Q&A: How many questions on the social work exam? What score do I need to pass?

Some questions pop up from time to time in email and as search terms that show up in site stats. Here are a couple of regulars:

Q: How many questions are there on the social work exam?

A: Two answers: 170 or 200. It's 170 for all ASWB administered exams, 200 for the standard written exam administered by the California BBS. Which is you? If you're in California, 200. Everywhere else, 170. You know who you are.

Note: Not all of the exam questions account toward your score. Some are testers (20 on the ASWB, --their usefulness is being gauged before they're made real questions on some future exam. There's no way to know which questions are testers, so you may as well treat them all as real. That said, keeping in mind that some questions are testers can help you maintain calm and composure if you hit a few questions that makes no sense or seem way too hard or that you just don't know. Just shrug it off--"Must be a tester"--make your best guess and move on.

Q: What score do I need to pass the social work exam?

A: Depends upon the state. States set their own pass rates--check with your state board to get a precise number if you want it.  Passing percentages tend to land in the 70-75% range. So, for a state with a 72% requirement, that's 122 out of 170 or 108 out of 150 (excluding testers). For those preparing with online practice exams (a good idea), a good guideline is to aim for percentages coming in at high 70s/low 80s before going to sit for the real thing.

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Have a social work licensing exam question you don't see answered on the site? Write us and we'll do our best to get it answered (find our gmail on the sidebar).