LMSW guideExam format
What Is on the LMSW Exam? The 2026 ASWB Masters Content Outline
The ASWB Masters exam tests three content areas and ten competencies. Here is what each competency asks you to decide, and how many scored items each area likely carries.
Short answer
The 2026 ASWB Masters exam tests three content areas: Values and Ethics (35%), Assessment and Planning (33%), and Intervention and Practice (32%). The areas divide into ten competencies, and every question is written to one applied knowledge statement within a competency. The outline applies to exams given on or after August 3, 2026. Compared with the Bachelors exam, the Masters exam uses a larger share of application and reasoning questions.
The three areas and what they weigh
The current Masters outline is printed in the 2026 ASWB Examination Guidebook. Every outline follows the same model: three broad content areas with percentages, competencies under each area, and applied knowledge statements under each competency.
| Content area | Weight | About how many of the 110 scored items | Competencies |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. Values and Ethics | 35% | 38 to 39 | IA Ethical Principles and Responsibilities · IB Ethical Service Delivery · IC Diversity and Social Justice |
| II. Assessment and Planning | 33% | about 36 | IIA Assessment Concepts · IIB Assessment Methods and Techniques · IIC Assessment Practices |
| III. Intervention and Practice | 32% | about 35 | IIIA Practice Concepts · IIIB Intervention Methods and Techniques · IIIC Practice Evaluation and Research · IIID Supervision and Administration |
The item counts are Passy arithmetic: each weight multiplied by 110 scored questions. ASWB prints this kind of calculation only for the Clinical exam, and it builds every form to the outline, so treat the counts as a planning guide rather than a promise about your form. The 12 pretest questions are not part of them.
Competency map: what an item in each one asks you to decide
The middle column paraphrases the outline's topics. The right-hand column is Passy's summary of the decision a question in that competency usually puts in front of you.
| Competency | Topics it covers | The decision an item asks for |
|---|---|---|
| IA Ethical Principles and Responsibilities | Informed consent, confidentiality and its limits, ethical dilemmas, core values, burnout and self-care, professional development | Which duty applies here, and what a competent social worker does when two duties pull in different directions |
| IB Ethical Service Delivery | Boundaries, self-determination, mandatory reporting, documentation, policy impact, death and dying, supervision ethics, billing, electronic practice, termination | The ethical action during service: what to do, record, report, or decline |
| IC Diversity and Social Justice | Anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice, justice principles, identity and intersectionality, accessibility, bias and microaggressions, exploitation, restorative practices, immigration | How culture, power, and access change the right response |
| IIA Assessment Concepts | Indicators and impact of trauma, abuse, neglect, exploitation, mental illness, and substance use; family dynamics; poverty; development and aging; defense mechanisms; placement and displacement; technology; client competence | What the facts in the stem indicate, and what that means for this person or system |
| IIB Assessment Methods and Techniques | Interviewing, risk of harm, involving clients, strengths and resilience, sensitive information, readiness for change, communication, records, the mental status exam | How to get the information you still need |
| IIC Assessment Practices | Community resources, cultural considerations, goals and triage, choosing a modality, medication use and side effects, readiness for termination | What belongs in the plan, and in what order |
| IIIA Practice Concepts | Strengths and empowerment, the helping relationship, the social worker's role, team collaboration, end-of-life practice, parenting, policy, permanency planning, community organizing | The social worker's role and stance in the work |
| IIIB Intervention Methods and Techniques | Crisis intervention, trauma-informed care, engaging involuntary clients, case management, evidence-based practices, harm reduction, contracting, discharge, groups, families, advocacy, social planning | Which method fits this situation at this point |
| IIIC Practice Evaluation and Research | Evaluating progress, practice evaluation methods, agency program evaluation, research design, reliability and validity | How to tell whether the work is working |
| IIID Supervision and Administration | The supervisee's role, workplace policies for safety and inclusion, risk policies, supervision and consultation models, transference in supervision | How a new social worker uses supervision and agency structures |
The content-area guides go deeper: Values and Ethics, Assessment and Planning, and Intervention and Practice.
How Masters questions are built from the outline
The guidebook says every question must relate to an applied knowledge statement, and that the outline does not set the order of questions on the exam. Questions come in random order, so an ethics item can follow a research item.
ASWB describes three cognitive levels: recall, application, and reasoning. Every exam has all three. The Masters, Advanced Generalist, and Clinical exams use larger shares of application and reasoning questions than the Associate and Bachelors exams. In practice, most Masters study time should go to applying a statement to a short vignette, not to memorizing its wording.
Two more guidebook points shape how you read a stem. A vignette's setting, whether a school, a hospital, or an agency, does not change the correct social-work action. And each question is self-contained: you are expected to answer from what the stem says, without adding facts it does not give.
How the Masters outline differs from Clinical
The three area names are the same on both exams, but the weights differ by one point. Clinical is 36%, 32%, and 32%. Most statements also appear on both outlines, including death and dying, burnout and self-care, agency program evaluation, the mental status exam, and medication side effects.
The real differences are a short list. Only the Masters outline lists permanency planning as a practice concept, community organizing and mobilizing community participation, social change and social planning methods, instruments for evaluating social work practice, and policies for a safe and inclusive workplace. The Clinical outline adds items such as using the DSM in assessment, research ethics, couples interventions, role play and assertiveness techniques, and fiscal management. LMSW vs LCSW puts the full comparison in one table.
If a source still shows four content areas, it describes the outline retired in August 2026. What changed in 2026 shows where those topics went.
Turning the outline into study time
ASWB's study-plan template asks you to rate how well you understand each applied knowledge statement on a scale of 1 to 5. Rating the ten competencies above is a quicker first pass, and the study guide shows how to turn those ratings into weekly blocks. For evidence at the content-area level, check the content-area breakdown after the free LMSW set. When one competency keeps coming up weak, study it on its own with the guidebook's references before you mix it back in.
Trust the source
Official sources
Exam policies can change. Use these primary sources for the most current details.