Counselor Certification Practice Test

Take this free practice test to see how prepared you are for a counselor certification exam. Organizations, such as the National Board for Certified Counselors, offer post-graduate professional certifications. Exams cover such areas as assessment, intervention and rehabilitation.

1.	If you try to intensify a client’s irrational emotional state in order to help him recognize that his feelings are irrational, what counseling technique are you using?
	Paradoxical intention
	Transactional-Analysis
	Systematic Desensitization
	Reconfiguration

2.	Despite its age, Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development is still in widespread use. Which of the following is the final level in the theory?
	Personhood
	Principled thought
	Self-actualization
	None of the above

3.	Which of the following interventions is not commonly used in Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)?
	Discussion of patterns in a client’s relationships
	A detailed past history of the client
	Exploration of the therapist/client relationship
	The ABC Model

4.	Members of a counseling group that score high in authoritarianism also tend to score high in independence.
	True
	False

5.	If a child is learning to use abstract concepts, which of Piaget’s stages is she in?
	Preoperational
	Sensorimotoer
	Concrete
	Early Adolescence

6.	About how old is the child in question 5?
	Three
	Twelve
	One
	Eight

7.	If someone is thinking about committing suicide, asking them whether they are thinking about suicide will not cause them to commit suicide.
	True
	False

8.	Under which of the following circumstances is it not okay to break patient confidentiality?
	A court subpoenas the client’s chart.
	The client has threatened to hurt himself or someone else.
	The client’s employer has requested the information.
	The client admits to abusing his children.

9.	You are using the ABC model of cognitive therapy. Which model are you trying to promote in your clients after a negative event?
	Negative Event leads to irrational belief leads to positive thought
	Negative Event leads to rational belief leads to healthy negative thought
	Negative Event leads to irrational belief leads to unhealthy negative thought
	None of the above

10.	Carl Jung’s Theory of Archetypes is still very influential, and several of them are listed below. Choose the one that is not correct.
	The Shadow
	The Hero
	The Wise Old Woman
	The Self-Made Person

11.	The mean, median and mode are not at the same point on a normal curve.
	True
	False

12.	Which of the following kinds of therapy seeks to help clients find their answers to questions such as: Why am I here? Is this all there is? Why do people suffer?
	Cognitive Behavioral
	Holistic Health
	Existential
	Client Centered

13.	A client is 35. She is married, has two kids and is working on a big promotion at work. She is focused entirely on her family and career. Which of Erickson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development is she in?
	Intimacy vs. Isolation
	Generativity vs. Stagnation
	Integrity vs. Despair
	Industry vs. Inferiority

14.	Crites is the researcher that first described the concept of “career maturity.”
	True
	False

15.	A dog is trained to salivate at the ringing of a bell. What form of conditioning is this?
	Classical Conditioning
	Operant Conditioning
	Reinforcement Conditioning
	None of the above

16.	All humans have a five-stage sleep cycle and all cycle through the stages in the same order. Choose the correct sequence.
	Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5
	Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 1, Stage 3, Stage 5, Stage 4
	Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 5
	Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 3, Stage 2, Stage 5

17.	The “fields and levels” approach to group career counseling use one of the theories developed by what famous theorist?
	Jung
	Roe
	Holland
	None of the above

18.	What traits originate in the cerebral cortex?
	Thought
	Language
	Reason
	All of the above

19.	A conditioned association is not a learned association.
	True
	False

20.	What type of partial reinforcement produces the best response to stimuli?
	Fixed-ratio Schedules
	Variable-ratio Schedules
	Fixed-interval Schedules
	Variable-Interval Schedules

21.	The archetype of the “Shadow” encompasses which of the following?
	All that is evil
	Everything that is wrong with a person
	All of the things about a person that he or she will not acknowledge
	None of the above

22.	A counselor that decides his consultancy fee job-by-job instead of setting a standard rate is using a variable-ratio reinforcement schedule.
	True
	False

23.	Some counseling methods are “product-oriented,” while others are “process-oriented.” Which of the following is more interested in the product than the process?
	Transactional-analysis
	Client-centered
	Behavioral
	None of the Above

24.	Which type of memory retrieval requires a person to reconstruct a memory?
	Recall
	Recollection
	Recognition
	Relearning

25.	Behavioral reinforcers always raise behavioral probability.
	True
	False

26.	What is one of the most important hallmarks of the Formal Operations stage of cognitive development?
	The ability to make rational judgments without concrete objects
	The ability to reason deductively
	The ability to plan for the future
	All of the above

27.	What will the standard error of measurement tell you about a test?
	If the test is valid.
	If two sets of results are due to chance.
	If the test has a normal curve.
	If the test is norm-referenced.

28.	The four lobes of the human brain are each responsible for handling different tasks. Which of these lobes is responsible for processing tactile sensory information?
	Occipital Lobe
	Frontal Lobe
	Parietal Lobe
	Temporal Lobe

29.	Which of the following would not be a part of a standard first counseling session with a therapist who was practicing client-centered counseling?
	Introduction
	Note-taking
	Discussion
	All of the above would be included

30.	If a counselor's role changes from a nonforensic evaluative role to a therapeutic role, the client must be informed of the change as a matter of __________________.
	confidentiality
	treatment
	informed consent
	assessment