The six new content areas are:

1 Professional Development and Self Awareness – 15% of items

2 Intake and Assessment -18% of items

3 Treatment Planning and Continuity of Care - 15% of items

4 Provision of Counseling Interventions - 20% of items

5 Indirect Client Care - 12% of items

6 Legal & Ethical Compliance - 20% of items

Great news! On the new exam, the eight CACREP Content areas used match the chapters in ALL of Dr. Rosenthal's print books, e-books, and audio books and thus his materials are still ideal for exam prep!

 

The NEW NCE Test Specification Changes on the Head of a Pin!

The NEW 2027 Exam has 170 questions vs. 200 in the previous version. It also has 30 questions being field tested. The past version checked in at 40. Thus, according to this the new version has a hairline higher percentage (approximately 2.35 higher percent) of field or pilot questions that are not graded. Like versions from yesteryears, you will not know which questions fall into this category so always try your best on all the questions and never, ever, ever, leave an answer blank!!!

The NEW 2027 NCE has three answer choices vs. four answer choices in the past version. Too put it bluntly: New version: ABC answer choices. Old traditional versions: ABCD answer stem choices. Is it easier to guess correctly on the new version? Absolutely! You have a 33 1/3 chance of guessing correctly as opposed to 25% on NCE’s from yesteryears. Your chances on the new version regarding guessing success will be 8.3% higher . . . and higher is better!

The NEW 2027 NCE will have a Spanish version option. Translation services were provided by a panel of bilingual NCCs from across the country.

The NEW 2027 NCE is 3 hours and 15 minutes or 225 minutes. There is an optional 15-minute break half-way through the test.

On the NEW NCE test takers may review exam answers for each half of the exam before submitting them. Once answers are submitted and the break begins a candidate is not allowed to return to the questions.

Your score is NOT compared to others or influenced by other test-takers . . . only by your individual performance on the NCE.

On the new version scores range from 100-500. 360 and above constitutes a passing score on any version of the exam. IMPORTANT: NBCC is crystal clear that the new scoring system does not indicate raw scores of questions answered correctly. Here is their example: “a score of 400/500 points would not translate to 80% correct.” To quote NBCC verbatim, “This interpretation is incorrect.”

Here again. To quote NBCC, “The passing score for the NCE will be calculated through a standard-setting process conducted by NBCC Psychometricians.” Subject matter experts (SMEs) will participate in the Angoff standard-setting procedure, which includes an individual review of each examination item.”

Preliminary pass-fail status is provided after the exam including performance on the various domains.

Onward!