The short answer is.....no, hours completed prior to your doctoral training cannot be used on your APPI sheet in place of doctoral hours. In previous years there has been a spot for these hours to be listed next to your pre-doctoral hours, though those were not included in the total # of accrued hours. You will need to put in at least 500 contact hours during your practica to meet the minimum requirements for most internship sites. Some settings require more/less, but as a rule....500 contact hours would be the bare minimum I would consider to be competitive.
Here is a more detailed explanation of what hours count, provided by Dr. Jason Williams, a currnet APPIC Board Member. This information was pulled from the APPIC List Serv:
For the Intervention Section:
When counting practicum hours, you should consider the following important information and definitions:
1. You should onlyrecord hours for which you received formal academic training and credit or which were program-sanctioned training or program-sanctioned work experiences (e.g., VA summer traineeship, clinical research positions, time spent in the same practicum setting after the official practicum has ended). Practicum hours must be supervised. Please consult with your academic training director to determine whether experiences are considered program sanctioned or not. The academic training director must be aware of and approve of the clinical activity. Academic credit is not a requirement in all cases. Other sections of this application will allow you an opportunity to summarize your supervision experiences, anticipated practicum experiences and support activities. Other relevant experience that does not fit into the above definition can be described on your Curriculum Vitae.
2. The experiences that you are summarizing in this section are professional activities that you have provided in the presence of a client. Experiences involving gathering information about the client / patient, but not in the actual presence of the client / patient, should be recorded in the section, "Support Activities." Although the field of Psychology is currently discussing distance interventions (telephone, webcam) as viable forms of intervention, for the purposes of this application, such interventions should be noted in the Support Activities section.
3. A practicum hour is defined as a clock hour, not a semester / quarter hour. A 45-50 minute client / patient hour may be counted as one practicum hour.
4. You may have some experiences that could potentially fall under more than one category, but it is your responsibility to select the category that you feel best captures the experience. (For example, a Stress Management group might be classified as a group or as a Medical / Health-Related Intervention, but not both.) The categories are meant to be mutually exclusive; thus, any practicum hour should be counted only once.
5. Only include practicum experience accrued up to November 1 of the year in which you are applying for internship. You may describe the practicum experience that you anticipate accruing after November 1 in the section, "Summary of Doctoral Training."
6. When calculating practicum hours, you should provide your best estimate of hours accrued or number of clients / patients seen. It is understood that you may not have the exact numbers available. Please round to the nearest whole number. Use your best judgment, in consultation with your academic training director, in quantifying your practicum experience.
7. Please report actual clock hours in direct service to clients / patients. Hours should not be counted in more than one category.
8. For the "Total hours face-to-face" columns, count each hour of a group, family, or couples session as one practicum hour. For example, a two-hour group session with 12 adults is counted as two hours.
9. For the "# of different..." columns, count a couple, family, or group as one (1) unit. For example, meeting with a group of 12 adults over a ten-week period for two hours per week counts as 20 hours and one (1) group. Groups may be closed or open membership; but, in either case, count the group as one group.
For the Assessment section:
1. When counting practicum hours, you should consider the following important information and definitions:
2. You should onlyrecord hours for which you received formal academic training and credit or which were program-sanctioned training or program-sanctioned work experiences (e.g., VA summer traineeship, clinical research positions, time spent in the same practicum setting after the official practicum has ended). Practicum hours must be supervised. Please consult with your academic training director to determine whether experiences are considered program sanctioned or not. The academic training director must be aware of and approve of the clinical activity. Academic credit is not a requirement in all cases. Other sections of this application will allow you an opportunity to summarize your supervision experiences, anticipated practicum experiences and support activities. Other relevant experience that does not fit into the above definition can be described on your Curriculum Vitae.
3. The experiences that you are summarizing in this section are professional activities that you have provided in the presence of a client. Experiences involving gathering information about the client / patient, but not in the actual presence of the client / patient, should be recorded in the section, "Support Activities." Although the field of Psychology is currently discussing distance interventions (telephone, webcam) as viable forms of intervention, for the purposes of this application, such interventions should be noted in the Support Activities section.
4. A practicum hour is defined as a clock hour, not a semester / quarter hour. A 45-50 minute client / patient hour may be counted as one practicum hour.
5. You may have some experiences that could potentially fall under more than one category, but it is your responsibility to select the category that you feel best captures the experience. (For example, a Stress Management group might be classified as a group or as a Medical / Health-Related Intervention, but not both.) The categories are meant to be mutually exclusive; thus, any practicum hour should be counted only once.
6. Only include practicum experience accrued up to November 1 of the year in which you are applying for internship. You may describe the practicum experience that you anticipate accruing after November 1 in the section, "Summary of Doctoral Training."
7. When calculating practicum hours, you should provide your best estimate of hours accrued or number of clients / patients seen. It is understood that you may not have the exact numbers available. Please round to the nearest whole number. Use your best judgment, in consultation with your academic training director, in quantifying your practicum experience.
8. Please report actual clock hours in direct service to clients / patients. Hours should not be counted in more than one category.
9. For the "Total hours face-to-face" columns, count each hour of a group, family, or couples session as one practicum hour. For example, a two-hour group session with 12 adults is counted as two hours.
10. For the "# of different..." columns, count a couple, family, or group as one (1) unit. For example, meeting with a group of 12 adults over a ten-week period for two hours per week counts as 20 hours and one (1) group. Groups may be closed or open membership; but, in either case, count the group as one group.
) so I want to make sure I'm as competitive as I can be with that limitation! Any suggestions? 
