National Counseling Exam 2024/2025 Pretest
ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
ANSWERS
A behavioral counselor is working with a client who complains of anxiety. Together the
counselor and the client examine both the antecedents and consequences of the behavior
(anxiety). Understanding the nature of operant conditioning, the counselor and the client decide
to eliminate the unwanted behavior through extinction by
A. aversive counterconditioning
B. implosion or flooding
C. punishment
D. thought stopping - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅B. implosion or flooding
A counselor is developing a genogram during the second session in family counseling. As the
clients talk of their family backgrounds, the counselor realizes that the wife in counseling is
actually her second or third cousin of which the woman is unaware. The counselor decides -
CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅to tell the woman they are relatives and refer the family after
explaining her ethical position.
Maria, a 25-year-old Latina woman, is in career counseling. In reviewing her background, the
counselor determines that she has followed the 'rules' and expectations of her close-knit family.
She now finds herself in a position needing to support her family on her own and can't decide
between three different occupational possibilities which she has heard about. Maria may be
characterized as
A. career inefficacious
B. career undecided
C. needing more schooling
D. career indecisive - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅B. career undecided.
Client: "I wrote some more in my journal yesterday. I wrote about the strong urge to eat after I
visited my mother. I almost went to the store for junk food but I didn't" Counselor: "The urge to
,eat was connected with your mother." A long silence follows. The probable cause for the client's
silence was
A. boredom
B. hostility toward the counselor
C. emotional or cognitive integration
D. waiting for the counselor to lead - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅C. Emotional or cognitive
integration
Research suggests that television may be an important socializing force on children. Which of
the following is NOT true?
A. Observation of television violence has been shown to increase aggression in viewers.
B. The most effective positive models on television are those who resemble parents and teachers.
C. Television may affect children's world view in such a way that they see the world as mean and
scary.
D. Television has little potential to teach children positive, prosocial behaviors. - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅✅D. Television has little potential to teach children positive, prosocial
behaviors.
On a college campus, a group of minority students has been protesting their treatment alluding to
harassing comments by whites and what they believe to be discrimination in the grading system
by their professors. Eleven of these students have come to the campus counseling center and
want to begin a group experience to arrive at some answers and find solutions. The most
appropriate theoretical orientation of the counselor assigned to lead the group is
A. behavioral
B. psychoanalytic
C. gestalt
D. client-centered - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. Behavioral
Which of the following is NOT an axis dimension of the DSM-IV?
A. Age of syndrome appearance.
B. Medical condition
,C. Clinical disorder
D. Psychosocial and environmental problems. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. Age of
syndrome appearance
An employment counselor uses the General Aptitude Test Battery which means nine aptitudes
important for different jobs. His clients are typically uneducated. Because the counselor is
concerned how his clients' scores stack up against others and how they would perceive their
aptitudes, he interprets the scores to each of his clients
A. ipsatively
B. using national norms.
C. using local norms.
D. in relationship to other tests - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. ipsatively
In the last few years several national surveys have been conducted inquiring about career related
issues. These surveys, typically conducted with adults, rely on self-report data to draw
conclusions in a variety of areas. In general, an accurate statement that can be drawn from these
recent surveys is
A. the vast majority of workers hold jobs for which they carefully planned.
B. over fifty percent of the workers indicated that they planned to change jobs during the next
three years.
C. the majority of workers would try to gather more information about their options if they were
to start their career over again.
D. there is a small need for career counselors. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅C. the majority
of workers would try to gather more information about their options if they were to start their
career over again
A licensed professional counselor in private practice is also trained in career counseling and
occasionally sees a client for career work. The counselor receives insurance reimbursement,
generally, including for services she provides for her career clients who are often experiencing
anxiety and work-related stress. The counselor assigns a DSM code to these clients even though
the insurance company's policies indicate that payment for career services is not reimbursable.
Which of the following statements is most accurate?
A. The counselor is okay because she is concerned about the general health and welfare of the
client as the ethical code expects.
, B. The counselor is not okay because career counseling problems are not reimbursable and this is
insurance fraud.
C. The counselor is okay because the experts in the literature agree that career counseling is
personal counseling.
D. The counselor knows other counselors who - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅B. The
counselor is not okay because career counseling problems are not reimbursable and this is
insurance fraud.
The eclectic approach to counseling assumes a broad knowledge of a variety of theoretical
approaches. Which of the following is NOT a factor in determining the counselor-client
relationship for someone operating from an eclectic point of view?
A. Diagnostic ability.
B. Knowledge of techniques.
C. Supportive counselor role.
D. Strong focus on cognitions. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅D. strong focus on cognitions
A school counselor is interested in determining whether seniors who have jobs receive lower
grades on national test scores than those who do not work. Let's assume that in May of the school
year he finds that approximately 250 seniors worked this past school year and 250 did not. He
compares their GPA, class rank information, and ACT scores. If all these indicators were lower
for the seniors who worked, the counselor would be tempted to say that having a job causes the
lower indicators. He would be wrong to say that because this study is
A. a causal-comparative investigation
B. an experiment
C. a survey
D. a descriptive study - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. causal-comparative investigation
Historically, there were many influences on the development of the testing movement. Which
one of the following was NOT an early influence?
