Tonight (March 22, 2026) I downloaded the AMFTRB candidate handbook for those preparing to take the National MFT Exam. That’s pretty routine. At High Pass Education, we’re working on a prep program for the national exam, and of course we want to make our content and our practice exams consistent with what examinees might see on the actual test.
According to the National MFT Exam handbook that I just downloaded, here’s the breakdown of exam content:
In 2022, ASWB released exam data that they had long denied even possessing. That data showed significant disparities in exam performance on the basis of race and ethnicity, leading to calls that their exams should be suspended or abolished. Some states have done so, at least at some licensure levels.
Since those 2022 revelations, ASWB has made two significant promises about how they would move forward with greater transparency around their exams: 1, They would continue to provide data broken down by demographic factors like race, and 2, They would release all of their psychometric validation studies.
So far, they haven’t fulfilled either promise.
New evidence shows that the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) misinformed examinees about recent exam format changes. They then quietly updated their exam handbook two weeks after the changes had taken effect. Even if examinees had been correctly informed, the format changes appear to violate testing industry standards.
Recent data shows that clinical counselors are almost twice as likely to be delinquent in renewing their California registrations compared to clinical social workers. Associate Professional Clinical Counselors (APCCs) are almost three times as likely to be delinquent as MFTs. As of September 2024, more than a quarter of California APCCs hold delinquent APCC registrations.
Last week, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) announced that they are pausing plans to require member boards to use the EPPP Part 2 as a condition of Psychologist licensure. They had faced fierce resistance to the mandate, including a recent Federal Trade Commission complaint and a coalition of states looking at developing an alternative exam.