I'm a Music Therapist

Only a few months ago I was an intern eagerly looking forward to credentials, a new job, and finally getting paid to do what I love! But first, I had to pass the cringe-worthy board certification exam. Bleh. Read on for my process to get to Brea Murakami, MT-BC. (Finally!)

My internship was a little longer than most at seven months instead of six. Even with the extra time, it was bittersweet when I walked down the halls for the last time, said goodbye to friends, and got closure with patients. But I was really excited become a professional and be able to support myself. Working almost full-time for seven months without a paycheck makes you appreciate such prospects. Board certification was the only thing standing between me and my credentials (and officially getting my degree and first job and the culmination of the last 5 years of my life).

Tip #1: Start the registration process early. Start filling out your CBMT application around a month before the end of internship. For me, this meant sending official transcripts and getting my internship/university directors to send letters of verification. Request needed documents early. Administrators are busy people and my internship happened to be aligned with the end of the school year, hence busier than normal conditions. Bureaucracy meant that I didn’t sit for my exam until two months after my last day at the hospital.

Then, yay! I got my letter saying I can register for the test. This part of the process was pretty straightforward for me. The exam is given at various testing centers (usually in H&R Block offices) on computers. Appointments are set up online and you get to choose which testing center is most convenient for you.

Ok, now to the part with the most uncertainty. How do you study for a test that covers musicianship, music therapy theory, professional standards, and psychology? There is an official practice test, but I balked at the $75 fee.  I hoped I could find a better way.

Tip #2: Look for others’ perspectives on the exam. This post is just my individual opinion and the more subjective experiences you read or hear or ask about, the more well-rounded your information about the test will be. My friend, Allie McNay, who had recently passed told me that most of the test were situation-based questions that were looking for the best therapeutic response. She said it wasn’t something you could study for in particular and recommended I read the CBMT Scope of Practice (also found on the CBMT website). So I followed her advice and took a look. It was helpful because it reminded me of how wide-reaching our profession is and made me aware of all the areas I had to be proficient in. It fell a bit flat though because it lists categories instead of giving direction. So I began looking for other constructive documents to read up on which leads me to…

Tip #3: Read AMTA official documents. Okay, I’ll admit they don’t make for the best reading material, but these were helpful because I could study them for clear standards (especially for the professional development exam questions). I recommend taking a look at the AMTA Code of Ethics, Standards of Practice, Professional Competencies, and Advanced Competencies. Try using these documents to framework the experiences you’ve had during internship to relate them to situations you’ve had. These readings gave me understanding of the concrete behaviors expected of me as a professional music therapists, no matter the setting. And all music therapists should have a familiarity with these AMTA documents to be aware of ethical violations and what the community should expect from a music therapist.

Tip #4: Find free practice tests. After reading up on all this, try out a few practice questions to get a feel for how the test will be. There’s a handful of practice questions in the CBMT Exam Candidate Handbook, but I wanted to find more! After a bit of google-ing I found some practice tests (here, here, here, and here). They’re all in the same format and I liked the immediate feedback, some with short explanations.

Tip #5: Fill in the gaps. Hopefully by this time, you have a better idea of what areas you need to brush up on. You can go and review your notebooks, textbooks, and the internet to supplement whatever you still don’t feel comfortable with. For me, I needed to look more into diagnoses (autism, William’s syndrome, developmental delays) and approaches to music therapy with which I didn’t have first-hand knowledge). And also some figured bass from Music Theory I.

When test day came, I was pretty confident I was going to pass but brought some notebooks to go over on the train. There were 5 or so other test-takers from different professions like real estate, etc when I arrived. When taking the test, I recommend reading each question slowly and carefully to avoid any mistakes from reading quickly due to high adrenaline levels. (Or was this just me whose heart was racing when I started?)

Also, I had some weird questions like “If you’re in the key of C, what is the first starting pitch for the Happy Birthday Song?”. I assumed the “no talking” rule of the test center also implied singing wasn’t allowed either so trying to find the pitch was a little harder. But really, the majority of questions were situations. I felt my “clinical gut” carried me through for the most part. Just look for the most objective answer that avoids extreme wording like “never” or “always”.At the end of all 150 questions (sheesh), I had taken about 1.5 hours. Another test taker finished her exam the same time as me. Our results were printed out and given to us and then we were free to leave.

Tip #6: Read your results carefully. It gives both a scaled-score and a raw correct answers score. I had a bit of a scare when I thought my scaled-score was my correct answers score and I thought I hadn’t passed, so read thoroughly please. Luckily, my fellow test-taker and I had both passed! She was so excited that she gave me a hug which was unexpected, but not unwelcome.

So in conclusion, you’ve probably worked very hard getting your degree and through internship and you’ve developed a knowledge base and clinical perspective that the exam board is looking for so don’t stress out too much. Trust your training, take any above tips that work for you and good luck! Feel free to comment with additional tips, experiences, or announcements when you’ve passed!