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Getting Ready to Take the Exam

In October you will receive instructions for taking the written exam. You will also be sent your Unique Identifier (ID#).

Get ready for the exam in advance to make sure you can use all your time to write responses to the questions. First, print out a copy of these instructions to have at your computer when you take the exam; highlight the important points. Second, create two Word documents. You will use these files for writing and emailing your answers to Part I and Part II of the exam on the day of the exam.

Name the first document with your ID# and the letter A: for example 1234A.doc. Put all your essays from the first part of the exam into that document (e.g., 1234A.doc). Name the second document with your ID# and the letter B: for example 1234B.doc. Put all your essays from the second part in this document (e.g., 1234B.doc).

In each Word document, place your ID# (e.g., 1234) in a header at the top right corner of the page so that it appears on each page of the file you will submit. Set up a footer to insert the page number at the bottom of the page in the center.

Waiting until the exam to do these two preparatory steps will waste your time during the exam and may increase your anxiety.

If you are going to use a voice dictation service, be sure to read the specific instructions below.

Confidentiality and Social Media Guidelines

In order to assure that your examination is impartially evaluated, avoid including any identifying information in your essays. Avoid comments that would enable a reviewer to identify you, your training institute or trainers, your geographic location or place of employment. You may refer to the type(s) of facility in which you practice (e.g., day treatment program, alcoholism treatment center, etc.) and the population(s) served.

Candidates who take the written exam may not post anything on social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, etc.) regarding the written exam until 72 hours after completing the written exam.

You may not disclose questions on the exam or your responses on social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) until after you receive your results on or after February 1. Prior to that, you may only broadly discuss your feelings about the exam and your performance without revealing any specific information about the exam or answers to the essays. You may disclose questions on the exam and your responses to your colleagues and to your primary and secondary trainer provided they are not ABE exam reviewers this year.

Discussion of the exam questions on social media, prior to their evaluation by the examination reviewers, will jeopardize the integrity of the examination review process. Posting your answers to the exam questions may reveal your identity to the exam reviewers and interfere with your receiving a fair and impartial evaluation of your essays.

Candidates who have high profiles on social media may find it difficult to obtain an impartial evaluator for their on-site examination. All potential on-site examiners provided by the candidate are asked if they would feel comfortable passing the candidate if the on-site exam was adequate or failing the on-site exam if the candidate was less than adequate. Potential on-site examiners have withdrawn because they felt they had too much information about the prospective candidate to impartially evaluate an on-site exam.

Closed Book Exam

This is a closed book exam. You are on your honor to create new essays on the day of the exam to answer the exam questions. You may not look at your notes or any other resources when taking the exam. You may not cut and copy from any document whether printed out or on your computer. This includes copying from any materials you wrote before the exam. You may not search the internet or online for any information regarding definitions for psychodrama terms or answers for your exam.

Day of the Exam

Unless you have applied for and been offered special accommodations, you will be sent the exam in two separate emails. You will have two hours to write Part I, and three hours to write Part II. For example, if you receive the email with questions for Part I at 10:00 AM, you will return your exam by 12:00 PM; you will receive the email with questions for Part II at 1:00 PM and must return your exam by 4:00 PM. Note that your individual schedule will be determined by your requested schedule preference which in turn may depend on your location and time zone. If you requested and received approval for time accommodations please follow the unique time accommodations you received.

When you receive the exam email, paste the exam questions into the Word document you prepared in advance with a file name based on your unique identifier (ID#) followed by the letter A for Part I (e.g., 1234A.doc) and B for Part II (e.g., 1234B.doc).

Be sure your ID number is on the top right of each page.

Begin each question on a new page. Be sure that the question appears at the beginning of each answer. (For Sociometry and Methodology there should be two questions, each followed by your answer to the corresponding question.)

At the end of each exam period attach your document to the email that was sent to you with the questions and return it to us. Failure to return your exam within the time limits may result in your exam being disqualified.

Note that your final response to Part A must be submitted on time and before the break between Parts A and B. During the time allocated for Part B, you may not return to Part A to make any changes. Revised Part A submissions will not be accepted once the break begins between Parts A and B.

Tips for writing the exam

Relax and allow your creativity/spontaneity to emerge. Enjoy the process. You have completed your training and supervised practicum in psychodrama. Your primary and secondary trainers have endorsed you. You have considerable experience. Take a moment to center yourself and experience your creativity and spontaneity before answering each essay. You are ready to successfully pass this examination!

