Hello, and welcome to The Therapist Development Center's LCSW & MFT Exam Hot Topics Blog! Each week, we'll use this blog to explore one of our Top 50 topics and how it might appear in test items. We'll begin next week with Topic #1: Child Abuse & Neglect. Curious about our Top 50? Check out the LCSW or MFT Exam tab on our website to find out more about our workshops and study tools. We look forward to helping you pass! Think our straightforward, sensible approach could help you PASS your social work or MFT exam? If you're preparing for a social work exam, check out our Social Work Study

A few days before the New Year I received this email: Hi Amanda! Hope you are enjoying your vacation! I just wanted to let you know that I took the MFT CV Exam today, Dec 29th, and I passed!!! Thank you so much!!! Everything that I learned from you truly helped me - especially the framing questions, the quiz on the different theories, and the Vignettes that we practiced in class. I'm glad I took the test before the year ends. Now I can relax and enjoy the New Year's Celebration with my family. Enjoy the rest of your vacation and I would definitely spread the word and recommend you to my

ANXIETY. That is what I hear in the voices of most of the people who contact me for coaching on the LCSW and MFT Clinical Vignette Exam. Fear and anxiety. Especially if they have taken the exam before and failed. The test is like a wild animal, it can smell fear the moment you walk in that PSI testing center and it will eat you alive. Ok, let's hold on a minute, take a deep breath and remember that you PASSED the first exam. Again, let that really sink in: YOU passed the first exam. That means you have the foundation of knowledge. You don't have to go and relearn everything in a 4-day workshop

Preparing to take the clinical exam is a daunting process. Many people spend a few weeks paralyzed by the prospect of just getting started. They have logged and logged their hours, only to be faced with the reality that they have to start studying. Getting organized is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. I like to think of the California Standard Written Exam and the National LCSW Exam as a Mental Marathon because it is a 4 hour exam! That is a long time to be thinking! When someone is training for a marathon, they don't just go outside and start running. They have a very

I talk to a lot of people who have taken the LCSW or MFT exam many times and complain that they had memorized everything and they still didn't pass. The word "memorize" tips me off right away -- these people weren't coached, they were trained. What's the difference? The difference is subtle but very important. Coaching builds your confidence in making clinical judgments. Training is about right/wrong thinking and a narrow minded focus on facts. This exam is not about facts, its about the practice of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is an art. We are relying on our clinical judgment that should be

Many people I coach for these tests don't realize that HOW you study for your licensing exams is just as important as WHAT you study. Overwhelmed with a lot of content that people think they have to stuff into their heads, many people I talk to report "studying all day" on their weekends. Some even take the whole week off before the exam to study! What's wrong with this picture? Research shows that our brains stop learning after 90 minutes -- so if you study more than that in any one sitting, you are essentially wasting your time. (The one exception to this rule is when you are sitting to take

So what's the biggest secret to passing the LCSW or MFT Licensing exam? Managing your anxiety. How do you manage your anxiety? Have clear strategies. All the people I've spoken with who have failed the LCSW or MFT exam report similar things:"I was really anxious, I couldn't focus. I spent the first 30 minutes of the test freaking out. All the answers looked the same. It was so vague. The real test was nothing like the LCSW/MFT mock exams I had practiced on." When I ask these people what strategies they used, there is silence on the phone. Strategies? Yes, strategies, game plan, tools. More

Many people who I coach ask me, "How much should I study for the LCSW exam, the MFT Exam?", and my response is "How are you studying?" Many people spend countless hours memorizing DSM flashcards and reading dry material from expensive workbooks. They know the "facts" but they fail the test. Why? Because they studied ineffectively. So how should you study? First, you should limit your studying to 90 minutes a day, preferably in two different sittings. Why? Because the average person stops learning after 90 minutes, the brain just can't soak up more than that. Many people tell me they spend "all

First, you're going to pass the LCSW exam. You will. Many people have sat where you're sitting, feeling hopeless and traumatized, after failing the LCSW exam. It is hard to regroup after failing, especially if feel like you studied and hard as you could have and even worse, if you spent a lot of money on expensive test prep services that didn't work. Social Work Exam Prep Programs The best thing you can do for yourself is to take some time off from studying. Give your brain a break. Don't even THINK about studying for the LCSW exam for at least a month. Why? Because you just got beat up by

Are you preparing to take your LCSW exam or MFT Exam and feeling overwhelmed? Join the club! Many therapists experience panic at the thought of tackling this test. Most of us aren't used to being in study mode and haven't taken a multiple choice exam since the GRE! Social Work Exam Prep Programs So where do you start? We suggest that the first thing you do is to pick a test date. You don't have to sign up for the test just yet, but look at the calendar and pencil in a date you'd like to take the test. Why is this important? Because without this, you have no sense of direction. Imagine training