Social Work Test Prep

Social Work Test Prep talked to Stan Taubman of Berkeley Training Associates via email about how he found himself in the exam-prep field, what BTA does, and how they do it:

What’s your background? How did you become a test-prep person?

I am a clinical social worker, with an MSW from UCLA and a PhD in Social Work from the University of Southern California.

In the 7 year period between my MSW and entering the PhD program I had clinical experience in child welfare, medical social work, private practice, and at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute in outpatient, inpatient and day treatment programs. It was during this period of time that I took my own license exam. Although I had been very successful in my clinical practice I was amazed to see how little preparation I had received for licensure from my degree program.

Then, when I was in my very vigorous PhD program I learned to articulate so much of what I had been experiencing (but couldn’t easily articulate) in my clinical practice. I took copious notes in my doctoral classes, and thoroughly poured through the clinical practice literature and research in my doctoral studies. I remember how I wished I had this information when I had taken my own license exam.

Then, when a friend told me how ill prepared she felt she was for her forthcoming license exam, I offered to type up and present her with the relevant portions of my notes. Happily she found that these materials helped her articulate what she had previously known by intuition…..just what she needed for her license exam preparation. I was able to use my clinical experience to understand the issues of the license exam, and use my academic training to articulate these issues in a way that others could clearly understand.

I gave her permission to lend these notes to some friends who were also preparing for their license exams, and they came back with the same positive feedback. From that point forward requests to see these materials snowballed, without any advertising on my part. It then became clear that I had the seeds of a thorough License Exam Home Study Course.

Subsequently I began teaching clinical practice classes at USC, San Diego State, and UC Berkeley and found that, unlike many others on faculty who had strictly academic backgrounds, I was able to present material in a way that would be useful to my students in their future license exams, as well as teaching what’s needed for day to day clinical practice. At that point I added workshops to our written exam preparation materials.

Initially I didn’t set out to create a business, but Berkeley Training Associates is something that grew in response to demand out of these experiences.

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