Ten practice questions for the master's-level social work licensing exam. Each one is a scenario vignette with four options, the way the real exam asks them. The answer and the reasoning sit in a collapsed block under each question, so attempt the question first and check yourself after. Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on Mac) prints the whole set. No sign-up, no email.
The master's-level exam draws from six content areas: human development and behavior across the lifespan; diversity and social context; assessment and diagnosis; intervention planning and treatment; ethics and professional values; and supervision, administration, and research. Most questions are vignettes: a short client situation, a question stem, four options, one best answer.
Several options will usually look reasonable. The scoring difference is in what the stem asks for. "First action," "best interpretation," and "most appropriate response" each point to a different answer from the same scenario, which is why stem reading matters as much as content knowledge.
Question 1. A social worker leads a life-review group at a senior center. A 76-year-old member spends most sessions talking about the projects he finished, the family he raised, and the regrets he has made peace with. He says that if he could live his life over, he would change very little. According to Erikson's psychosocial stages, this reflection is most consistent with:
A. The late-adulthood task is reviewing one's life and resolving it into integrity rather than bitterness and despair. He looks back with acceptance, which is the marker of integrity. Generativity versus stagnation belongs to middle adulthood, when the focus shifts to guiding the next generation. Identity versus role confusion is adolescence, and industry versus inferiority is the school years.
Question 2. A recently arrived family asks that all treatment decisions go through the father before anything is shared with the rest of the household. The worker notices this clashes with her own expectation that each adult speaks for himself, and she pauses to examine that reaction before responding. This pause is best described as:
B. Cultural humility is the ongoing practice of examining your own values and assumptions instead of treating your own culture as the default, then adapting the work to the family's frame. Ethnocentrism is judging the family by the worker's own cultural standard, which is exactly what she is checking. Assimilation pressure would mean pushing the family toward the host culture's norms. Enmeshment describes blurred boundaries inside a family system, not a worker's self-examination.
Question 3. For more than two years, a 29-year-old administrative assistant has worried most days about finances, her health, and her job performance, even when nothing is wrong on paper. She reports restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and trouble falling asleep more days than not, and she says the worry has gotten beyond her control. Which diagnosis fits best?
C. At least six months of excessive, hard-to-control worry across events, plus three or more associated symptoms (restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, muscle tension, sleep disturbance), points to generalized anxiety disorder. Panic disorder requires recurrent unexpected panic attacks, which she does not describe. Major depressive disorder requires depressed mood or loss of interest as the core feature. Somatic symptom disorder centers on distressing somatic symptoms with excessive focus on them; her physical complaints ride along with the worry rather than driving it.
Question 4. During a session, a 52-year-old man says quietly, "Sometimes I think everyone would be better off without me." What should the social worker do next?
B. Ambiguous statements like this call for a direct, plain-language risk assessment. Asking about suicide does not plant the idea or raise risk; it opens the door to assessing plan, means, intent, and history, which is what drives safety planning. Deferring to next session, steering away, or waiting for him to repeat it wastes the window where assessment and intervention are possible.
Question 5. A 40-year-old client says he knows his drinking is costing him money and sleep, but he is not sure he wants to quit. He spends the session listing reasons both ways. The worker responds with reflective listening and asks what his life might look like if he cut back. Which approach is the worker using?
A. Motivational interviewing works with ambivalence rather than against it: reflective listening, open questions, and drawing out the client's own reasons and language for change. The client listed the pros and cons himself and the worker amplified his own arguments for cutting back. Cognitive restructuring targets specific distorted thoughts. Behavioral contracting sets written contingencies. Psychoeducation delivers information, which does not address ambivalence.
Question 6. A client panics in elevators to the point of taking 14 flights of stairs at work. The worker first teaches diaphragmatic breathing, then builds a list of elevator situations ranked from least to most anxiety-producing, and pairs the relaxed state with imagining each step in order. Which method is this?
B. Systematic desensitization pairs relaxation training with a graded anxiety hierarchy, moving from the least feared step upward, often starting in imagination before live exposure. Flooding goes straight to the most feared stimulus with no relaxation and no grading. Modeling relies on observing someone else cope with the feared situation. A token economy reinforces target behaviors with tokens, which does not fit a phobia protocol.
Question 7. Three sessions into a therapy group, members interrupt each other, argue over the ground rules, and test whether the leaders will enforce them. Which stage of group development does this reflect?
C. Storming is the conflict-and-testing stage: members push against rules, leaders, and each other while roles settle. Forming is orientation and polite dependence on the leader. Norming is when shared rules and cohesion take hold. Performing is the working stage. Expecting storming helps leaders hold structure instead of reading the conflict as a failure of the group.
Question 8. A client tells his social worker he intends to hurt a named coworker the next time he sees him at work. What does confidentiality require here?
B. Confidentiality ends where a serious, credible threat to an identifiable person begins. The worker tells the client about that limit, assesses the threat, and follows the jurisdiction's duty-to-protect steps, which may include notifying the intended victim or police, intensifying treatment, or arranging hospitalization depending on the law. Warning the whole building discloses to far more people than need to know. Referring out without acting leaves the risk unmanaged. Privilege does not cover a serious threat to an identifiable person.
Question 9. In supervision, a newer worker discloses that she finds one client unusually engaging and has caught herself extending his sessions. The supervisor's best first response is to:
A. Supervision is where countertransference and boundary drift get worked through. The supervisor normalizes the disclosure, examines what the feelings connect to, and re-establishes the frame around session length and boundaries. Escalating to the board skips the supervisory function entirely. Dismissing it ignores a known risk to the work. Transferring without discussion teaches the worker to hide the next disclosure, and transfer remains an option only if boundaries cannot hold after supervision.
Question 10. A nonprofit wants to know whether its new job-training program causes higher employment rates, not merely whether graduates found jobs. Which design answers that question best?
C. Causal claims need a comparison group that differs from participants only by chance, which random assignment provides. Outcomes in both groups then isolate the program's effect. Staff interviews and graduate surveys capture opinions. Year-over-year numbers mix the program's effect with selection effects, the economy, and any other change between the years.
Seven or more correct out of ten suggests your stem reading is in good shape. Below that, sort your misses into two piles: content misses (you did not know the stage, criteria, or obligation) and test-taking misses (you picked a true statement that did not answer the stem). Fix content gaps with targeted review and fix test-taking with more timed vignettes, because the second problem responds faster to practice.
Are these real exam questions? No, and real exam questions would not be shared if they were. These ten are original questions written in the same vignette style as the licensing exam, so practicing on them builds the same skill: reading a scenario, spotting what is being asked, and choosing the best of four defensible options.
How long is the social work licensing exam? The master's-level exam has 170 multiple-choice questions with a 4-hour appointment, which works out to about 85 seconds per question. Ten questions take 15 minutes at that pace, so time yourself.
What score should I aim for on this practice set? Use it diagnostically. Seven or more correct suggests you are reading stems well. Below that, check whether you missed on content or on test-taking, as described above.
Get the full 170-question mock exam →one-time · 170 vignette questions across all six domains · answer key with a full rationale for every question · printable mock format
Independent practice material. This page is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any licensing board, and it does not reproduce real exam content. Check your board's official handbook for registration, eligibility, and exam-policy questions.