Written by: Becky White, Marriage and Family Therapist Registered Intern
Preparing for the California Law & Ethics exam (Exam #1) was a slow roll for me. There are various tutoring companies that are well known in Los Angeles, the two most popular amongst my cohort are Gerry Grossman Seminars and the Therapist Development Center. I went with Gerry, since my mom, an LMFT, studied with his course 20 years ago when she was preparing for the licensing exams. I figured if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
The Law & Ethics prep package included a day-long seminar in which an overview of Law & Ethics was presented. The study materials include an extensive online test-bank; audiotapes of Gerry himself reading through the relevant materials; flashcards; and a thick classroom text manual that was sort of like the Grossman Law & Ethics bible.
I dove in with the Law & Ethics daylong seminar in November, and popped the audiotape in my car for my commute sometime in December. I listened to that on and off and didn’t really get jamming on studying until late January. Thats when I went straight for the test-banks. These are truly the best way to not only gauge where you are in the studying process, but also to learn the information. The test-banks teach you that passing this exam is not really about memorizing the law & ethics but rather applying them to murky and complicated clinical situations. The more test-banks I took, the more I was able to differentiate laws from ethics and parse out the application of each to nuanced and complex clinical scenarios.
Now that we have explored an overview of the exam restructure and test prep, the next posts will address what it was like to actually take the brand new 2016 California Law & Ethics Exam.
Preparing for the California Law & Ethics exam (Exam #1) was a slow roll for me. There are various tutoring companies that are well known in Los Angeles, the two most popular amongst my cohort are Gerry Grossman Seminars and the Therapist Development Center. I went with Gerry, since my mom, an LMFT, studied with his course 20 years ago when she was preparing for the licensing exams. I figured if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
The Law & Ethics prep package included a day-long seminar in which an overview of Law & Ethics was presented. The study materials include an extensive online test-bank; audiotapes of Gerry himself reading through the relevant materials; flashcards; and a thick classroom text manual that was sort of like the Grossman Law & Ethics bible.
I dove in with the Law & Ethics daylong seminar in November, and popped the audiotape in my car for my commute sometime in December. I listened to that on and off and didn’t really get jamming on studying until late January. Thats when I went straight for the test-banks. These are truly the best way to not only gauge where you are in the studying process, but also to learn the information. The test-banks teach you that passing this exam is not really about memorizing the law & ethics but rather applying them to murky and complicated clinical situations. The more test-banks I took, the more I was able to differentiate laws from ethics and parse out the application of each to nuanced and complex clinical scenarios.
Now that we have explored an overview of the exam restructure and test prep, the next posts will address what it was like to actually take the brand new 2016 California Law & Ethics Exam.