LSW stands for Licensed Social Worker. It most states that offer
it, an LSW requires passing the Bachelors level ASWB exam.
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What states offer an LSW accreditation?
Among the states that offer LSW or LSW-like accreditation are
Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, MIssissippi,
Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
West Virginia.
Check your state licensing board--a quick internet search
away--to learn about designations in your state.
For many states, Bachelors exam passing gets your an LBSW. In
Maryland and Oklahoma, you're an LSWA. In Louisiana, you're an RSW.
And it Oregon and RBSW.
In Colorado, LSWs take the Masters level exam. If you're in
the Centenial State, try that link for Masters exam details.
It's alphabet soup. But the Bachelors exam you have to take is
the same regardless of what state you're in and regardless of what
title you get when you pass the exam.
The thing for you to focus on: passing the LSW exam!
What's on the LSW Exam?
The Bachelors exam, like all of the ASWB social work licensing
exams, consists of 170 multiple choice questions to be completed
over four hours. The ASWB publishes a content outline that gives a
rough estimation of what to expect to encounter on the LSW exam.
The major categories, and the amount they're each weighted, are
here:
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, DIVERSITY, AND
BEHAVIOR IN THE ENVIRONMENT 25%
ASSESSMENT 29%
INTERVENTIONS WITH CLIENTS/CLIENT SYSTEMS 26%
PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS, VALUES, AND ETHICS 20%
As you can see, the categories are fairly evenly balanced.
Effective Bachelors exam prep necessarily ranges over a wide array
of soical work topics.
What are LSW Exam questions like?
Questions are designed to be answerable by a beginning social
worker. They are meant to include simple, straightforward language,
avoiding extra verbiage and trickery. For most LSW exam questions,
you'll be able to easily narrow down answers to two possible
correct answers. After that, it's often difficult to discern which
is the better of two decent answers. Practicing with full-length
practice tests will help sharpen your skills in that regard and
make you more exam-ready.
Try this one out:
A school social worker meets
with a parent and child. The child has been refusing to come to
school at least one day per week for the past two months. The
social worker wants to gather some subjective data about the
client's school refusal. Which of the following is an example of
subjective data?
A. The client's
grades.
B. The child's attendance at school.
C. The client's daily ratings of anxiety.
D. The client's IQ score.
Know the answer? In this case, you can deduce the answer, even
if you don't remember the difference between objective and
subjective data, by asking yourself, "Which one doesn't belong."
Grades, attendance, and IQ are all measurements rendered by others.
The only one of these data reported by the client--of the child's
subjective inner state--is a daily rating of anxiety.
Rationale: Subjective data--such as a person's feelings--are
phenomena that can't be witnessed by others; objective data are
those that can be measured by outside observation. The client's
grades are objective data, given by other people. The child's
attendance can be recorded, and comes under the heading of
objective data. The client's IQ score is measurable, and therefore
an example of objective data.
The client's self-reporting about anxiety is subjective data,
since no outside observer can measure the client's feelings. The
answer is C.
Preparing for the LSW Exam
How have you prepared for other big tests in your life? The ACT,
the SAT? You studied. And probably you didn't just make flash
cards. How could you? There's just too much information that can
possibly appear on a big test like those and like this. The best
way to go is to take full-length, real-time, 170-question,
realistic practice tests like those from SWTP. They really, really
help.
"Thank you so much for your
tests! The ASWB was structured exactly like the 4 practice
tests I took! Because of that I passed my bachelor's exam
on the first try!" - Courtney
I purchased the 5-exam, DSM
Booster, & Ethics Booster package. I took the practice exams
for about 2 weeks one every couple of days at first and 2-3 exams
per day closer to the test date. I'm proud to say that I'm
a LICENSED social worker thanks to this site! Thank you
all so much!" -- Taylor
I passed on the first try!
Your test prep was extremely helpful and I refer anyone who
wants to prepare for the exam.
--Charity
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