Every ASWB Social Work Licensing Exam has the same shape, whichever category you sit. 122 questions, of which 110 count. Two sections of 61. Two hours for each section. One ten-minute break in the middle, and no way back once a section closes.
That last clause is the one people meet for the first time on the day. This post walks the format from arrival to submission, using ASWB's own Examination Guidebook, so nothing on exam day is a surprise.
The numbers
| Total questions | 122 |
| Scored | 110 |
| Pretest (unscored) | 12 |
| Sections | 2 × 61 questions |
| Time per section | 2 hours |
| Total exam time | 4 hours |
| Scheduled break | up to 10 minutes, clock stopped |
| Options per question | 3 or 4 |
The twelve questions that do not count
Twelve of your 122 questions are pretest items. ASWB is putting them in front of candidates to gather statistics before deciding whether they are good enough to score on a future exam.
Your performance on the pretest questions will not affect your score on the examination — only the 110 remaining questions will count toward your score. The pretest and scored questions are mixed together on the examination.
Mixed together. There is no marking, no separate section, no way to identify them. Which means the only sane strategy is to answer all 122 as though they count — and, more importantly, not to spend the exam wondering whether a question that felt strange was "one of the pretest ones". It is a thought that costs time and buys nothing.
There is a small consolation in knowing they exist: a question that seems oddly worded or unusually hard may genuinely be a question that will not survive its own statistics. You are not required to be able to answer everything.
Two sections, and the door that locks
The exam is not one four-hour block. It is two two-hour blocks with a hard boundary between them.
You will be given two hours for each 61-question section of the exam. If your time ends for a section, your answers will be automatically recorded, and you will not be able to go back to those questions.
And if you finish early:
If you complete a 61-question section before the two-hour time limit has ended, you will be prompted to review and submit your answers for that section. You will no longer have access to those questions after you submit your answers.
So the section lock happens either way — by running out of time, or by your own submission. There is no carrying unused time forward. Two hours for section one and two hours for section two, regardless of how quickly you finish the first.
Three consequences worth planning around:
Your pacing target is per section, not overall. Two hours for 61 questions is just under two minutes each. If you are thirty questions in at the one-hour mark, you are exactly on pace.
Flag generously inside a section, and clear the flags before you submit. Within a section you can "change answers, flag questions for later attention, skip questions, highlight text, and review questions." Once you submit, all of that is gone.
Do not submit early to bank the time. You cannot. The only thing finishing section one early gets you is a longer wait before section two starts.
The second section restarts its numbering at 1 to 61, which catches some people out — it is not questions 62 to 122 on screen.
The break is not free time
There is one scheduled break, between the sections:
After the first section is complete, you will have the option of taking a scheduled break, during which the clock will stop for a maximum of 10 minutes.
Four details in the small print matter:
- You can opt out by ending the break as soon as it begins.
- Unused break time is not added to your exam time. Taking four minutes instead of ten does not buy you six minutes of questions.
- Overrunning is charged to you. "If you take more than 10 minutes for this scheduled break, the excess time will be taken out of your exam time." Allow for the proctor readmitting you — that is part of the ten minutes.
- Any other break costs you. You may take unscheduled breaks by raising your hand, but "the clock continues to run during unscheduled breaks."
During any break you may only visit the nearest restroom and get a drink or snack, you must take your photo ID with you, and you may not leave the building.
Arriving, and the ways to lose your fee before you start
This section exists because these are unforced errors and they are expensive.
Arrive 30 minutes early. ASWB's instruction, not a suggestion.
Late means no exam. "You will not be seated if you arrive late for your appointment. Late arrivals are treated as no-shows." You may forfeit the fee, and registration fees are nonrefundable. A retake is a fresh registration at US$230 for Associate, Bachelors and Masters, or US$260 for Advanced Generalist and Clinical.
Cancel or reschedule at least 24 hours ahead if your plans change, and check you receive the confirmation from Pearson.
Your name has to match. The first and last names on your identification must match your Authorization to Test from ASWB.
If the computer breaks
Rare, but the rule is strict and worth memorising:
If you experience a problem with the testing facility, software, computer, or other equipment, report the problem to Pearson test center staff at the time of the occurrence. Test center staff must confirm the problem and be given the opportunity to resolve it. If you do not notify the test center staff of a problem at the time it occurs, ASWB will not be able to verify the problem and you will have no recourse.
At the time it occurs. Not afterwards, not in an email that evening. Raise your hand.
What the questions look like
Each item is a stem and "three or four options" — never five. Most are vignettes: a short scenario, then a question about what the social worker should do or conclude. Many end on a capitalised word — FIRST, NEXT, MOST or BEST — that decides which of several reasonable answers is correct; that convention is documented in ASWB's item writing guide, and we have written about how the qualifier works in detail.
ASWB also tells its item writers to "avoid negative wording such as NOT and EXCEPT," so you should not expect to untangle double negatives against the clock.
After you submit
Results are reported pass/fail, with the number of questions needed to pass and the number you answered correctly. A failing report additionally breaks down your correct answers by content area. Your result is valid in every state and province for that exam category.
Then there is a wait that is not in your control: "It may take between two weeks and two months for the licensing board to process your score." If a job or a supervision start date depends on your license, that gap is worth planning around from the beginning.
The best way to make all of the above ordinary is to have done it before. Our mock exams run the same 122 questions, the same 110-scored-plus-12-pretest split, the same two sections of 61, and the same lock between them — because the section boundary is the part of this exam that people meet unprepared. You can read the whole first chapter free before deciding anything: start here.