I've taken the SLPA written exam twice now and failed both times with scores around 65% when you need 70% to pass. The first attempt I went in with just the ASHA guidelines and figured my coursework would carry me. Big mistake. Second time I studied for 4 weeks, about 2 hours a night, and still came up short on the assessment and intervention sections.
My weakest areas seem to be speech sound disorders and AAC implementation. I can handle anatomy and basic phonology fine, but the clinical application questions trip me up every time. Does anyone have specific resources for those sections? I've been using the SLPA Exam Secrets book but it feels dated for the current exam format.
Third attempt is scheduled for 8 weeks out. I'm planning 3 hours a day Monday through Saturday, heavy on practice questions rather than passive reading. Has that approach worked for anyone? I'm starting to worry about the three-attempt limit some states enforce, so failing again isn't really an option.
Check whether your state has additional competency requirements beyond the national exam. California and Texas both have extra hoops. Found that out after I passed the written but still needed a state-specific form signed off by my supervisor.
The clinical application questions are brutal if you haven't had much floor time yet. I passed on my second attempt at 73% after I started framing every question as 'what would the supervising SLP want me to do here' rather than what I personally thought was correct. That shift helped a lot.
For AAC specifically, get comfortable with feature matching – it shows up constantly.
3 hours a day for 8 weeks is solid. I went from 63% on attempt one to 78% on attempt two doing almost exactly that. Practice questions beat passive content review every time for this exam.
The speech sound disorders section is heavy on treatment approaches. Know your cycles approach, minimal pairs, and DTTC cold – those three come up more than anything else. Also don't neglect the documentation and supervision questions, they're worth more points than most people expect.
I was in the exact same boat after my second fail -- what finally clicked for me was that I stopped trying to memorize the right answer and started dissecting why the wrong ones were wrong. Like, for scope of practice questions, I'd see an answer that sounded reasonable and I'd think "okay but why would ASHA say this is NOT the SLPA's role?" That shift in thinking made a huge difference. The free slpa education and licensure questions on here were actually really helpful for this because there are enough practice items that you can start seeing the patterns in the distractors.
Also don't sleep on the supervision stuff. It's one of those areas where everything sounds right until you really understand the SLP's legal responsibility vs. what they can delegate. I got burned on those questions twice before I realized I wasn't reading them carefully enough -- the wrong answers aren't random, they're designed to catch you if you only half-understand the concept. So when you review, don't just move on when you get something right. Ask yourself why the other three were wrong. That's the real studying.
I was in the exact same spot after my second fail, and the thing that actually moved the needle for me was stopping the flashcard grind and starting to dissect every wrong answer I got. Like, not just "oh the right answer was B" but actually figuring out why A seemed plausible and why the test writers put it there to trick you. The SLPA written exam loves these close-call scenarios where two answers both sound reasonable but one fits the SLP's scope versus yours. Once I started thinking about scope-of-practice logic on every single question, things clicked.
If you haven't already, the free slpa education and licensure practice questions helped me with this because they actually explain the reasoning behind each answer, not just the key. That's where I started catching patterns I'd been glossing over. You're so close to passing -- 65% to 70% is genuinely a small gap, and it usually means you're missing a handful of consistent blind spots, not the whole content area.
I was in the same boat last year, working full-time at a clinic as a tech while trying to pass this thing. What finally clicked for me was ditching the marathon study sessions and doing 20-30 minutes every morning before my shift instead. Short and consistent beat long and sporadic every time. The practice questions on the slpa/questions/education and licensure 4 section were honestly what moved the needle for me because they exposed gaps I didn't even know I had after reading the guidelines cover to cover.
Don't underestimate the licensure and scope stuff. I thought I knew it from coursework but the exam asks it in ways that trip you up if you haven't actually drilled it. It's less about memorizing rules and more about applying them to scenarios you haven't seen before. Give yourself at least two weeks of just questions, not reading, and you'll start to feel the pattern.
I was in the exact same spot six months ago, two fails and seriously questioning whether I was cut out for this. What finally clicked for me was switching from reading the ASHA guidelines passively to actually doing practice questions timed, like simulating the real test. I'd been studying the content fine but I wasn't used to how the questions are worded, and that tripped me up way more than I expected.
The other thing is scope of practice scenarios. That section is sneaky because a lot of it feels obvious until you're actually under pressure and second-guessing yourself. I drilled those until I could answer them without hesitating. Passed on my third attempt with a 78. You've got the knowledge, it's just about getting comfortable with how they ask for it.