More Free Social Work Exam Practice Questions

The best way to prepare for to pass the ASWB exam is practice, practice, practice. Here, from SWTP (with permission), are three free social work exam practice questions. See how you do!

1. A 15-year-old boy is court-ordered into therapy after several brushes with the law, including charges for breaking and entering, assaulting a classmate, and driving a stolen vehicle. Although the boy witnessed all these incidents, he appears unconcerned and denies he was involved in any of them. The MOST appropriate diagnosis is:

A. Conduct disorder

B. Schizophrenia

C. Antisocial personality disorder

D. Substance abuse

Answer and explanation are here.

2. During a meeting with a social worker, a client suddenly becomes enraged. She stands up, slams her fist on the desk, and throws a book across the room, breaking a picture frame. How should the clinician FIRST respond?

A. Shout for help.

B. Order the client out of the office.

C. Speak in a calm, soothing manner.

D. Tell the client to sit back down in order to discuss whatever is upsetting her.

Check your answer here.

3. A man brings his 16-year-old son to a therapy appointment to have him assessed for depression. His son has started wearing black and has dyed his blond hair black. The boy denies he's depressed and says that all his friends dress the way he does. According to Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, which crisis is the client experiencing?

A. Industry vs. inferiority.

B. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt.

C. Identity vs. role confusion.

D. Intimacy vs. isolation.

Correct answer--and how to arrive at it--here.

The DSM, best/first, Erikson. Just the type of stuff you can expect to see on the ASWB exam. Knowing the material and knowing how to apply that knowledge to correctly answering vignette questions are going to get you to that PASS sheet. It's doable. People pass every day. You're next!

Quick Quiz: Attachment Theory Fill-in-the-Blank

Here's the third in a series of fill-in-the-blank quick quizzes to help you prepare for the social work licensing exam. All text is taken from Wikipedia's psych pages, then redacted just so to present you with something to solve. Have at it!

In attachment theory...

1. A toddler who is ________________ to his or her parent (or other familiar caregiver) will explore freely while the caregiver is present, typically engages with strangers, is often visibly upset when the caregiver departs, and is generally happy to see the caregiver return.

2. A child with an _________________ pattern of attachment will typically explore little (in the Strange Situation) and is often wary of strangers, even when the parent is present. When the mother departs, the child is often highly distressed. The child is generally ambivalent when she returns.

3. An infant with an _________________ pattern of attachment will avoid or ignore the caregiver—showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns. The infant will not explore very much regardless of who is there.

4. _____________, the "Father of attachment theory," believed that the tendency for primate infants to develop attachments to familiar caregivers was the result of evolutionary pressures, since attachment behavior would facilitate the infant's survival in the face of dangers such as predation or exposure to the elements.

5. The most common and empirically supported method for assessing attachment in infants (11 months–17 months) is the Strange Situation Protocol, developed by __________________ as a result of her careful in-depth observations of infants with their mothers in Baltimore, Maryland.

How'd you do?

Remember, these aren't the types of questions that appear on the ASWB exam. The actual questions tend to be vignettes. "A client presents with such and such...According to attachment theory, the BEST way to conceptualize the clients presenting problem is:" Or something along those lines. For practice questions about attachment theory--in actual exam form--try SWTP.

Check your answers by scrolling down..................




































1. Secure attachment
2. Anxious-ambivalent
3. Anxious-avoidant
4. John Bowlby
5. Mary Ainsworth 

Family Therapy and the ASWB Exam

There's lots to know about family therapy in order to do it well. It order to test about family therapy, you need to know lots less.  Here are some helpful family therapy summaries on the web:

• Clinical Map of Family Therapy Models (Scribd)
• Family Therapy (Wikipedia)
• Family Therapy - Therapist Profiles

Attachment Theory

To celebrate John Bowlby's birthday (February 26th), why not take a moment to review Attachment Theory? Here's some help on the web:

• Simply Psycholgy
• Wikipedia
• About.com

And here's video from the Counselling Resource YouTube channel (ad skipable):

An Introduction to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

From Robert Leahy. If one type of therapy is going to show up on the ASWB exam, it's CBT.

ASWB Exam Audio: The Social Work Podcast

If you've found your way here, you've likely already discovered Jonathan Singer's long-running podcast, The Social Work Podcast.  But have you put the site to use in your ASWB exam prep?  If not, there's lots awaiting you. 

A handful of episodes cover, theory-by-theory, the very material that you need to know for the exam.  This is especially true of some earlier episodes.  More recent posts feature interviews with social workers focused on various topics that may be out of the scope of the exam, but listening to them is a good way to soak up what it means to be a social worker.  The exam is testing for that.  So have at 'em!