CASLPA Exam Testimonial

Hi Everyone:

My name is Robby Hersh and I am a speech-language pathologist who has been working with Adult and Geriatric Neurogenics since I graduated in 1987. Since that time, I have always been an OSLA member but due to financial constraints in the early years, I had not joined CASLPA. With joint membership beginning this past year, I decided that if I were going to be a member, I wanted to be a ‘certified’ member. Apart from this need to be ‘certified,’ I also thought about the advantages of a national certification, with regard to moving within Canada and also the reciprocity with ASHA. So, I signed up to write the exam in September 2001. Initially I was really concerned about the fact that it had been about 14 years since I had worked with children, so areas such as child language, phonology, cleft palate, and fluency, could be a problem. I uncovered all my notes and textbooks from storage (yep, I still had them all) and I borrowed some notes and books from one of my students from the U. of T. in order to review the current material. I also used an old practice exam from the US just so I could hone my ‘multiple choice exam-taking’ skills. I spent about three weeks reviewing the areas in which I had not been practising and then I did one of the practice tests with the student who had so kindly lent me his notes (and offered much support). In retrospect, I think the extra day I spent on re-committing the cranial nerves and their functions to memory was a bit of a waste, but the rest of the time was well spent. One thing I noticed was that sometimes my answers differed from those in the answer booklet, because I had a different perspective after having practised for 14 years, than I would have as a new graduate. Nevertheless, I felt that the CASLPA test was fair. It did not ask very picky little details but looked more at approaches to take in different case senarios, and some of the classifications of disorders. Naturally I would suggest that others write the CASLPA exam upon finishing their graduate course work in Communication Disorders, when everything is still fresh in their minds, but I would say that it was quite ‘do-able,’ even for someone who had not written a formal exam in so many years! In fact, some of the general practice questions might have been easier for me, due to my experience. So, if you’re thinking about it, don’t let the passage of years scare you away. Try it! You might be really pleased to find you can still pass such a formal exam! And, hey, you’ll be able to add yet another letter after your name.

Robby J. Hersh, MSc, Reg. CASLPO, S-LP (C)