Gerry Grossman is the founder of Gerry Grossman Seminars, one
of the small handful of well-respected exam-prep
companies. He talked to SWTP via email about how he came
to be who he is and what the company offers.
What's your background? What do you do
now?
I am a Marriage Family Therapist and have been licensed for 25
years. My clinical training primarily focused on working with
families and young children. For a number of years as an intern and
then as a newly licensed therapist, I worked in a therapeutic
pre-school with children who were severely emotionally disturbed or
had significant behavioral issues. For the past 26 years, I've been
conducting an enrichment group at various pre-schools in which I
advanced emotional literacy by talking about various feeling
states. Children draw pictures of themselves, their families and
depict stories that address the feelings that we are discussing.
I'm also a trained hypnotherapist and have hypnotized thousands of
people, primarily as it relates to the examination process.
When I was preparing for my MFT exam, I was dissatisfied with
the nature of the examination services available to me at that time
and felt that I could do a better job in meeting the individual
needs of students in a more related way that when was offered to
me. Over the past 25 years, Gerry Grossman Seminars has trained
thousands of therapists for their licensing exams and we provide
licensees with live CE presentations as well as educational
materials that can be purchased for independent study. We started
training LCSW candidates for their licensing exams eight years ago.
Historically, LCSW examinees have not had a high passing rate on
their exams. In particular, I remember going to a BBS meeting and
it was stated that only 32% of LCSW written candidates had passed
their exam that round. LCSW candidates were coming to us out of
their frustration and because their MFT colleagues were very
satisfied with the services we provide. Initially, I began to tutor
LCSWs for their licensing exam. I was struck by the significant
overlap between the exams as well as some of the differences. It
was my firm belief that if LCSW candidates utilized the
comprehensive methodology that is characteristic of our training
that they would too pass their exams at the same high rates as our
MFT candidates. This has proven to be the case as we have over a
90% passing rate with our LCSW candidates during the last round of
the examinations June 1-November 30, 2009. Currently, we offer a 21
hour LCSW-specific course for Standard Written Exam and a 22 hour
LCSW-specific Clinical Vignette Exam. These classes are being
offered in Los Angeles, Burlingame, and San Clemente.
We've worked very diligently in developing our LCSW specific
material: We have a book on Biopsychosocial Assessment, as
well as a book on Resource Coordination. Additionally we have
audio presentations on both these topics. We have
LCSW-specific law and ethic flash cards. A very important component
of our program is the experiential learning that occurs on our test
banks. We have LCSW-specific test banks for both the Standard
Written and Clinical Vignette exams. Currently we have 6 complete
practice exams online for the Written test bank and 8 complete
practice exams for the Clinical Vignette. For the Standard Written
Exam, treatment planning and treatment represents 51% of the exam
and we are well positioned with the materials we provide. We have
theory flash cards, a theoretical comparison chart, audio
presentations on Object Relations, Bowen, Experiential, Structural,
Cognitive Behavioral, Strategic, Gestalt, Solution Focused and
Narrative.
How do you go about writing sample questions? How do you
keep tabs on the real exam as it changes over time?
We base our curriculum on the LCSW Standard Written and Clinical
Vignette Candidate Handbooks. In a very thorough and methodical
manner, we have gone through every item that is in these documents
and first created education materials that reflect each behavioral
anchor and then once we have developed the materials, base
questions off of them. I was heartened by one candidate who called
up during his studying process and realized that the progression of
our biopsychosocial book mirrored the sequence of the BBS knowledge
statements. Although specific exam questions change in each six
month period, the objectives of the exam and the percentage
emphasis that the exam is testing for remains the same. The exam
significantly changes when there is a new occupational analysis a
process that occurs between every 5 and 7 years.
A last question: How do you expect the DSM-V
rollout will affect the exam--will the BBS rework all its test
questions immediately...will GGS?
In the past, when the DSM-III-R was changed to the DSM-IV, it
took the BBS a considerable amount of time to implement new
questions. So I would predict that the change won't be
immediate. Also, please keep in mind that the DSM-V is
scheduled to be released in 2013, so we've got lots of time to do
other things.
Find Gerry Grossman Seminars on the web: GerryGrossman.com.
