Free NCE practice test: are you ready?

5 sample NCE questions, explained

From the practice tests in our guide. Try them before you open the answer.

1. 1. According to the ACA Code of Ethics, which situation is a recognized exception to the counselor's duty to protect confidential information?

   • A. A client's spouse wants to know the client's diagnosis because the spouse provides care.
   • B. A client's employer asks for an update about the client's work-related stress.
   • C. A client is at serious and foreseeable risk of harming another person.
   • D. A family member is paying for treatment and requests information about progress.
   Show the answer

   Correct: C (A client is at serious and foreseeable risk of harming another person.).

   The ACA Code recognizes serious and foreseeable harm as a limit on confidentiality, permitting or requiring disclosure to protect the client or an identifiable other. A third party's request or financial involvement does not by itself create an exception.

   Topic: Professional Practice and Ethics, Laws, Codes, and Decision-Making

2. 2. When asked what the proverb 'People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones' means, which response most clearly demonstrates concrete thinking?

   • A. Be tolerant of human weakness because nobody is perfect
   • B. If you throw a stone at a glass house, the glass will break
   • C. You should not criticize others for flaws you also have
   • D. People are less likely to attack you if you keep your own faults private
   Show the answer

   Correct: B (If you throw a stone at a glass house, the glass will break).

   Concrete thinking interprets a proverb literally rather than abstractly. The response about not throwing stones to avoid breaking glass reflects a concrete interpretation, while the other options capture the figurative meaning of acknowledging one's own faults.

   Topic: Intake, Assessment, and Diagnosis, From First Contact to Case Formulation

3. 3. According to Erikson's psychosocial theory, what is the central developmental task of an infant in the first year of life?

   • A. Comparing their abilities with those of peers and developing a sense of competence
   • B. Developing a basic sense that caregivers will respond consistently to needs such as hunger and distress
   • C. Planning and carrying out activities with purpose
   • D. Exercising willpower by making choices about food, clothing, and play
   Show the answer

   Correct: B (Developing a basic sense that caregivers will respond consistently to needs such as hunger and distress).

   The first year of life corresponds to Erikson's trust versus mistrust stage, in which consistent, responsive care helps the infant develop a sense that needs will be met. The other listed concerns belong to later stages.

   Topic: Areas of Clinical Focus I, Human Development and Life Transitions

4. 4. Under the standard established in Tarasoff, a counselor's duty to warn and protect arises when a client makes a credible threat of serious violence against an identifiable victim. What does this duty typically include?

   • A. Breaking confidentiality only after the client has been hospitalized
   • B. Obtaining a court order before disclosing the threat to anyone
   • C. Warning the identifiable victim and notifying law enforcement, in addition to other protective measures as appropriate
   • D. Informing the client's family of the threat before taking any other action
   Show the answer

   Correct: C (Warning the identifiable victim and notifying law enforcement, in addition to other protective measures as appropriate).

   Tarasoff requires a clinician to take reasonable steps to protect an identifiable victim, and warning the victim and notifying law enforcement are standard protective actions. Hospitalization alone, family notification, or awaiting a court order is not the established trigger or response.

   Topic: Areas of Clinical Focus II, Crisis, Trauma, Abuse, and Addiction

5. 5. A couple has the same disagreement every week. The wife says her husband shuts down, and the husband says his wife rages at him. Which counselor statement best reframes the problem as the cycle rather than an individual deficit?

   • A. Perhaps your wife's anger stems from early attachment wounds that she does not recognize.
   • B. Let's focus on anger management skills for the spouse who yells during arguments.
   • C. If each of you commits to individual insight sessions first, this pattern will be easier to change.
   • D. The more one of you pushes and the other retreats, each reaction fuels the other; that loop, not either of you, is the real difficulty.
   Show the answer

   Correct: D (The more one of you pushes and the other retreats, each reaction fuels the other; that loop, not either of you, is the real difficulty.).

   Reframing names the interactional loop, not one person's defect, as the client, shifting blame from the partners to the pattern. Individual-focused explanations miss the systemic unit and are not the indicated intervention.

   Topic: Areas of Clinical Focus III, Couples, Family, Group, and Career Counseling

Frequently asked questions

Is this NCE practice test free?

Yes. It is free, it needs no account, and you see your result immediately.

How is the readiness verdict calculated?

80% or more correct = ready, 65-79% = almost, below 65% = not yet. It is a conservative bar for practice, not the official passing score of the exam.

Where do the questions come from?

From the practice tests in our NCE study guide, mixed across every topic of the exam: 25 questions per attempt. The sample questions on this page are not repeated in the test.