Hi everyone,
So I took the dreaded thing yesterday and passed! WOOOHOOO! Scaled score of 556, which was just where I was aiming for. I know people who took it and scored in the 600s and 700s, which is awesome, but almost all of them over-studied in my opinion. I was totally aiming for passing and that was it. I am busy at postdoc and have two kids, so I wanted to put in a limited amount of time prepping, get this thing over with, and get back to my life. Plus, I think I could study >1,000 hours and still have items I did not know on the exam. The info out there is almost limitless, and because there is so much info, I felt a little lost as to what to do to study, so I checked around and did decide to buy study materials to help up my chances of passing the first time. Here is what I did to prepare:
I used Psychprep's audio and tests - I personally think they're too expensive, but I thought the audio was really helpful and the tests provided good explanations. I only studied for a month, initially just listening to the audio, but I found that the info wasn't sticking like I'd like, so I then followed my own condensed version of their audio/practice test study schedule that they provide. Now, Psychprep offers you these sample study schedules, which I found helpful, but their schedules are for 16 weeks of studying. I just condensed their schedule and did a week's worth of work in 2-3 days. If you have more time or like to stretch your studying out, then following the sample study schedules as they're laid out may be great, but I personally did not want to increase my anxiety by dragging out my studying that long. Other than the 5 practice tests and chapter quiz questions, I did not read anything or study any written materials.
I also only took each practice test (A-E) two times, even though the schedule says to take each test 3 times. I found that taking the test once in study mode, going over each answer and rationale, and then going back and taking each test again in retake mode was enough to help me feel prepared. I initially emailed my scores to a consultant thru psychprep, and he told me to stretch my studying out more, so while I like the idea of having someone help you and tell you when you're ready to pass, if you don't want to follow their exact guidelines, it's not really worth it. I only emailed him my scores once, then decided to do my own thing and never looked back.
I was anxious to take practice tests without delving into much content, but I found it helpful to miss questions and did not let my low initial practice test exam scores define me. I went from making 50% on test A the first time to 69% on Test E the first time. So, technically I never passed a practice test before I took the actual exam. However, I was told that as long as you make a 130/200 on Test E the first time, you should pass the EPPP (I made 138/200). I was a little concerned that I never passed a practice test, and that's partly to blame for why I went over audio and rationales again on the test questions and basically crammed the weekend before the test (told my husband he was on his own with the kids and studied about 8 hours on both Sat & Sun), but I have no regrets.
Now, as for the actual EPPP, it was helpful to hear from those who have gone before me, and this forum provided me with a wealth of knowledge in that area. I went into it knowing that there was going to be some info that I had never heard of, and like I said, I think keeping the mindset that I just need to pass and it was okay that I didn't know everything really helped me to stay motivated during the test. I found the wording of the questions to be overall much more straightforward than psychprep's questions. The strike-out feature was super helpful to me and I used that frequently as I narrowed down my choices. I think the test was a good mix of questions where I knew I was getting the right answer, questions where I could narrow it down to 50-50, questions that I could make an educated guess based on what I'd studied, and questions that I had absolutely no idea what the right answer was.
The exam itself seemed impossibly long when I began and then seemed like time was going too fast near the end. I tried not to flag too many questions, only flagging those I was completely unsure of, but when I got to the end of the test and reviewed my first few flagged questions I found that I didn't know them any better and had a headache, so I just decided to keep my original guess and not go over the rest of them and ended the test a few minutes early. When I walked out, I thought I'd probably passed, but would not have been surprised if I didn't. Needless to say, I was so happy when I got that one sheet of paper (I might have shed a tear or two).
Hope this info about my experience will be helpful to someone out there. Remember, you know yourself and just do what works best for you and try not to get overly stressed or bogged down. Take care of yourself and good luck to those of you preparing. You've totally got this!
. My exam cut off at 4 hours (despite on actual test day, I am allowed time and a half) 
. I contacted the company, which before hand they said as long as I take the exam in one sitting I will be fine and the duration does not matter, the exam cut me off at question 183. It generated me a score of 123/225=55%. I was unable to answer 44 questions. So I don't necessarily think that the 55% any indicator about taking the actual exam. I am curious your thoughts or even from people who have the test contract knowledge base that I surely do not have! 
