National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification
The National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification (NCE) is given by the National Board for Certified Counselors. The NCE test is required for counselor licensure at the state level and counselor certification at the national level. It is important to note that a license and a certification are not the same thing. A state license grants you permission to call yourself a counselor. The actual name of a counseling license can vary from state to state. Some examples are LPC, LPCC, LCPC, LCMHC, LMHC, and LPCMH. A counselor certification is not a license, but it does show employers that you have the met the national standards as a counselor. The NCE test gauges one’s skills, abilities, and knowledge in the area of counseling. The questions found on the test are areas of knowledge that should be known by all counselors.
If you are taking the NCE test to qualify for state licensure, you must meet the requirements specific to your state of residency. This may include a master’s degree and a specific amount of counseling experience. If you are taking the NCE test to obtain national certification, you must have a master’s degree in counseling, 3,000 hours of counseling experience, and 100 hours of supervision. You will need to complete an application and pay the appropriate fee, which is about $185, but may vary by state. If you are deemed eligible to take the NCE test, you will receive an admission letter and testing center directions by two weeks before your exam date. It normally takes about four weeks to process your application.
The NCE test is available in paper-and-pencil and computer-based formats. It consists of 200 multiple-choice questions that must be completed in four hours. The test is machine-scored.
On the day of the NCE test, plan to arrive at the testing center at least 30 minutes before the test begins. You will need to bring your admission letter and two forms of ID, one of which must contain a photo. No personal items are allowed inside the exam room.
The NCE test is based on eight content areas:
- Helping relationships
- Human growth and development
- Social and cultural foundations
- Career and lifestyle development
- Group work
- Research and program evaluation
- Appraisal
- Professionalism and ethics
The NCE test also covers five work behaviors:
- Counseling fundamentals
- Career counseling and assessment
- Group counseling
- Clinical and programmatic intervention
- Professional practice issues
After you complete the NCE test, depending on your state, your results may be available immediately. If not, your score report will be mailed to you within eight weeks. You will not be able to obtain your score over the telephone. Your score report will contain the following information: the number of questions you answered correctly for each section; your total overall score; the standard deviation and group mean for each section of the NCE test for the test overall, and; the minimum passing score. Because only 160 of the questions are scored, the highest possible score is 160. If you did not pass the NCE test, you will need to contact your state’s credentialing board to obtain information about how to re-register and take the test again.