Hello all! I just took the EPPP today and passed (625 - I know I spent hours comparing people's practice test scores with mine and their final score, so I hope this is helpful). I spent many, many hours perusing this board leading up to last night, so I want to take some time to pay it forward, as others have done before me.
BACKGROUND: I came from a strong clinical PhD program, but felt that hardly ANY of this material was familiar to me (aside from stats and test construction), so I was starting from scratch.
MATERIALS: My employer purchased an AATBS package (books, practice exams x8, section quizzes, online audio lectures). I supplemented this with the 250 retired questions (I got it from here:
EPPP Retired Questions .... it looks like a scam, but the PDF will be emailed to you, I promise!). I also watched some REALLY helpful YouTube videos for the sections I was struggling with most - see my playlist here:
). Michael Britt has some cute mnemonics for Erikson's stages, Piaget's stages, and parts of the brain, while 'Memorable Psychiatry' was SUPER helpful for psychopharm and psychphys).
PREPARATION: I studied from the middle of November up until yesterday, so about 2.5 months. Thankfully my employer provided me ~1-2 days/week to study in December, but other than that I studied in the evenings and on weekends. I studied approx. 10-20 hours/week (total estimate, I would probably be horrified if I actually tallied how much time I spent studying). Over the past 3 weeks, I studied during every 15 minute break, over lunch, etc. I took the AATBS initial exam in November and got a 53% (eugh). I decided to read and highlight each of the content areas in order of emphasis on the EPPP (e.g., I/O, clinical, etc). I took the section quizzes as I read each chapter just to confirm I was absorbing most of it. After I finished the top 3 content areas, I began taking the practice exams in study mode initially 1-2/week and then 1 every few days. I decided to save #8 as my 'final' exam. My practice scores, in order from 1-7, were as follows: 48, 56, 60, 48, 56, 60, 54. Not looking great. I read the rationale for every item I wasn't immediately confident in answering or that I got wrong - if I still wasn't confident in understanding the answer, I Googled it and/or returned to the book. I finished reading all content areas (except stats/test construction/assessment), and began the exams again, also in study mode: 68, 71 (whoa!! progress!), 72, 65. At this point I was about 3 weeks out from the EPPP so I switched to exam mode and tried to simulate the test environment. I got 69, 67, 68. I was feeling pretty good about this. At this point I started watching the AATBS online PPTs/lectures of the areas I was struggling with the most (e.g., developmental models) while on the elliptical or bike. Two weeks out from test day, I completed the bank of retired questions and got a 76%. 1.5 weeks out, I completed the PEPPO (more info below, highly recommend doing this!) and passed. For the last 10 days, I reviewed study guides I made for each content area, watched the YouTube videos while taking notes, and just clicked through practice exams reading rationales.
PEPPO: Expensive, but worth it for me. My biggest stressor was about the differences between the AATBS question style and that of EPPP. It was wonderfully helpful for my own confidence levels. However, you do not really get feedback - you'll get a list of content areas with bars ranging from 'low' to 'high' so you can compare your knowledge across content areas, but not really within at all.
EPPP: Expect a long process! You will get your palms scanned, a photo taken, and you will be patted down/pockets flipped out every time you enter and exit the test room (e.g., for breaks). My goal was to complete 100 questions, then 80, then 45, as I noticed that my scores crashed towards the end of exams. I ended up taking approximately 3 hours for testing with two 10-minute breaks for snacks and tea. I flagged about 20 questions and reviewed those and made a couple changes, but mostly stuck with my initial answer. I had ABSOLUTELY no idea how I did - I was really only confident with 60ish questions, narrowed it down to 2 choices on another 50 or so, and then trusted my studying with the rest. After I closed out the exam, I went back to the waiting room and watched my score print out. The proctor blocked my score while she asked for my ID to confirm they were my scores - I was dying! She gave me my printout and I burst into tears while she looked at me with concern - come on, this has to happen all the time! I read on a thread somewhere that if you pass only one page is printed (containing your scaled score 200-800 and your NY converted score) and if you do not pass, two pages are printed (includes information about your performance on content areas). I can't confirm this is the case, but I did indeed only get one page.
I hope this is helpful and not overwhelming! I have never posted before so I am not sure how it works, but please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like any additional information about any of this process. I relied heavily on my peers before me, so I hope to pay that back in some small way. Good luck to you all!