One Personal Experience: LEP Exam Prep Strategies

ByShameeka Lewis

Every few months, an eager school psychologist reaches out and asks a version of this question:

“How did you study for the LEP exam?”

Instead of digging through old texts and emails trying to remember what I sent the last person 😅, I figured I’d put everything in one place.

A quick disclaimer: this isn’t an official study guide, and I’m definitely not claiming to know everything about every version of the exam. This is simply the process that worked for me. Take what resonates, leave what doesn’t, and hopefully you’ll pick up an idea or two that makes your own study process a little easier 😊

My Background Experience

I think it’s helpful to know where I was professionally before I took the exam because it definitely shaped how I studied. By the time I sat for the LEP written examination, I’d been working as a school psychologist in California for about five years. My experience in the field was pretty broad, touching on all 10 NASP Domains of Practice. I also spent a lot of time supporting students with significant mental health needs, especially those transitioning to or from Nonpublic Schools and/or Residential Treatment Centers.

Outside of the school setting, I worked on the intake assessment teams of a few behavioral health hospitals, where I learned a lot about clinical assessment, differential diagnosis, and collaborating with psychiatrists, nurses, therapists, and social workers. I also made it a point to regularly attend local, state, and national professional development opportunities because I genuinely enjoyed learning from people doing great work in the field.

I share all of that for one reason: Your Experience Matters.

Whether you’ve been practicing as a school psychologist for two years or ten, you’ve already built a foundation. Studying for the LEP isn’t about pretending you know nothing and starting from scratch. It’s about identifying the gaps in your knowledge and filling them in.

If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this…

1) Start with the BBS Provided Resources. Specifically, the LEP Written Examination Candidate Handbook.

BBS Resources Exam Handbook

I know… these resources include a whole lot of information 😅 but they became my roadmap and anchor throughout the process.

Instead of buying every study resource I could find up front, I first worked through the exam candidate handbook. I wanted to understand the formatting of the exam and the knowledge topics that the BBS expected LEPs to know.

As I read through it, I asked myself one simple question:

“Could I confidently explain this topic to another school psychologist?”

If the answer was no, it went on my study list.

This one strategy helped me prioritize where to start instead of studying everything under the sun.

Sounds simple, but…

2) If I Didn’t Understand It… I Researched.

I wasn’t trying to memorize random facts. I was trying to understand how an LEP thinks.

One of my mentors kept telling me:

“Think like an LEP”

At first I remember thinking…okay, but what does that actually mean? 😂

The more I studied, the more it clicked. It wasn’t about finding the “right answer” to a practice question. It was about understanding my scope of practice, ethical responsibilities, applicable laws and regulations, and how all of those pieces fit together in real life.

Whenever I found a topic that felt unfamiliar, I went back to primary sources whenever possible. Again, most of my studying materials started with publicly available free resources, through the BBS, CASP, and other reputable professional organizations.

Ok, now this is where being a tech nerd paid off…

3) AI became my Study Bestie 💅🏾

Once I had identified the topics I needed to study more, I uploaded publicly available free resources into ChatGPT, NotebookLM, and Claude. Instead of passively reading documents over and over, I had AI turn them into practice questions, summaries, flashcards, and case scenarios.

One prompt I used looked something like this (copy/paste):

Assume the role of a subject matter expert preparing candidates for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP) Written Examination. Using the official examination outline (uploaded) as the framework, generate 15 multiple-choice questions covering the content area: [insert topic]. Make the questions moderate in difficulty, provide four answer choices, include an answer key at the end, and explain the rationale for each correct answer.

I also asked AI to explain concepts in different ways when something wasn’t clicking the first time. Sometimes all I needed was the information presented from a different angle.

Fun Fact: Notebook LM generated a podcast episode explaining LEP ethics after uploading the CASP LEP Ethics Handbook 🤯

And yes… AI occasionally got things wrong, so I always went back to the original sources to verify anything I wasn’t sure about. Treat AI like a study partner, not the answer key.

iykyk…

4) I Kept the DSM-5-TR Close By

I purchased the DSM-5-TR. Not because I was trying to memorize the entire thing (please don’t do that to yourself 😅), but because I wanted a reference book I could keep going back to, even beyond exam prep.

Whenever I realized there was a diagnosis or clinical concept I didn’t understand as well as I wanted to, I’d look it up, read more about it, and sometimes pick the brains of colleagues from other disciplines.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to work alongside nurse practitioners, psychiatrists, LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and other mental health professionals, so I wasn’t afraid to ask questions when I wanted another perspective.

I also found a DSM-5-TR diagnosis cheat sheet on Etsy that was helpful as a quick reference. Was it absolutely necessary? Probably not. But it saved me from flipping through hundreds of pages every time I wanted a refresher.

You’re not alone…

5) Don’t Study Alone If You Can Help It

One thing I don’t think gets talked about enough is how helpful it is to study with other people.

I joined the California LEPs Facebook Group mostly because I wanted to learn from practicing LEPs. There were great discussions about ethics, scope of practice, and the realities of the profession that helped reinforce what I was reading elsewhere.

As a bonus, I ended up connecting with a few other school psychologists who were preparing for the exam around the same time. We started meeting virtually to study, quiz each other, and talk through concepts.

Honestly…sometimes just hearing someone else explain something in their own words made it click.

👀 Procrastination? Is that you?

6) I Supplemented My Studying with a Couple of Paid Resources

Most of my studying came from free, publicly available resources, but I did end up buying a few things once test-prep anxiety and procrastination started creeping in.

One was Jana Parker’s Empower LEP Exam Mastery prep materials. I didn’t buy them right away. In fact, I held off until the last week before my exam, mostly because I kept second-guessing myself and wondering whether everything I’d already done was enough. Once I had them, they were a helpful supplement to my studying, affirming that I was indeed ready to sit for the exam.

I also mentioned the DSM-5-TR diagnosis cheat sheet from Etsy earlier. While it wasn’t a must-have, it fit my learning style and made reviewing a little easier when I wanted a quick refresher.

FinalThoughts

If you’ve made it this far, you probably noticed there wasn’t one magic resource that helped me pass.

Instead, my study process looked a lot like my professional life: identify what I don’t know, get curious, find a reputable source, ask questions, and keep learning until it makes sense. That’s really the biggest piece of advice I’d leave you with.

Don’t stress about finding the “perfect” study guide. Spend your energy understanding the profession. The BBS already tells us the areas we’re expected to know, so let that guide your studying instead of trying to guess what might be on the exam.

And finally…give yourself a little credit. If you’ve already been practicing as a school psychologist, you’re not starting from zero. You’re building on years of education, supervision, consultation, and experience. Your job now is simply to connect those experiences back to the LEP role.

I hope this gives you a few ideas as you build your own study plan.

If you come across another resource that was particularly helpful, let me know! I’m always looking to learn something new, and I’d love to keep this page updated with ideas from other LEPs as well.

Happy studying, and you’ve got this! 😊

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