How To Prepare for the National Counselor’s Exam: Four Tips to Ensure You Remember Enough to Pass
As children we had to memorize a lot! To help us along, sometimes teachers offered us tricks that helped us remember things-like the musical notes that fall on the lines of the staff. I remember as an 8-year-old being told to learn the phrase “Every good boy does fine” in order to help me recall the notes “E-G-B-D-F”. Later, music teachers changed the phrase to “Every good boy deserves fruit” to make the image more visual. In this article I describe how visualization continues to be a key element in making recall easier.
A Necessary Evil
Let’s face it. Successfully passing the National Counselor’s Exam requires a certain degree of memorization. Perhaps just having the thought of tackling information that has to be memorized leaves you feeling:
· worried because you already struggle to remember everyday things.
· numb because you remember how difficult it was to pass exams in graduate school.
· overwhelmed with having too much to learn or re-learn from years ago.
· anxious about forgetting the material before the test date.
An Effective Approach
Memorizing by rote, you may easily recall, was painful and frequently unsuccessful. You may be asking, “Isn’t there an easier way at this point in the process of getting licensed?” You certainly do not want to fail the exam because your memory failed you. After all, you know you are an effective therapist, and you do not want to be prevented from practicing your craft just because you could not recall Kohlberg’s stages of moral development or the contributions of Holland.
In this report I will lead you through easy memory techniques that can turn memorizing large quantities of information from a nightmarish chore to something that is fun (yes, fun!), imaginative, and effective that gives lasting results. These techniques have been around for a couple thousand years and they still work!
Regardless of how you currently rate your memory abilities everyone has the capacity to improve this skill. How much this changes depends on diet, exercise, sleep, motivation to succeed, and your willingness to apply specific memory techniques. It is beyond the scope of this report to look at how diet, exercise and sleep impact memory. However, you probably already know that some change can happen based on your motivation to memorize the essential information you will need to know in order pass the exam on the first try.
So, the challenge remains: what techniques can help you memorize the exam material so it “sticks” at least until your exam date? While there are many effective techniques from which to choose, I have outlined those most likely to be helpful in studying for the National Counselor’s Exam.
4 Steps to Absorbing and Recalling Information Easily
In the following example I will describe how to remember the five stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) according to Sigmund Freud.
1. Substitute the word or phrase to remember with another easy word or phrase that sounds like it. Saying the word out loud several times can help you to find a “sounds-like” easier word. The substitution does not have to be exact. You will be surprised how remembering the easy word triggers your mind to remember the hard word.
Sigmund Freud Becomes Signal + Fred
Oral becomes Oar + roll
Anal becomes Anus
Phallic becomes Fowl + lick
Latency becomes Late + and + sea
Genital becomes Jen + is + tall
2. Vividly imagine a silly, impossible or outrageous image for the easy word or phrase. When possible, exaggerate the proportion or number or bring action into the image. Make the images so clear and detailed that you could describe them to another.
”Signal Fred” Imagine red flags waving to signal the red-headed Fred. The image of “red” comes from FRED. (This image brings in action)
“Oar Roll” Imagine an oar that has become free of its oar lock and
is rolling wildly around the bottom of a boat. (This also
uses an action image.)
“ Anus” Imagine a big protruding anus (This creates a silly
image, but one that is memorable.)
“Fowl Lick” See some kind of fowl, like a duck, licking grass in the
water. (This is another example of action.)
“Late and Sea” Imagine a very late night out on the sea.
“Jen is tall” Imagine Jen who is a very tall, like a giant mermaid.
(This uses exaggeration to create the image.)
3. Create a story that joins the images in order to each other to create a mini “movie”. A scene of the “movie’ should trigger the memory of the next image.
Scene 1. I see myself standing on the beach in order to signal the redheaded Fred (Sigmund Freud) with some red flags to let him know that the oar (Oral) in the boat is going to hit his anus (Anal), really hard.
[The two actions are connected because Fred and I are both near the water.]
Scene 2. Fortunately, the fowl, which licks (Phallic) the grass in the water nearby, distracts him and he moves away from the oar.
[This scene flows from the previous one because the fowl is also on the water.]
Scene 3. Later, when it is late at night, when he is out at sea (Latency), Jen, who is very very tall, (Genital) rises from the depths.
[Fred remains in his boat and time passes.]
While it took me awhile to create the image and to write it, the mental process that will recall this scene comes very fast and has the potential for staying with me much longer than if I had tried rote learning. The silliness, exaggeration, action and the vividness of the “movie” will provide the cues to the correct names of the stages in the correct order.
The above steps may take some time, at least initially, to find the right “easy ‘ word or phrase. With practice, working the part of your brain that “makes movies” will come easily and naturally. You will also find that this is fun as compared to the very boring process of rote learning.
When you are not studying, go ahead and just play with words. Notice how readily you can come up with words to connect to the names of towns near you or the things you see as you drive around town.
4. Review information periodically so you can recall it weeks later. Because we tend to forget things within the first few seconds or minutes, review the information at 10-20 seconds then 15-20 minutes, 2 hours, 1 day, 3 days and later. Gradually spread out the reviews over longer times until the day before the exam.
