Free NCE practice exam

Question 1 · Ethics

A client discloses in session that he intends to seriously harm a named coworker later that week. What is the counselor's first responsibility?

• Document the statement and continue treatment as planned
• Assess the seriousness and imminence of the threat, then take protective action including warning the identifiable victim if indicated
• Immediately terminate the counseling relationship
• Notify the client's employer's human resources department

Question 2 · Assessment & Testing

A test yields nearly identical scores when the same clients take it two weeks apart. This is evidence of:

• Concurrent validity
• Internal consistency
• Test-retest reliability
• Construct validity

Question 3 · Human Growth & Development

According to Erikson, the central psychosocial crisis of adolescence is:

• Industry vs. inferiority
• Identity vs. role confusion
• Intimacy vs. isolation
• Generativity vs. stagnation

Question 4 · Group Work

In Yalom's framework, a member realizing that others share the same fears is which therapeutic factor?

• Universality
• Altruism
• Catharsis
• Instillation of hope

Question 5 · Career Development

Holland's theory proposes that vocational satisfaction is greatest when:

• The person's abilities exceed job demands
• Personality type and work environment type are congruent
• The person progresses through predictable life stages
• Career choice is driven by chance learning events

Question 6 · Research & Program Evaluation

A researcher reports p = .03 with alpha set at .05. The correct interpretation is:

• The null hypothesis is rejected; results are statistically significant
• The finding has a large effect size
• The null hypothesis is proven false
• There is a 3% chance the alternative hypothesis is false

Question 7 · Counseling & Helping Relationships

A counselor responds, 'You sound exhausted from holding the family together on your own.' This intervention is best described as:

• Confrontation
• Interpretation
• Reflection of feeling
• Closed questioning

Question 8 · Social & Cultural Diversity

A counselor asks a new client how her cultural community understands her symptoms and what helps. This best reflects:

• Color blindness
• Cultural humility and use of the client's explanatory model
• Cultural encapsulation
• Assimilation counseling

Question 9 · Assessment & Testing

A client scores at the 84th percentile on a normally distributed test with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15. Her approximate score is:

• 85
• 100
• 115
• 130

Question 10 · Counseling & Helping Relationships

In motivational interviewing, a client says, 'I know I should cut back, but drinking is the only thing that relaxes me.' The counselor should:

• Provide education on the health risks of alcohol
• Reflect the ambivalence with a double-sided reflection
• Confront the rationalization directly
• Set a firm abstinence goal for the client