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

Question 11 · Counseling & Helping Relationships

A counselor says, "It sounds like you feel stuck because you want to leave but worry about disappointing your family." This is best described as:

• Paraphrasing
• Reflection of feeling and meaning
• Confrontation
• Interpretation

Question 12 · Counseling & Helping Relationships

Which theorist is most associated with the concept of unconditional positive regard?

• Albert Ellis
• Carl Rogers
• Fritz Perls
• Aaron Beck

Question 13 · Counseling & Helping Relationships

In solution-focused brief therapy, asking "If a miracle happened tonight and the problem was solved, what would be different tomorrow?" is used to:

• Uncover repressed memories
• Help the client envision goals and exceptions
• Challenge irrational beliefs
• Assess suicide risk

Question 14 · Ethics

A former client invites the counselor to begin a romantic relationship two years after termination. Under the ACA Code of Ethics, the counselor should:

• Accept, since two years have passed
• Decline, because romantic relationships with former clients are prohibited for five years
• Accept only if the client signs a waiver
• Refer the client to another counselor and then accept

Question 15 · Ethics

A 15-year-old client's parent requests the full session notes. The counselor's best first step is to:

• Release all notes immediately
• Refuse any information to the parent
• Clarify state law and the limits of confidentiality agreed upon at intake, and involve the minor in the discussion
• Destroy the notes to protect the client

Question 16 · Social & Cultural Diversity

An immigrant client retains her heritage culture while also adopting practices of the host culture. In Berry's model this is:

• Assimilation
• Separation
• Integration
• Marginalization

Question 17 · Social & Cultural Diversity

Brief, everyday slights that communicate hostile or negative messages to members of marginalized groups are called:

• Microaggressions
• Stereotype threat
• Acculturative stress
• Cultural encapsulation

Question 18 · Human Growth & Development

A child understands that pouring water from a short wide glass into a tall thin glass does not change the amount. According to Piaget, this child has achieved:

• Object permanence
• Conservation
• Egocentrism
• Formal operations

Question 19 · Human Growth & Development

A toddler who seeks the caregiver when distressed, is upset by separation, and is easily comforted on reunion shows which attachment style?

• Avoidant
• Anxious-ambivalent
• Disorganized
• Secure

Question 20 · Group Work

According to Tuckman, the group stage marked by conflict, resistance, and struggles for control is:

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing

Question 21 · Career Development

Super's theory of career development emphasizes:

• Matching personality types to work environments
• Life stages and the implementation of self-concept over the lifespan
• Unconscious needs shaped by early parenting
• Happenstance and chance events only

Question 22 · Assessment & Testing

A test that accurately predicts future job performance demonstrates:

• Predictive validity
• Content validity
• Face validity
• Split-half reliability

Question 23 · Assessment & Testing

Which scale of measurement has a true zero point?

• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Interval
• Ratio

Question 24 · Research & Program Evaluation

A researcher concludes a treatment works when, in fact, it does not. This is a:

• Type I error
• Type II error
• Sampling bias
• Regression to the mean

Question 25 · Research & Program Evaluation

Evaluation conducted during a program to improve its delivery is called:

• Summative evaluation
• Formative evaluation
• Meta-analysis
• Needs assessment