Where to Start

The ASWB does not want you to fail the exam.  Their goal is to help assure that clinical social workers are competent in their knowledge.  The questions are not trick questions.  They are also not asking what "you" would do in a given situation.  They are asking what a textbook social worker should do.  There are four basic categories that are tested on this exam.  Each category has three or four subdivisions.    Each subdivision has between two and 42 areas based on KSAs.  What is a KSA?   A KSA is a "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities" statement.  These are areas in which a potential social worker needs to prove competence.  There are 177 of these that may appear on the exam.   The entire breakdown can be seen here.  Let's focus on the first one, which happens to be the one deemed most important, first.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, DIVERSITY AND BEHAVIOR IN THE ENVIRONMENT  Worth 31% of the exam, this category covers four subdivisions.  The first is Human Development in the Life Cycle.  Here you'll find theory and practice questions covering growth and development, personality, normal and atypical growth, different types of development, gerontology (my personal favorite), development, basic human needs, self-image as related to the life cycle, and anything related to this.  It will take several hours to cover this section.