As we announced last month, the first seven episodes of our Psychotherapy Notes podcast are now online. They’re interesting and short, by design. Much as I love to ramble on for hours (seriously, my students are all rolling their eyes and nodding in agreement right now), these episodes are short enough that you can listen to an entire episode during a 10 minute break between client sessions. For our first episode, we revisit a topic that has come up often here on the blog: License exams.
exams
I took the California MFT Clinical Exam and the National MFT Exam. Here’s how they compare.
I just took the California MFT Clinical Exam and the National MFT Exam within a month of each other. When scheduling both of these exams, my hope was that I could study once, and then ace both. Here, I’ll outline the similarities and differences I noticed between the two exams.
California’s MFT Clinical Exam is broken
Back in May, I wrote about how pass rates on the California MFT Clinical Exam for licensure had fallen off a cliff. At the time, the state’s Board of Behavioral Sciences offered an explanation for why the pass rate might have been higher than expected at the beginning of 2016. However, they had no explanation for why the pass rate since then had fallen so far.
The most recent data on California licensing exam pass rates [page 25] makes clear that the alarmingly low pass rate in the first quarter of 2017 — when just 57% of first-time test-takers passed the MFT Clinical Exam — was not simply an aberration. It truly does appear that the exam is broken.
Announcing our new study guide for the California Clinical Social Work Law & Ethics Exam
If you’re on your path to becoming a clinical social worker in California, you will need to take the state’s Clinical Social Work Law & Ethics Exam in your first year of registration as an Associate. I’m proud to announce the release of our new study guide for that exam.
Applying for disability accommodations on licensing exams
If you have a recognized disability, you can apply for a quiet room, additional time, or other appropriate accommodations for your licensing exam. Exact rules, and the process for applying, will vary by state. But every state has to make reasonable accommodations in the exam process under federal law.
Though there is little hard data, I’ve heard from multiple people who work for state licensing boards around the country that requests for disability accommodations are becoming more common in license exams for psychologists, counselors, social workers, and family therapists.