How to Review
When you review the information, apply as many of the following steps as possible.
1. Take time to really see the words as you read the study material.
2. As you read the “hard” words, say them out loud. This engages the visual and auditory channels.
3. Write the “hard” words on note cards that you can later use for review.
4. On the back of the cards, write down the “easy” words.
5. Draw the images with vivid colors, such as scented markers, in order to recall the “movie.” Stick figures work fine.
6. Say out loud what happens in each scene of the movies. Invite pets, friends and family to be in your audience. Hearing their reactions can make the material even more memorable and easy to recall. In addition, they can help with testing you later by asking you to tell you the story about the characters, such as Fred, in your movies.
Why These Techniques Work
You may be wondering if it is worth the time to create the “movies” in order to memorize something. The answer is YES! Aside from being more enjoyable then rote learning, the information will stay with you much longer. There are two main reasons why this approach works
One is because the more ways you have to remember things, the greater the likelihood that you will be able to recall the information. Different sense impressions are recorded in different areas of the brain. By loading the information into different sections of the brain, you are creating different neural pathways to the same information. For example, by using scented markers to add bright colors to your drawings you will create several pathways through which memory can be recalled. If one pathway should fail you, others may help jog your memory.
The other reason is that the process involves the process of “association”. (A word, by the way, that Piaget used to describe how children develop cognitively by making mental connections between the new and the familiar. It is also the best way to memorize material. In the above example, I substituted familiar words with the “hard” words.
Summary
1. Substitute the “hard word” with an easy word.
2. Create a vivid image of the easy word.
3. Link the easy words together to form a movie.
4. Recall the hard words by periodically reviewing the movie in your mind.
Resources
There is more good assistance available to you in addition to this report. This is available in three formats.
Individual Tutoring
You have our own style of learning. You may benefit from a private session because you need the one-on-one attention to stay focused and get your questions answered.
one-on-one attention we need to focus and get our questions answered. You appreciate being able to go at your own pace without the pressure of keeping up with the group. In addition, you feel less anxious or embarrassed about being a beginner student again.Group Tutoring
On the other hand, you may enjoy a group setting. You benefit from hearing others ask questions you had not thought to ask or to hear how someone else has thought to remember the information. Working in a group, you feel motivated to keep up and others help to hold you accountable to follow through on your studying.
What ever your preference, tutoring can:
· Point you to good study materials
· Organize the information for you in ways that are readily accessible
· Lead you step by step through the material that needs to be mastered
· Simplify research and statistics
· Keep you accountable to staying on track with studying
· Give you tips on how to approach multiple choice questions
· Identify ways you can take care of yourself during the 4-hour exam
· Help your self-confidence to return. After all, you did make it through graduate school!Flexible Design to Meet Your Needs In addition to face-to-face tutoring, I also offer instruction by conference call to students in over 30 states where the National Counselor’s Exam is the exam of choice for state licensure.
You can chose to study all eight sections of the test or just specific sections based on your experience or confidence of the mastery of the material.
Handouts include lists of keywords; important concepts and people for each section; test-taking tips and sample questions with explanations of the correct answers.
Monthly Newsletters
Being able to memorize and recall large quantities of information effortlessly is part of the challenge of preparing for the exam. Knowing what information to study and how to take the exam are two other critical areas in preparing for the exam.I address both of these concerns in my newsletter Preparing for the NCE Exam.
Each month I will provide questions from the 8 different sections of the exam followed by the answer in the following issue. These will point you to the information that will most likely be on the exam. Similar to the above example of Freud’s stages of development, the answers will contain examples of “easy” words and “movies” to help you in creating vivid easy-to-remember images of the correct response.
Endurance Exam
Taking a test that potentially could take up to four hours is like running a marathon. Passing the exam is not just about having a good understanding of the eight different test areas. It is also about being able to maintain your concentration for a long time without getting anxious, depressed or just plain bored. So that’s why I include tips on taking the exam in the newsletter. These include specific strategies in how to deal with multiple-choice questions and how to best maintain your energy over the long haul.
If you are interested in any of these forms of support, please visit my website at Tutoring For LPC Exam or call me at
720-635-7943.
© 2008 by Maggie Kerrigan. All rights reserved.
Published by Tutoring For LPC Exam
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in ad database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Tutoring For LPC Exam
The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and the document contained herein. However, the author and publisher make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, with regard to the informational content, documentation, or files contained in this book or in any accompanying media files such as CDs or DVD, and specifically disclaim, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to program listings in the book, the techniques described in the book, and/or the use of files. In no event shall the author or publisher be responsible or liable for loss of profit, or any commercial damages, including, but not limited to, special incidental, consequential, or any other damages in connection with or arising out of furnishing, performance, or use of this book, program files, instruction, audio or video connected with this information.
Further, the author and publisher have used their best efforts to proof and confirm the content of the files, but you should proof and confirm information such as dates, measurements, and any other content for yourself. The author and publisher make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, with regard to that content or it’s accuracy.
For more information, please write to:
1333 W 120th Street, Suite 217
Westminster CO 80234
Phone: 720-635-7943