3 Exam Strategies
Alexandria Lewis
Tips
What “it is and isn’t”
- Remind yourself the exam is a national standardized exam and not state-specific.
- Do not rely on your professional social work practice experience to answer the exam items.
- Use a generalist social work practice lens when reading and selecting answers.
Keep It Simple
- Do not engage in too much critical thinking because vignettes have limited details.
Time
- Take your time reading the question, but watch the clock on the exam to ensure you have time to answer all 170 questions.
As you read each question:
- Remember to focus on what the ASWB views as the correct answer. Ask yourself, “What is the ASWB looking for?”
Selecting your answer
- Read the question (item) carefully. Pay close attention to qualifiers used in questions: First, next, most, or best. Qualifiers are in all caps and bolded.
- For vignettes, use the highlighter tool to highlight keywords from the question.
- Try to determine the content area when the question is unclear. For instance, if you read the question as an assessment question but the question is an ethics question, you might select the incorrect answer.
- Read each answer choice.
- Use the answer elimination tool (strike out tool) or an erasable note board to rule out the answer choices.
- Be aware there could be items on your exam where there is content in the stem that is inaccurate.
Acronyms
Some of you might have encountered resources online about the use of acronyms. If you use the following acronyms, be careful not to become so focused on using the acronym that it impacts your ability to answer the question in a timely manner.
Acronyms might help the questions you are stuck on versus used for every application/reasoning question.
Tip: Write down the acronyms on the erasable note board instead of trying to remember the acronyms while taking the exam.
The following are several acronyms (original authors unknown):
“FAREAFI”
- F- Feelings (i.e., validate the client’s feelings)
- A- Assess
- R- Refer
- E- Educate
- A- Advocate
- F- Facilitate
- I- Intervene
“AASPIRINS”
- A- Acknowledge client
- A- Assess
- S- Start where the client is
- P- Protect the client system (e.g., individual, group, family, community)
- I- Intoxicated- Refer
- R- Rule out a medical issue
- I- Informed consent
- N- Non-judgmental
- S- Support the self-determination of the client
“VERELAT”
- V- Validate
- E- Explore
- R- Refer
- E- Educate
- L- Lay foundation for empowerment
- A- Advocate
- T- Treat
Helping process overview
The following content is a refresher on the helping process.
Phases of Social Work Practice (Cournoyer, 2011)
- Preparing (Engage)
- Beginning (Engage)
- Exploring (Engage)
- Assessing (Assess)
- Contracting (Assess)
- Working & Evaluating (Intervene and evaluate)
- Ending (Intervene and evaluate)
Helping Process (Hepworth et al., 2017)
- Phase I
- Exploration
- Engagement
- Assessment
- Planning
- Phase II
- Implementation
- Goal Attainment
- Phase III
- Evaluation
- Termination
Generalist Social Work Practice Model
- Engagement
- Assessment
- Planning
- Implementation
- Evaluation
- Termination
- Follow-Up
- Reassess
- Discontinue
The following questions capture the helping process embedded within the question.
References
Cournoyer, B. (2011). The social work skills workbook (6th ed.). Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Hepworth, D.H., Rooney, R.H., Rooney, G.D., & Storm-Gottfried (2017). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills. Cengage Learning.
