
Check in @ comments or via email: socialworkprep [at] gmail.com
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Where can I find used study material for Gerry Grossman?
Hello everyone! My name is Hope Koskey, I just passed the WCV on Monday and I am thrilled! Here is my long story! I am currently looking for contract therapist work (ideally with children) around central LA. Best of luck to all who are studying. Also there’s a listserve clinicalvignettestudy@yahoogroups.com, there’s alot of helpful info there as well. This group on facebook is a great idea! I am also selling a ton of used study materials. Contact me if interested.
Dear group,
I have been dreaming of the day when I would be able to write this email to all of you! I have been a part of this group, and reading regularly for the past 2 1/2 years. I am so so please to announce that I passed my LCSW WCV this morning in Carson!! What a wonderful feeling and sense of accomplishment!
For me, the licensing process has been a long time coming! I am trying to think of some sage advice to pass along and the most important part of my process was just good old-fashioned hard work and dedication. I have spent hours and hours and hours at my kitchen table, in airports, in cars, on my couch, in bed, on the living room floor, even at the beach…with my materials and flash cards. What helped me manage my anxiety was just getting to the point where I knew the material inside and out from continuous study. I will try to keep this brief…sharing about what worked for me, as I know it helped me reading all the messages from folks who passed.
For the first exam…taking the Grossman 21 hour course was absolutely essential for me to be able to flesh out what I needed to know and what I didn’t. I literally took the course 4 times in it’s entirety. (yes, that meant sacrificing many weekends!) I also took his mock exam onsite which was helpful. I also used the AATBS mock exams. After I knew what I needed to know, committing it to memory was just a matter of spending hours upon hours doing the practice questions. For both exams I made study sheets and flash cards detailing the info from all of the questions I got wrong. I literally took all of the sections law and ethics, bio psychosocial assessment, theories, DSM, etc. and made flashcards and took them everywhere with me. It took me the longest to learn the theories and different interventions and such for each. Going to the GG class repeatedly helped with this, as I just wasn’t grasping it at first. But repetition, repetition, etc……test banks over and over….and I did it! It is definitely possible. With both tests, I had learned so much information, that it got to the point where I was excited to test, just to get it over with and purge all the info I have!
Let me say that during the process of studying for test one, my Mother passed away and six months later I resigned from my position as a therapist, due to my own emotional instability. I passed my written in June of ’08. Then I made a decision to take 3 months off of studying completely in order to truly get a break from the ‘mental health’ world, and focus on my own mental health. I really got burnt out from studying so hard for exam one and all of life’s happenings. I resumed study in September ’08 and luckily I hadn’t forgotten too much. I decided not to attend any strategy classes for the vignette exam, but I did take yet another round of the Grossman 21 hour written course just to refresh my mind on all of the info. The classes there are excellent and one can take them as many times as s/he wishes!
After the refresher course, I used the AATBS strategy manual to learn the strategies and I stuck with their 0-1-2 rating system throughout, which worked well for me. I purchased their online testbank as well. Much like the first exam, my scores started in the 40-50th percentile. The increase of my scores was a very slow and tedious process. Getting into the mind frame for test 2 was a huge learning curve for me, but much like test one, repetition and practice did it. I will say that I really struggled with learning and practicing the vignette strategies. I got burned out again on practice questions and took abt. 3 week long study breaks between September and December. After thinking I was prepared….(haha) and even scheduing a test date in November, I took the AATBS mock-exam #2 and got a 42% on it just a few days before my scheduled exam. I was devastated (i think i even cried…lol, out of frustration) I was so ready to be done! So I told myself I wasn’t fooling around, I was going to take the exam only once, and I was going to be SURE I passed.
So I canceled my date, and realized I needed more materials. I had memorized a lot of the AATBS questions after the second time. So I purchased the GG single exam….took it, scored in the 50′s, freaked out again, and decided to buy his whole test bank! Then I spent all of November and December going through his 8 practice exams (usually 20 questions per day), taking detailed notes of all my wrong answers (there was so many considering each question is like 16 questions in one!) Then I did several more of the AATBS questions to stay familiar with the “language” of each company. A week before my exam I did not do any more practice questions (i was SO burnt out on doing them) and I studied my notes exclusively, first reading over, then reading and highlighting, then making flashcards from the highlighted materials, then learning the flashcards. This helped.
