CPCE Practice Exam sample questions

This is a sample of the Practice Exam provided in Dr. Andrew Helwig’s Study Guide for the National Counselor Examination and CPCE.


  1. The view that children begin their development as a “blank slate” has been identified by John Locke as
    1. tabula rasa.
    2. plasticity.
    3. resiliency.
    4. genotype.

  2. According to Erikson, young adults seek close relationships with others but fear that doing so would mean giving up independence. Erikson called this tension
    1. adaptation vs. accommodation.
    2. formal vs. concrete development.
    3. autonomy vs. shame and doubt.
    4. intimacy vs. isolation.

  3. The number of older adults is increasing for a variety of reasons such as better health care and the aging of the baby boomers. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
    1. The negative attitudes and stereotypes held about older people are often called ageism.
    2. Nearly 20% of older individuals have depression or other mental illness.
    3. Counseling with an older individual may work best using a problem-solving approach and dealing with specifics.
    4. An individual who reaches age 65 can expect to live to about 85 years of age.

  4. A counselor can use many different techniques with a client. One potentially powerful technique in moving the counseling process forward helps the client see issues and problems in a new light. This technique is called
    1. restatement.
    2. interpretation.
    3. paraphrasing.
    4. summarizing.

  5. A counselor who believes that people’s behavior is best explained as reactions to stimuli in their environment is probably working from a __________ theoretical perspective.
    1. transactional
    2. person-centered
    3. behavioral
    4. solution-focused

  6. Shawna is leading a group which is meeting for the third time. She notes that the eight members are showing a lot of resistance to the process and to her as leader. They are questioning the purpose of the group’s existence. It is likely that the next stage for this group to move into is
    1. working.
    2. consolidation and termination.
    3. transition.
    4. forming.

  7. China teaches in a K-6 school and has always been interested in young children learning about the world of work. For her second and third graders, she was most concerned that they
    1. do career exploration.
    2. begin the process of career awareness.
    3. start orienting toward careers selection.
    4. do specific career preparation.

  8. An important psychometric property of tests and inventories is reliability. A good definition of reliability is
    1. standard deviation.
    2. correlation coefficient.
    3. consistency.
    4. inclusive range.

  9. A class of nine students completed a mid-term exam. The most appropriate measure of the variability of these scores is probably
    1. variance.
    2. range.
    3. standard deviation.
    4. central tendency.

  10. One of the more recent identifiable trends within the counseling profession is related to
    1. disaster mental health counseling.
    2. state licensure of the counseling profession.
    3. international adaptation of the U.S. model of counseling.
    4. national accreditation of counselor training programs.

ANSWERS: 1 (A): 2 (D): 3 (B): 4 (B): 5 (C): 6 (A): 7 (B): 8 (C): 9 (B): 10: (A)