Twelve weeks, in the order a case unfolds.
A printable 12-week schedule for the NCMHCE, designed by Dr. W. Each week names the domain, the lesson to read, the cases to work, and the NCE lessons that carry the knowledge the case will test.
- ✓Twelve weeks on two printable pages. Print it and put it on the wall.
- ✓Follows the order of a case: intake, diagnosis, plan, intervention, ethics. The order the questions come in.
- ✓Two knowledge weeks on the DSM-5-TR, because the diagnoses are what the cases are built around.
- ✓The full timed exam in week ten, then a taper, so you can walk in rested.
Taking the NCE instead? The 16-week NCE plan is here.
Four phases. Each one has a job.
Read the case
The reading method, then the intake: mental status, screening scores and the risk sentence you cannot skip. Two cases a week from the first week.
Diagnose and plan
Two weeks on the DSM-5-TR, durations and rule-outs, drawing on the NCE clinical lessons. Then goals, measurable objectives and level of care.
Respond
A catch-up week, then the two largest domains: the counselor's next response, session by session, and the ethical and legal questions a case folds in.
Exam conditions, then taper
The full timed exam under real conditions, a week on your two weakest domains, then rest. The plan tells you when to stop.
Two rules that hold all twelve weeks: answer each section's questions before you read the next section, and never take the full timed exam twice in the same week.
The cases assume you know the content. The plan tells you where to get it.
The NCMHCE course teaches how a case asks its questions. The DSM-5-TR criteria, the treatment literature and the ACA Code are taught in the free NCE course, and every NCMHCE lesson now lists the NCE lessons it draws on. The plan schedules them week by week.