To manage my anxiety, besides over-studying, I did cardio workouts, and yesterday I did yoga and got a massage and did not study at all! I also got in the mind frame that I was going to pass and imagined myself passing. I made cards and put them around my apt. with my name and the title LCSW and positive stuff like that. I told no one except my boyfriend that I was going to test. I arrived in Carson approx. 50 minutes early. Better safe than sorry! I reviewed a bit in my car and took deep deep breaths. During the tutorial, I folded my papers into 16 squares each and drew my answer grids which I used for every question. I also used my headphones as the center was crowded. I was surprised, even after all of my intense studying, I still felt very challenged by the questions and struggled through the exam. I was sure on about 8 or 9 of the questions, the rest I found hard.. The correct answers did not jump out at me as I imagined they would. The language was not as convoluted as some of the more wordy q’s in AATBS. Many of the choices seemed to have a clearly wrong element in each, which I think both companies (maybe AATBS a bit more) do a good job of practicing. I found the rationale for AATBS answers to be more detailed and helped me develop a frame of mind and strategy system for selecting an answer. I won’t say one is more similar or helpful for the real test. Both helped immensely. None of the info in the actual vignettes was off the wall, they are very comparable to the practice vignettes. During the test I was unsure of how I was doing, I had to consciously manage my anxiety! The time limit was a challenge for me as well, I found myself mulling over usually 2 different answers and saying well this one cannot be correct b/c of this, but this other one is also clearly incorrect…..finally in the interest of time I had to force myself just to make decisions and move! I finished with 10 min.. extra and did not go back. I was just done. It was INTENSE!!
Ok, this email is getting very very long! Hope it helps! Please email me with any questions and I will be glad to answer! I am a spiritual person, I do believe my guardian angles watch out for me, and I do believe the two beautiful birds around my car this morning were special. I prayed a lot…..did a lot of self care….journaling, etc. But over all, I have to say it was mostly a matter of hard work and repetetive, time-consuming study. The practice q’s taught me how to reason in the vignette-world type of way. I memorized a lot of info (legal vs. ethical…etc) but I had to apply that reasoning to situations in which the clear factual correct answers were not there. …if that makes sense. Good luck to all of you. It is SO possible! Also I will have used materials up for sale soon. I am moving over to the new therapy networking site and hope to see you all over there! I’m also excited to get back to work! …..AND to hit the beach this summer with NO flashcards in tow…lol! Thanks so much for all of your participation in this group….it was essential!
Hope Koskey, LCSW !!!!! :-) :-)
Hello all,
Thank you all so so much for your warm congratulations! I feel so happy! I received a few questions and wanted to post one response that I think may be helpful to others. Regarding the psychotherapy networking group….I created a profile last week and now cannot find the address.. From my understanding, this list serve (clinicalvignettestudy@yahoo.com) is going to end and the new site/network has been created. Someone please correct me if I am wrong and also please re-send the website address. Thank you :-)
Ok, so first let me start by saying that I think both GG and AATBS are wonderful prep companies. I would not recommend using one over the other. I used both for both exams (so expensive I know!), but I think it is a worthwhile investment. Having both of the somewhat different languages to become familiar with was really helpful to me. I think GG covers a wider breadth of factual knowledge, which is essential, and AATBS has very very in-depth rationale which is also essential. AATBS exam # 2 for example was SUPER difficult and words the questions in a very advanced convoluted manner, this helped me train my brain on how to decipher and decode this style of language. GG has great rationale as well and I love the 8 different exams, which allow for different scenarios regarding the same concept so I didn’t memorize the questions like I did with AATBS. Both great options!! I’m glad I used both.
