What's the California LCSW Exam Passing Score?

If you are studying for the California LCSW exams, you are probably wondering, "What score do I need to get to pass?".

The answer is: it varies.  There are two California LCSW exams: the Standard Written Exam and the Clinical Vignette Exam.  Both exams change every 6 months so the passing score also changes every 6 months.  The California LCSW exam cycles are December 1-May 31 and June 1-November 30. This is the reason you have to wait 6 months to retake the exam -- waiting six months ensures that you will take a different test the one you just took.

The California Standard Written Exam is taken first.  It is comprised of 200 questions. You get 4 hours.  Of the 200 questions, only 175 counts toward your score. That means 25 do not count.  Unfortunately, you don't know which ones those are. For the current test cycle of June 1, 2013 - November 30, 2013 the passing score on the California LCSW Standard Written Exam is 116 out of 175 which is 66%.

After you pass the first exam, you have to tackle the California LCSW Clinical Vignette exam. There are only 40 questions and you get 2 hours.  But there is a reason you get more than double the time per question that you got for the first exam -- the test is much more complex.  Of the 40 questions, only 30 counts; 10 are experimental.  For the current test cycle of June 1, 2013 - November 30, 2013 the passing score on the California LCSW Clinical Vignette Exam is 19 out of 30 which is 63%.

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How much do the passing scores change on the California LCSW exams? Usually just a point to two. But a point higher or a point lower doesn't mean very much.  Because it is a "standardized" test, the BBS has data on how hard each individual question is, so when the put more "hard" questions on the exam the total points you need to pass will be lower.  If there are more "easy" questions, you will need more to pass.

The one factor that can throw this off is the experimental questions. But why should they matter if they don't count?  Well, remember you don't know which ones they are.  If the experimental questions happen to be extremely hard and you don't have the right strategies to deal with them, you can easily panic and your brain's cortisol gates open up and flood it with the stress hormone.  When your brain has a high level of cortisol it loses it's capacity for more complex thinking which will impact your ability to think clearly on the other questions that actually do count toward your score.

The last thing I want to mention is while you are taking the California LCSW exams, especially the Standard Written, you are not going to have an awareness that you are passing. So knowing the passing score isn't really going to help much.  Your best tool for passing is having clear test-taking strategies so you know how to reason through the questions.