Exemption Exam FAQs

Beginning in late April/early May, emails are periodically sent out to students who have paid their enrollment deposit with a link to register for exemption exams. This email will be sent to the primary email you indicated on your application. If you do not receive this email, it may have gone to your junk folder.

• SWBEH 2063: Human Behavior and the Social Environment
• SWRES 2021: Generalist Social Work Research

• Incoming students who have a solid background in theories of human behavior may wish to take the HBSE exam. This is sometimes true of students who have psychology, sociology, and other degrees related to human development.
• Incoming students who have a solid background in the principles of social science research may wish to take the Generalist Research exam.
• Incoming Advanced Standing students (students who have already earned a BSW or BASW) that have not earned credit for these classes and think they have mastery of the material may wish to take them too.

• Students who pass one or both exemption exams are awarded 3 credits for each course exam passed, up to 6 credits.  
• Students who pass one or both exemption exams are exempt from having to take the course(s).
• If you pass one or both courses, your advisor will work with you to understand how this will impact the courses you should register for.

Each exemption exam consists of 75 questions multiple choice questions. Students must earn a score of 80% (at least 60 questions answered correctly) to pass the exam.

A student may attempt each exemption exam only one time. Therefore, if you take an exemption exam and do not pass, you may not retake the exemption exam for that course.

Yes, during the two hour period in which you take the exam, you will be able to skip questions, as well as go back and make changes to previous questions. You may not, however, leave the exam (or close your browser) and return to the exam at a later time.

• It is up to you whether you’d like to study for the exam(s). The exams are based on course content, and the current texts for the courses are:
  • Rogers, A.T. (2019). Human behavior in the social environment (5th ed.). Routledge. See notes above
  • Engel, R. J., & Schutt, R. K. (2017). The practice of research in social work (4th ed.). Sage.

Only you and the staff person who registered you know if you took the exam. Your results are not shared with anyone else, and your course instructors will not know that you took it. The main risk/investment is your time.

Exemption exams are generally offered in the late spring/early summer. Students who have been admitted to the MSW program and paid their deposit will receive an email in this same timeframe with instructions on exam registration.

• Both exemption exams are administered through Canvas (canvas.pitt.edu), Pitt’s learning management platform. You must have a University of Pittsburgh email address in order to access Canvas.
• After you register to take the exam(s), you will be able to access the exam on the day you registered for only. Instructions will be sent to you about this in the days before the exam.
• They are non-proctored, meaning students take each exam remotely from the location of their choice.
• Exams are two hours long and open-book. Once an exam is begun, you must finish in two hours. You may not leave the exam and come back at a later time to finish.

If any technical issues arise during the exam, please contact Pitt’s IT Help Desk (24/7 IT Help Desk | Information Technology | University of Pittsburgh). If you experience technical issues that the IT Help Desk is unable to assist you with, notify the staff member who registered you by email on that day (if a business day), or the following business day if not.

If you need an accommodation, please ask the Office of Disability Resources and Services (Disability Resources and Services | Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion | University of Pittsburgh) and notify us as well. We will work with you to accommodate you to the best of our abilities.