In response to a general question from a listserve participant I wrote this: From what I understand the exams for LCSW’s and MFT’s are quite different. For LCSW’s the second exam, the study materials focus very little on the different theories. I think MFT’s have to know them. I did find using the acronyms helpful, especially in the beginning. The GG acronyms for Law vs. Ethics were essential to me. I used to write them out before beginning the practice tests, and after a while, I actually didn’t even need to write them out b/c I had memorized the differences. But yes, I think knowing the materials inside and out helps a lot, that way, no matter what is on the test, you can be confident that you will know the information.
And yes, crisis situations, assessment, treatment planning, differentiation of diagnosis, goals vs. interventions, interventions in the beginning, middle, and late stages, the ins and outs of consent to treat a minor…those are all areas where I focused a lot. I think acronyms are a great way to learn them, or whatever one needs to do to get them committed to memory.
And again, as far as theories go, I cannot speak to what MFT’s should focus on. A good indicator is focusing on all areas covered by whatever testing company you’re using. The tricky thing about the exam, for me, was that it’s only 40 questions. I ended up having a lot more info stored in my brain then what I was actually tested on. But for me, that strategy is fool-proof, no suprises, and works!
The other piece, besides knowing your stuff, is just teaching your brain how to reason through a vignette, no easy feat! I believe repetition of practice questions, familiarizing yourself with how the questions are asked and answered, is the only way to learn it. Three major themes that helped me throught are:
1. Case Specificity – stay focused on the bits and pieces presented in the exhibits!! For example if you have 2 answer choices like “parenting classes where joe can learn parenting skills while sally is at work” vs “social activities to break the depressive cycle and improve joe’s mood” — you MUST refer back to the exhibit in these situations, and while in this vignette, Joe accuses Sally of neglecting their son (so you know parenting and possible neglect is an issue…although the vignette says nothing about HIS parenting skills needing help) he also presents with serious depressive symptoms that need to be addressed, so that is the answer that is more specific to the vignette. Go by the vignette and look for those small details!
2.Read the questions carefully and answer only what the questions asks (ie – if a questions asks you for a complete treatment plan, you need to select an answer that includes interventions in the beginning, middle, AND end phase of treatment, even though there may be an answer choice with 4 beautifully illustrated interventions for the beginning and middle phase…which will probably be worded in a better sounding more comprehensive way, but it’s not what the question is asking for!)…that is kind of what I mean by becoming familiar with the “how” of the test, learning how the test thinks and learning the “tricks.”
3. Watch out for word-trick answers – one small word can change the whole answer!! You MUST learn the language of these tests…….(which by the way the AATBS materials do a GREAT job of prepping for) for example the difference between “x factor is acknowledged as contributing to” vs “x factor may be contributing to.” Or the trick of an answer choice offering a referral to the person they were referred from, or an answer choice mixing up the clients names like “refer sally to outpatient drug tx” when it’s her daughter susan who is abusing drugs.
For me, the only way to learn this language and thought process was repetition of the practice questions. First I made the mistakes, then learned why I made them (by reading very thoroughly the rationale, taking notes on my mistakes no matter how small), and then increasing my competency to where I was aware enough to be able to look out for the common mistakes and catch them in the answer sets. The way I took the test at the end of 4 months of studying was completely different than the way I did in the beginning. Part of it is knowing your factual stuff and the other part is knowing how to think like the test and avoid those “tricks.”
OK, hope this helps! Again, it is SO possible! Best of luck! Hope Koskey, LCSW :-)
I took the exam and scored a 74% passing in NY is a 75%! I am unsure what else to do at this point :( I now have major test anxiety and will focus on “test taking strategies”. I found I was using “real life practice” when answering some of the questions instead of answering the way “the perfect social worker” would have answered. I realize its all about test taking strategies! Dont judge your ability to practice as a social worker on the way you score on this exam!
People have told me to mainly focus on online exams. I hope it works because that is what I am doing.
I am trying to study ten hours a week using AATBS Testmaster. I like it. But I cannot recommend it unless I have taken the test. Which is *gulp* really soon!