Social Work ASWB Masters Exam Guide: A Comprehensive Study Guide for Success

I just passed my exam. I scored 25 points higher than I needed to in order to pass. I also had the “harder version” of the test (you can tell my the number of questions you were required to get right). This is the only book I used to study. It’s incredibly comprehensive and covers all areas of the real exam. As I was going through the book I was thinking it was Better than some of the textbooks i had in college. Aside from this book I also had a practice exam created by a professor and I took a computerized practice exam (for free) offered by a local agency. The practice exams really builds your confidence and helps identify areas in which you may need to focus more time studying on. Good luck! I’ve never had the level of text anxiety I had for this test ever in my entire educational career. But you truly know more than you’re giving yourself credit for. Pay attention to each word in the question because they intentionally through theories and fancy words into the question to throw you off. Learn the acronyms FAREAFI and AASPIRINS, as well as the problem solving theory. Knowing those helped me on some of my toughest questions.

First of all, I obtained my B.A. in Psychology and began working in the mental health field for a few years before deciding to go back for my Masters in Social Work. Once I graduated (August 2018), I set a date to take the MLSW (September 5th, 2018). I had ordered this book back in June so I thought I would have about 2-3 months to study for the licensure. This particular book and a Youtube channel were the only two bits of study material I used.Now, this book does not go over the acronym "FAREAFI", which I highly recommend knowing when you go take your LSW exam because that helped me out tremendously. Regardless, this study book educated me about what to expect on the exam. From my own personal experience though, many of my exam questions were based on, BEST, MOST, NEXT, FIRST, PRIMARY, etc. Not so much knowing theories, but definitely need to know key terms. This book does go over quite the vocabulary which was the most helpful in my opinion.I passed my MLSW on 09-05-2018 with about 2-3 months of study time. I am thankful I found this book and definitely will be purchasing the Clinical book when the time comes. Good luck!

I PASSED on the first try!Friends, if you are planning on taking the masters licensing exam and are overwhelmed by the amount of content you have to study, this book is for you! It easily breaks down all of the categories that you can be tested on and gives information concerning each category. I appreciate that the author is extremely detailed in sections that are particularly important to the exam and then gives a brief overview in sections that maybe aren't as important in terms of the exam.I have a friend who took the exam around the same time who bought the study book from the ASWB and after looking through my guide he felt as though he made the wrong decision. So, if you are trying to pick between buying this guide or the ASWB guide (as I was), keep that in mind!I bought the book about a month out from taking the exam and was able to comfortably finish the entire guide and take the practice test. However, I was extremely dedicated to studying daily, so perhaps if you can't be as regimented with your studying you may need more time with the guide.I will buy her guide for the LCSW when that time comes. But for now, I'm celebrating that I passed! :)

The biggest benefit for this book was it gave me a starting point in the studying process.Prior to ordering this book, I was sitting in front of my laptop with my course notes open in several Microsoft Word documents amongst a sea over open textbooks frantically flipping through trying to locate information that was pertinent to the KSA's listed for the master's level exam.Once I got the book, I was still looking through my notes and my books, but it was much easier to see what each KSA was referring to and I was able to pencil-in additional information I had rather than trying to put everything together on my own to produce a study guide.Basically, I was overwhelmed and this book helped to give me reassurance and structure, which is why I give it 4 stars instead of 3.The book in itself is, in my opinion, worth three stars to me simply because it became very generic towards the middle/end when talking about communication techniques (i.e. '...empathetic communication is beneficial in many situations with a client...') and cultural integration (i.e. '...cultural values and traditons should be considered when working with a client...').These are NOT direct quotes from the books, but it's my impression of the messages that were being conveyed. While specifics may not be important to the exam itself, it would be nice to have that comprehensive information/specific techiques/specific cultural integration techniques (which may have actually been in there, thinking back on it...?) just for a practicing social worker.However, the book does provide ample margin space for social workers to add the information they are struggling with commiting to memory (photo attached).I cannot comment on the practice exam, as I only did fifteen questions of it prior to my exam; but I like that the book gives thourough exaplanantions of why an answer is what it is.Regardless, I passed the exam on the first attempt utilizing this as my primary study methods (with secondary study sources being the pocket prep app, and flash cards I had made for prior courses).

Good text