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Pearson will begin allowing people to reschedule their postponed exams soon ("On May 1st, if conditions allow."). From the Pearson site:

Q.When can I reschedule my exam?

A.You can attempt to reschedule your exam online now. You'll only be able to register for an exam if testing is available on that date. If you do not see an appointment available for a specific date at a specific test center, testing may not yet be available there due to local conditions. Please check back regularly for updated availability.

Once testing centers are open, it's likely to get pretty busy. If you're planning to take the social work licensing exam sometime soon, it's probably wise to get a date as soon as you can. That said, it's also wise to closely track how your community is doing with COVID-19. It's important to take the ASWB exam and get licensed. It's even more important to stay healthy.

Meanwhile, it's never too soon to prep via practice, practice, and more practice. Here's a coupon that will get you SWTP practice tests at a steep discount: STUDYSAFE20 (Be sure to hit the green arrows next to the coupon box to see the discount register.)

Thanks for all you're doing. Thanks for being a social worker.

Stay safe, happy studying, and good luck on the exam!

The coronavirus pandemic has shut down social work exam testing just like it's shut down everything else. When will you be able to finally take the exam? There are lots of guesses out there, but the answer is that no one knows for sure.

Here's exam administrator Pearson's page of FAQs regarding the current situation. Included:

Q.My window to certify is expiring soon. What should I do?

A.We understand you may be on a deadline to take your exam. If you cannot find seat availability due to significant scheduling changes in response to COVID-19, please reach out to your university or exam sponsor about next steps. Please keep the exam cancellation email you received from Pearson VUE.

That is, contact your state board. But don't expect to hear from them any time soon. They're also likely on lock-down.

That all is to say: stay safe and patient. And, if you find yourself with some extra time, practice, practice, practice. Here's a coupon code that will save you an additional 20% through the crisis: STUDYSAFE20

Here's a free practice question for the social work licensing exam. See how you do:

During a meeting with a social worker, a client suddenly becomes enraged. She stands up, slams her fist on the desk, and throws a book across the room, breaking a picture frame. How should the clinician FIRST respond?

A. Shout for help.

B. Order the client out of the office.

C. Speak in a calm, soothing manner.

D. Tell the client to sit back down in order to discuss whatever is upsetting her.

What do you think?

Not sure? Sometimes the best way to approach questions like these isn't to think back to textbook teachings. It's to imagine yourself in the situation. A client starts acting out, throwing things, breaking things. What would you do?

Shout for help? Shouting for help is a valid option if the clinician is or is about to be physically attacked. But in this situation, it risks escalating the angry behavior.

Order the client out of the office? If a clinician orders a client to do something, the client may interpret this as an attempt to gain general control over her behavior, and may (most likely) become angrier.

Discuss issues? The client is probably past the point of being able to talk rationally about the source of her upset. Talking about it now will probably only lead to more rage.

Which leaves just one answer, however vague it may be: speak in a calm, soothing manner. This is the correct answer. Most people cannot maintain intense anger in the face of a calm, soothing response.

Is that what you'd do? Is that how you answered? Either way, you're now that much closer to being prepared for the ASWB exam. To get much more prepared, sign up for SWTP's complete, 170-question practice tests.

Our tests have rationales, like the ones above, for each answer of each question. Plus a suggested study link for more details about the question topic. Like this one about handling patient (aka client) anger.

Happy studying and good luck on the exam!

A new ASWB exam practice question video walk-through. This one's about social worker burnout.

A psychiatric hospital social worker tells her supervisor she's been feeling irritable, exhausted, restless at night, and unsure of her ability to do her job anymore. She's thinking of quitting. The supervisor suggests a new hobby, some exercise, and time with friends. How is the supervisor most likely conceptualizing the social worker's complaints?

Get the offered answers plus strategies about how to narrow down to the correct answer. Follow SWTP on YouTube or Facebook to get these as they post. For complete, 170-question practice tests for some serious ASWB exam prep, sign up!

Happy New Year! It's 2018! It's the year you get licensed!

With the new year comes the new NASW Code of Ethics and the new ASWB content blueprints. Both kicked in for social workers and exam preppers on 1/1/18.

SWTP is ready for them both!

We've updated our exams to reflect the new categories and new category-to-category weighting in the ASWB outline (aswb.org has details, if you're curious). And we've updated and added new ethics questions to each exam and the Ethics Booster to reflect changes to the Code of Ethics.

To read more about the changes to the Code (the more vital of the two updates for all social workers), read the new version of the code linked above, and/or take a look at these two helpful summaries:

• Ethics Alive! The 2017 NASW Code of Ethics: What's New?, by Allan Barsky
• Eye on Ethics: New NASW Code of Ethics Standards for the Digital Age, by Frederic G. Reamer.

Most of the significant additions are related to the use of tech for social workers. Email, Googling clients, etc.  We'll post a free new-code question or two on these pages soon--stay tuned!  With the articles above, you'll have everything new you need to know to be ready for practice (and real) ethics questions. Remember, there's a lot of ethics on the exam. Be ready. Practice tests will help.

While we were updating, we also checked every single suggested study link to ensure you're getting the best possible additional information on all of the topics covered on the exams. (If you find a better one for any question, please don't hesitate to let us know.)

If you want to get licensed in 2018, we want to help you! One way to get started: Make a public pledge to pass the exam this year: Retweet SWTP here or share via SWTP on Facebook.  "This year I get licensed!"

Ready to start? Get underway with real-time, realistic SWTP exam practice by choosing exams here.

Happy studying, good luck, and congratulations in advance!