What are the differences between the LMSW and LCSW exams?

When you're getting licensed, you're not just taking the ASWB exam. You're taking one of several levels of ASWB exam: Bachelors, Masters, Advanced Generalist, and Clinical.

Not all states ask social workers to work their way through all levels. And different states give different designations for passing different exam levels. The most common for the Masters exam is LMSW; for the Clinical exam, it's LCSW.

Regardless of which exam you're preparing for, it's worth asking, how is this exam different from the others. Since there are more people taking the Masters and Clinical exams, for this post, let's answer this question: What's the difference between the LMSW and LCSW exam?

Short answer: really not that much.

Both have 170 questions (with 20 uncounted--they're tester questions which will be used in future editions of the exam, if they pass muster). Both take four hours. Both are comprised primarily of vignette questions including close-call situations that everyday social workers face. Though the Clinical exam comes after the Masters exam in some states, they're both designed to assess for knowledge, skills, and abilities that might be expected in a beginning social worker. 

Digging deeper, let's look at the exam outlines for each and compare.

The Masters exam is broken down this way:

• HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, DIVERSITY, AND BEHAVIOR IN THE ENVIRONMENT (27%)
• ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION PLANNING (24%)
• INTERVENTIONS WITH CLIENTS/CLIENT SYSTEMS (24%)
• PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS, VALUES, AND ETHICS (25%)

The Clinical exam breakdown is this:

• HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, DIVERSITY, AND BEHAVIOR IN THE ENVIRONMENT (24%)
• ASSESSMENT, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT PLANNING (30%)
• PSYCHOTHERAPY, CLINICAL INTERVENTIONS, AND CASE MANAGEMENT (27%)
• PROFESSIONAL VALUES AND ETHICS (19%)

What do you notice? The Masters exam has 3% more items from the first category. That's about five questions. The Clinical exam adds "Diagnosis" to the second grouping and adds 6% (ten questions). The third group gets a name tweak and a 3% difference. The last category--the one based primarily on the NASW Code of Ethics--is weighted more heavily on the Masters than on the Clinical.

So, out of 170 questions, the biggest swing you'll see one way or another is 10 questions in any given category. Over the course of four hours, that's a difference that will be pretty hard to detect. The Clinical exam will have more questions about diagnosis, but don't count on being spared diagnostic questions on the Masters exam. One of the areas in the Masters content outline is "the use of the DSM."

So, as you're preparing for the Masters, don't shy away from LCSW materials, and vice versa. The vast majority of content is similar or the same. And the test-taking process is exactly the same--narrowing down from four choices to the three best, the two best, the one best answer.

Once you've done that 170 times and gotten around 70-75% of them right, you've passed. You're licensed. And you don't have to worry about this distinction any more (or at least for a while). Congratulations in advance!