NCE Exam

The NCE Exam: What to Expect

The NCE exam, or National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification, is a standardized test given to candidates who hope to qualify as licensed counselors. Passing it is one of the criteria that must be met in order to earn the designation of National Certified Counselor. Many state licensing boards also use the exam as part of their approval and licensing process for counselors. The test is timed, with a limit of four hours, and is given at testing centers nationwide on just two dates per year, on Saturdays, although special arrangements can be made for those with religious conflicts. An applicant must register well in advance to take the NCE exam.

There are 200 questions on the exam, which means that to complete all the questions, the test taker must maintain a pace of answering 50 questions per hour. The questions are designed to make sure that licensed counselors have all the knowledge, abilities, and skills required to perform their duties and be effective counselors. Designed by panels of experts, the test covers all the information a counselor must possess in order to be competent. All together, there are 13 areas in which a potential counselor will be tested: Human Growth and Development, Professional Orientation and Ethics, Social and Cultural Foundations, Research and Program Evaluation, Helping Relationships, Appraisal, Career and Lifestyle Development, Group Work, Professional Practice Issues, Fundamentals of Counseling, Programmatic and Clinical Intervention, Group Counseling, and Assessment and Career Counseling.

Of the 200 questions, only 160 count toward the actual score. The other 40 questions are experimental; they are being tested for use in future editions of the NCE exam. However, there is no way to know if a particular question is experimental or not, so the test taker must assume that every question will count toward his or her final score. The highest possible score on the NCE is 160, but the lowest passing score is not published. It is determined by polling a panel of experts who rate how important each question is, and these determinations are averaged together to establish a minimum passing score. The NCE exam is not easy, and failing to make a passing grade will mean, at a very minimum, that a person will have to wait several months to retake the test. There are good study helps available for the NCE exam, and candidates are advised to take advantage of one before sitting for the test.

If you are in the process of preparing to pass NCE exam, you may want to consider using either a NCE exam study guide or NCE exam flashcards to understand the basic concepts or what will be covered on the NCE study questions and NCE exam review. The important thing is to avoid procrastinating about studying for the NCE exam until the last minute.

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