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im starting the study process and am looking for some inspiration, some "light at the end of the tunnel" type of talk....
so, what was your experience?
so, what was your experience?
i didnt take the psych subject test for the GRE...Is your experience with EPPP at all similar to your experience of the GRE Psychology subject test? Both appear to require rote memorization. I know the contents are different but I am curious. The subject test felt like a piece of cake. I want to know if EPPP will be much worse.
Does anybody know if you can find practice exams for free online? I hear that they are really useful but don't have access to that many.
I think it also helps to accept that the exam is a "bar" one is expected to clear in terms of general knowledge identified with "being a psychologist". So even though you might never have studied a certain topic much or never want to practice in that domain, you still have some obligation to the public to know the basic terminology and be able to be (or help others be) an informed consumer of services psychologists provide. Students sometimes waste a lot of time/energy being mad at the exam and I think a certain amount of "radical acceptance" is actually key to getting it over and done with in your career trajectory.
most of my friends prefer psychprep and they all passed on the first go-round.
I failed this test several times and I am now going renagade as I have no more money to give to the boards.
i did about that well with no study....i think most of my problems came from I/O and second guessing myself.I just took my first full practice exam (no studying)...what a humbling experience. I scored a 55%, which I was told was decent. I only got a few wrong between neuro and pathology...but developmental theory and test construction was rough. so many of my "wrong" answers had to do with wording and not understanding, which I know is a complaint of many.
i did about that well with no study....i think most of my problems came from I/O and second guessing myself.
i,too, was told that this is a solid starting place....we can do it, t4c!
3- Realize that some of the practice test questions, at least the AR ones, are ridiculously hard. Ignore those because nobody will get them right. For example, I had a few asking about what type of antidepressant was in some new transdermal patch; who knows and who really cares?
I've seen a few different methods, though the most common seems to be 1 day a week (worth of time) for 3 months, taking plenty of practice exams to get accustomed to the pacing and types of questions, and then mix in study guides as needed.
We are about to start our study group, and we are doing a few hours every week as a group, and probably 2 nights a week on our own. We chose 4 months, though with the holiday it is probably closer to 3.5 months. All of my mentors said to take it seriously and put in the time, but not too worry too much about it. I like their confidence in me, but I still have to take it in March!
hey t4c...how goes the studying?? still planning to take it in march?
um...well. i took a holiday break so to speak! im going to a conference this week, but when i get back im gonna get on a schedule. a professor of mine gave me some study tips that im goin to try out. i plan to take it by august of this year, which will be a year out from finishing the program....i will have all my supervision hours and stuff too, so thats good. just get it all done at the same time.I'm still on track for March. I've sort of faded in my studying in the last few weeks, but I'm going to make one last push. I read one section per week, did the practice questions, and usually did part of an exam. We didn't have an exam for every week, but we had subject questions each week, and supplemented them with sections of practice exams. Every few weeks we'd mix in a full exam. My average has steadily gone up, though it still isn't where I want yet (75-80). I wish I could say the study has been useful in my day to day work, but 98% of it has not.
How goes your studying?
im looking to take it in november/december (fingers crossed!) and am currently listening to study guides as i type this...any updates?? who has passed recently? give the rest of us some hope!
any updates?? who has passed recently? give the rest of us some hope!
Well...*I* was ready to take it in March, but there was a snafu with my state licensing board and associated groups. I had to re-submit everything (twice, via snail mail), and what was supposed to take a few days took weeks.
I got slammed at work (new rotation) and then went on vacation, so now I'm stuck trying to cram it in at the end of August. My test scores are about where they were back in March (give or take 3-5%), so I figure I'll be ready with another 1-2 weeks of sporadic studying. If all goes well, I'll be able to take the Fall off, and then start studying for the ABPP neuro boards.
its crazy how much life gets in the way with stuff like this! i honestly have been thinking about the boarding, but i cant make too much room in my brain for it. i keep meaning to go to the abpp site and see what it requires....i always thought you couldnt get boarded until well into your career (mostly because anyone i know who is boarded is older) but you alerted me otherwise! thanks!Well...*I* was ready to take it in March, but there was a snafu with my state licensing board and associated groups. I had to re-submit everything (twice, via snail mail), and what was supposed to take a few days took weeks.
I got slammed at work (new rotation) and then went on vacation, so now I'm stuck trying to cram it in at the end of August. My test scores are about where they were back in March (give or take 3-5%), so I figure I'll be ready with another 1-2 weeks of sporadic studying. If all goes well, I'll be able to take the Fall off, and then start studying for the ABPP neuro boards.
i think a lot of that has to do with your state's requirements. PA just changed theirs so that you can take it as soon as you get your doctorate; it used to be that you had to wait until you had amassed all your training hours first. most commonly around here one would take it towards the end of post doc, but i do believe that is changing as the laws have changed.When are the most common times for people to take their EPPP?
Is it towards the end of internship? Just beginning post-doc? 6 months into post-doc? Later still?
its crazy how much life gets in the way with stuff like this! i honestly have been thinking about the boarding, but i cant make too much room in my brain for it. i keep meaning to go to the abpp site and see what it requires....i always thought you couldnt get boarded until well into your career (mostly because anyone i know who is boarded is older) but you alerted me otherwise! thanks!
congratulations!!I took the EPPP on July 30th and I passed by a comfortable margin- found out about a week later. I started studying moderately in April - reading PsychPrep materials in my free time and taking one practice test every week to two weeks. I stepped it up final month, taking at least one practice test a week. Week before the exam I took off and studied 12-15 hours per day, taking old practice exams from all the test prep companies and reviewing missed questions daily. Two days before I took the retired questions and passed, so I felt pretty good day of. One thing I'll say is, two weeks before I took the exam I did NOT feel ready. It was definitely that intense "hell week" that did it for me. By the end of that week, I had pretty much memorized all the PsychPrep & Academic Review practice exam questions!!
It's not as bad as they make it out to be, you just need to put the time in. I technically didn't need to take it now, as I am just finishing the first year of my 2-year neuro postdoc, but like T4C said, now I can start studying for neuro boards!
Forget the study materials etc...take all the tests and study/memorize the results. You will be fine
Forget the study materials etc...take all the tests and study/memorize the results. You will be fine
In what assbackwards universe do you live my friend?
im mostly making my flashcards from the practice exams...but for somethings that i feel i need to understand better, im going to the study materials. the act of writing them seems to be cramming stuff into the memory banks pretty good.Forget the study materials etc...take all the tests and study/memorize the results. You will be fine
I have been studying for the EPPP for 7 (yes, 7) months using Academic Review. Here are some things I would recommend to cut your study time down:
1 - As you go through a content area, make notecards and REVIEW them fairly often. This is BY FAR the best advice I can give you.
You will find that as soon as you learn one content area and start another one, retroactive interference will ensue. Thus, you will forget the original material you learned.
What I am doing, is I have 5 stacks of notecards. Each day, M-F, I take different stack and review it during lunch at work. At night, I only cover new material (which means more notecards added to the stacks).
2 - Read the books and read them many times. The first time through you just master the basic concepts. It take many repetitions, however, to understand the subtle concepts and how things connect with each other.
3- Realize that some of the practice test questions, at least the AR ones, are ridiculously hard. Ignore those because nobody will get them right. For example, I had a few asking about what type of antidepressant was in some new transdermal patch; who knows and who really cares?
WHY would a test for a generalist license include XX questions related to multicultural theory and practice?!?! GAMES GAMES GAMES. the licensing boards are playing games.