A. Civil rights movement.
B. Compulsory school attendance
C. World War I.
ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
ANSWERS
A behavioral counselor is working with a client who complains of anxiety. Together the
counselor and the client examine both the antecedents and consequences of the behavior
(anxiety). Understanding the nature of operant conditioning, the counselor and the client decide
to eliminate the unwanted behavior through extinction by
A. aversive counterconditioning
B. implosion or flooding
C. punishment
D. thought stopping - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅B. implosion or flooding
A counselor is developing a genogram during the second session in family counseling. As the
clients talk of their family backgrounds, the counselor realizes that the wife in counseling is
actually her second or third cousin of which the woman is unaware. The counselor decides -
CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅to tell the woman they are relatives and refer the family after
explaining her ethical position.
Maria, a 25-year-old Latina woman, is in career counseling. In reviewing her background, the
counselor determines that she has followed the 'rules' and expectations of her close-knit family.
She now finds herself in a position needing to support her family on her own and can't decide
between three different occupational possibilities which she has heard about. Maria may be
characterized as
A. career inefficacious
B. career undecided
C. needing more schooling
D. career indecisive - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅B. career undecided.
Client: "I wrote some more in my journal yesterday. I wrote about the strong urge to eat after I
visited my mother. I almost went to the store for junk food but I didn't" Counselor: "The urge to
,eat was connected with your mother." A long silence follows. The probable cause for the client's
silence was
A. boredom
B. hostility toward the counselor
C. emotional or cognitive integration
D. waiting for the counselor to lead - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅C. Emotional or cognitive
integration
Research suggests that television may be an important socializing force on children. Which of
the following is NOT true?
A. Observation of television violence has been shown to increase aggression in viewers.
B. The most effective positive models on television are those who resemble parents and teachers.
C. Television may affect children's world view in such a way that they see the world as mean and
scary.
D. Television has little potential to teach children positive, prosocial behaviors. - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅✅D. Television has little potential to teach children positive, prosocial
behaviors.
On a college campus, a group of minority students has been protesting their treatment alluding to
harassing comments by whites and what they believe to be discrimination in the grading system
by their professors. Eleven of these students have come to the campus counseling center and
want to begin a group experience to arrive at some answers and find solutions. The most
appropriate theoretical orientation of the counselor assigned to lead the group is
A. behavioral
B. psychoanalytic
C. gestalt
D. client-centered - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. Behavioral
Which of the following is NOT an axis dimension of the DSM-IV?
A. Age of syndrome appearance.
B. Medical condition
,C. Clinical disorder
D. Psychosocial and environmental problems. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. Age of
syndrome appearance
An employment counselor uses the General Aptitude Test Battery which means nine aptitudes
important for different jobs. His clients are typically uneducated. Because the counselor is
concerned how his clients' scores stack up against others and how they would perceive their
aptitudes, he interprets the scores to each of his clients
A. ipsatively
B. using national norms.
C. using local norms.
D. in relationship to other tests - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. ipsatively
In the last few years several national surveys have been conducted inquiring about career related
issues. These surveys, typically conducted with adults, rely on self-report data to draw
conclusions in a variety of areas. In general, an accurate statement that can be drawn from these
recent surveys is
A. the vast majority of workers hold jobs for which they carefully planned.
B. over fifty percent of the workers indicated that they planned to change jobs during the next
three years.
C. the majority of workers would try to gather more information about their options if they were
to start their career over again.
D. there is a small need for career counselors. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅C. the majority
of workers would try to gather more information about their options if they were to start their
career over again
A licensed professional counselor in private practice is also trained in career counseling and
occasionally sees a client for career work. The counselor receives insurance reimbursement,
generally, including for services she provides for her career clients who are often experiencing
anxiety and work-related stress. The counselor assigns a DSM code to these clients even though
the insurance company's policies indicate that payment for career services is not reimbursable.
Which of the following statements is most accurate?
A. The counselor is okay because she is concerned about the general health and welfare of the
client as the ethical code expects.
, B. The counselor is not okay because career counseling problems are not reimbursable and this is
insurance fraud.
C. The counselor is okay because the experts in the literature agree that career counseling is
personal counseling.
D. The counselor knows other counselors who - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅B. The
counselor is not okay because career counseling problems are not reimbursable and this is
insurance fraud.
The eclectic approach to counseling assumes a broad knowledge of a variety of theoretical
approaches. Which of the following is NOT a factor in determining the counselor-client
relationship for someone operating from an eclectic point of view?
A. Diagnostic ability.
B. Knowledge of techniques.
C. Supportive counselor role.
D. Strong focus on cognitions. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅D. strong focus on cognitions
A school counselor is interested in determining whether seniors who have jobs receive lower
grades on national test scores than those who do not work. Let's assume that in May of the school
year he finds that approximately 250 seniors worked this past school year and 250 did not. He
compares their GPA, class rank information, and ACT scores. If all these indicators were lower
for the seniors who worked, the counselor would be tempted to say that having a job causes the
lower indicators. He would be wrong to say that because this study is
A. a causal-comparative investigation
B. an experiment
C. a survey
D. a descriptive study - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅✅A. causal-comparative investigation
Historically, there were many influences on the development of the testing movement. Which
one of the following was NOT an early influence?
A. Civil rights movement.
B. Compulsory school attendance
C. World War I.
