ILTS School Counselor (235)

It is a computer-based test made up of 100 multiple-choice questions. There are no constructed-response items and no reference materials are provided, so everything must come from your own preparation. You take it at a test center rather than at home.

You get 3 hours and 15 minutes of testing time, within a 3 hours and 30 minutes total appointment that includes 15 minutes for the CBT tutorial and nondisclosure agreement. That works out to roughly two minutes per question, leaving time to review flagged items at the end.

The passing score is 240. Score reports are scaled, so your raw number of correct answers is converted rather than reported directly. Plan to answer consistently across the whole test rather than gambling on a few strong areas.

The test fee is $110. Testing is administered by appointment year-round, Monday through Saturday, excluding some holidays, at sites located in Illinois and nationwide. Check seat availability before you settle on a date, since popular centers fill up.

Preliminary test results are provided at the test center at the conclusion of your test session. Actual score reports are released on the published score report schedule, so the preliminary result is not the formal record. Keep your testing history accessible through your account.

Retake rules are set by ILTS policy rather than by the test page, so confirm the current policy before re-registering. Note that ILTS has announced that examinees with two unsuccessful attempts may be eligible to retake the same test at no cost, so check whether that applies to you.

The difficulty comes from breadth, not trick questions. Common failure modes are memorizing definitions without practicing applied scenarios, ignoring legal and ethical decision-making, and running out of time because of slow reading. Practice full-length timed sets so pacing and judgment become automatic.

Start with a diagnostic set to find weak areas, then study school counseling foundations, legal and ethical responsibilities, and direct and indirect services. Follow with applied scenario practice, then full timed simulations in the final two weeks. Use the official preparation materials alongside your own notes.

Yes. Tests may include questions being evaluated for future administrations, and those do not affect your score. Do not panic if a few items feel unfamiliar or unusually hard, since they may simply be unscored field-test questions.