The ASWB Masters exam

For master’s-level practice — specialized knowledge and advanced skills, normally after an MSW and before the supervised hours a clinical license requires.

Commonly leads to LMSW, LGSW, LAMSW — though the title varies by jurisdiction. Check yours.

What this exam actually weights

I. Values and Ethics35%
II. Assessment and Planning33%
III. Intervention and Practice32%

How many pass it first time

73.9%

Of the 20,636 people who sat the Masters exam for the first time in 2025 across all ASWB member jurisdictions.

ASWB notes that pass rates are most representative for groups of more than 200 candidates. This cohort is well above that.

Source: ASWB exam pass rates, last verified August 16, 2026. We publish no pass rate of our own — no preparation provider can honestly claim one.

What we cover for it

109: applied knowledge statements, each a written lesson
1,987: practice questions, each with a full rationale
12: full-length mocks, with no question repeated across any two

Scoped to this exam. Of the 124 applied knowledge statements across all four content outlines, 109 are on the Masters exam — the rest are not shown to you and are not counted against you.

A question from this exam

From Ethical Principles and Responsibilities, which you can read in full without an account.

Privilege, unlike confidentiality, is:

Aa duty the social worker owes throughout the relationship
Ba protection the agency can waive on the client's behalf
Ca rule of evidence that belongs to the client, not to you

Read why

Where this exam is required

States whose license rules we have read on their own board’s site. We are working through the rest and will not list a state until we have checked it.

The format

The same for every category: 122 questions, of which 110 are scored and 12 are unscored pretest items, in 2 sections of 61 with 240 minutes in total. More on how the exam works.

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