Read each question carefully before answering. Think about the question before you begin to answer it. Take a minute and organize your thoughts before writing your essay.

Follow the suggested time limits for each section. You must answer all the sections. Take the full time allotted to answer the question. Do not take less or more time then is allotted. Don’t forget to provide definitions and examples to support your essay.

Re-read the question and your answer to make sure you have answered the question. Within the time limit for a question, allow time to re-read the question and your answer to be sure you have answered the question. For example, if you have been asked to describe two (2) methods, be sure you have described two methods.

This is not your final copy. Focus on writing the best essay possible. Strive to be clear, coherent, and organized. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar. You will be able to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation in a final version of the exam. However, you may not rewrite sentences on your final copies or add new sentences to explain what you meant or to define a term or concept.

Preparation and Submission of Final Version of Exam

The final version of your exam must be received at the ABE by October 31. The final version of your exam will be submitted by email as explained below. Exams received after October 31 may be disqualified; if accepted for review, they will incur a late fee. A late fee penalty will be assessed for exams without correct formatting or file names.

On exam day day or the very next day, return to the essays you wrote and begin to prepare the final printed copies for submission to the ABE. This is the time to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation and to format all essays as specified below. Do not add or delete words from your essays or change the meaning in any way. Everything in the final version of your exam must be in English. (If you used a voice dictation service during the exam, refer to the special instructions below.)

Document Format and Submission

The following formatting instructions are essential to facilitate prompt and fair review of your exam. Final versions of written exams that do not follow the format specifications below may be disqualified.

Page format

  • standard letter size (8-1/2”x11”) paper
  • single-sided only

Text format

  • 12-point font
  • double-spaced
  • “normal” margins (1” for the top, bottom, left and right sides of the page)
  • Please don’t waste space by using wider margins, a bigger font or extra spacing between the lines.
  • Place unique identifier (ID#) in the upper right hand corner of each page. Do not put your name anywhere.
  • Below the ID#, place the exam area corresponding with the essay on that page (e.g., History, Philosophy, Methodology, etc.).
  • Begin each essay on a new page. (For Methodology and Sociometry, with two questions, begin the second essay on a new page.) Type the question in bold.

CP candidate instructions

  • Save the complete exam in a single file with your unique identifier (ID#) as the file name, e.g., 1234.doc. Number pages consecutively from the first to last page (e.g., from 1 to 27). Center page number at the bottom of each page.
  • Next, save each section of your exam in a separate file. You will have seven (7) files, one each for History, Philosophy, Methodology, Sociometry, Ethics, Research and Evaluation, and Related Fields.
  • Each of the seven files for exam areas should be named with your unique identifier (ID#) and the corresponding area, as in the following examples: 1234 History.doc, 1234 Philosophy.doc, 1234 Methodology.doc, 1234 Sociometry.doc, 1234 Ethics.doc, 1234 Research.doc, 1234 Related Fields.doc
  • In each file, number pages consecutively from the first to the last page (e.g., from 1 to 3). Center page number at the bottom of each page.
  • Submit all eight (8) exam files no later than October 31.

TEP candidate instructions

  • Each file should be named with your unique identifier (ID#), for example, 1234.doc.
  • Number pages consecutively from the first to the last page (e.g., from 1 to 27). Center page number at the bottom of each page.
  • Submit the exam file no later than October 31.

Use of Voice Dictation Service

If you plan to use a voice dictation service, you must inform the ABE ahead of time. Failure to do so may result in your exam not being evaluated.

On the final version of your exam, each section (i.e., Philosophy, History, etc.) must have the following footnote at the bottom of the first page:
*The candidate used a voice dictation service. A strikethrough indicates the language that was removed and () indicates the new language inserted. For example: “In 1921 no more hair (Moreno) conducted the first psychodrama.”

Exam Review and Results

Your essays are graded without anyone knowing your identity. The first review of your exam will occur in November and December. There are twenty-one reviewers for the practitioner examinations and there are usually five for the trainer, educator practitioner examinations. If the number of TEP exams is very high then there may be more TEP reviewers.

The Board of Directors makes the final determination of written examination results at its Winter Board meeting. A second review will be conducted for any exams evaluated as fail.

You will receive the results by February 1. If there are any problems we will contact you.

Revised November 2020