To ensure that the licensing exams reflect important changes in social work practices and standards that take place over time, The Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) periodically updates their licensing exams. In December of 2022, the ASWB announced three updates - released as testing enhancements - that will affect the Bachelor, Masters, and Clinical level social work exams beginning January 2023.
In this post, we’ll go over each of the three updates so that you can best prepare for the exam and know what to expect on test day.
Plan on a Mix of Three-Option Multiple Choice Questions
With the purpose of supporting a more positive exam experience, the exam will now feature a mix of three-option and four-option multiple choice questions. This should provide a less stressful experience for test takers by allowing candidates to focus more on exam knowledge and not as much on time pressure.
Worried about this change? Don’t be. Although this seems like a big update, the addition of three-option multiple choice questions should improve the test experience. There will be one less answer option to read through and the chances of selecting the correct answer will increase by 25%!
Let’s take a few minutes to look at how the three-option multiple choice update might affect how you would answer a practice question:
Question 1: A 4-year-old child struggles in pr
