The National Counselor Exam is just one requirement for the NCC credential or national certification in counseling. Many states require passage of this examination before licensure is granted.
Taking the Test
The National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification is a 200-question, multiple-choice, non-sectioned examination representing each of the original eight CACREP (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs) content areas, with question content also emerging from the five job analysis factors. Thus, the NCE is not only anchored in the content validity of the eight original CACREP areas, but is also representative of the empirically determined five clusters of professional counselor work behaviors. A different form (version) of the NCE is compiled for each administration of the examination. Each form’s questions, which are drawn from the item pool for the NCE, have undergone extensive review and field testing.
Although each form of the NCE contains different questions, the content area and the respective numbers of questions representing those areas are consistent. Within the set of 200 questions on each form of the NCE, 160 of the questions are counted for the purpose of determining whether you surpass the minimum criterion (i.e., “passing”) score for that form. Thus, the maximum possible score a respondent can achieve is 160. The remaining 40 questions in each form of the NCE are being field tested to determine their appropriateness for future use. Each question contains an item stem and four response choices. There is only one correct response to each item. As much as possible, awkward, difficult, and “tricky” wording has been eliminated. While the exam is scheduled for a 4-hour period, most examinees complete the exam in 2 ½ to 3 hours.
The following is an outline showing the eight CACREP domains on which the examination questions are based:
Human Growth and Development – studies that provide an understanding of the nature and needs of individuals at all developmental levels.
Social and Cultural Foundations – studies that provide an understanding of issues and trends in a multicultural and diverse society.
Helping Relationships – studies that provide an understanding of counseling and consultation processes.
Group Work – studies that provide an understanding of group development, dynamics, counseling theories, group counseling methods and skills, and other group work approaches.
Career and Lifestyle Development – studies that provide an understanding of career development and related life factors.
Appraisal – studies that provide an understanding of individual and group approaches to assessment and evaluation.
Research and Program Evaluation – studies that provide an understanding of types of research methods, basic statistics, and ethical and legal considerations in research.
Professional Orientation and Ethics – studies that provide an understanding of all aspects of professional functioning including history, roles, organizational structures, ethics, standards, and credentialing.
Scoring the NCE
The methodology used to set the minimum passing score is the Angoff method, applied during the performance of a Passing Point Study by a panel of experts in the field. The experts evaluated each question on the examination to determine how many correct answers are necessary to demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to pass this examination portion. Your ability to pass the examination depends on the knowledge and skill you display, not on the performance of other candidates. Passing scores may vary slightly for each version of the examination. To ensure fairness to all candidates, a process of statistical equating is used. This involves selecting an appropriate mix of individual questions for each version of the examination that meets the content distribution requirements of the examination content blueprint. Because each question has been pretested, a difficulty level can be assigned. The process then considers the difficulty level of each question selected for each version of the examination, attempting to match the difficulty level of each version as closely as possible. To assure fairness, slight variations in difficulty level are addressed by adjusting the passing score up or down, depending on the overall difficulty level statistics for the group of scored questions that appear on a particular version of the examination.
