Apologies for another EPPP thread, but I have been given a bunch of dated test review materials such as practice tests. The material is over 10 years old, so I am wondering if using it to study would not be recommended and whether I should just invest in more up to date materials. I wanted to avoid paying the steep prices AATBS has for sample questions.
Newest EPPP test materials a must?
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I recently passed the EPPP by studying 11 year old Psych Prep materials. There were some content areas on the actual test that weren't covered well with the old materials like third wave interventions and their research base, but those tended to be areas I was more familiar with from grad school courses and clinical work. In my experience old materials did just as good of a job teaching how to approach the test, and even with updated materials there will be many unfamiliar questions on exam day. You can always start out by studying the old materials and check that the material is translating well to the current exam by taking the SEPPPO exams while you still have time before exam day to invest in updated materials. That being said, I might suggest starting out with updated materials if you have logistical constraints where you can't afford to push back the test or retake the exam if necessary, or if there are specific concerns based on how you tend to do on standardized tests, how good you are at prolonged studying/cramming, and how well trainees from your program tend to do on the exam.
healthpsychftw
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I highly recommend Psych Prep. The audio recordings helped me a lot, I know that doesn't really answer your question, but if you can afford even 1 month of psych prep, that would give you access to the practice tests and audio materials.
PrepJet’s the cheapest of the three. The main benefit of getting any of the test prep services is access to all the practice tests. The materials are helpful, but taking practice test after practice test is what really helps to improve your scores. I had access to some hand-me-down practice tests, but handscoring them after took way too long, so I felt paying for PrepJet was better in terms of the cost of my time.
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Throwing in a rec for Academic Review, which is pretty bare bones, but also very affordable.
In contrast, hand-scoring old secondhand practice tests was pretty central to how I was studying. I found it useful to dig deeper into why I got things right or wrong. I can be pretty impatient when it comes to studying so it forced me to slow down.
For me, not having newer materials didn't hinder me. I had a wealth of practice tests from ~2014-2015 and a set of audio files and it was sufficient to pass with a 733. That's all I really used, plus Google/YouTube to clarify areas of confusion. I tend to be a good test-taker so your mileage may vary, but it's definitely not impossible.
Reviewing your answers (both the ones you got right and the ones you got wrong) is an excellent study strategy. I’m talking about the time spent physically scoring and tabulating total score/domain scores. My hand-me-down tests were just PDFs/Word docs of practice tests with corresponding, separate, answer keys. There wasn’t a scoring excel sheet or anything. The time it took to physically score a practice test, aside from the review, was just a time suck that I didn’t see value in. Everyone’s situation is different, but as a busy neuro postdoc with a long commute, some stuff going on in my personal life, and limited free time, I felt that the time I was able to set aside for studying was best spent actually studying. Honestly, it’s a similar reason to why I did not like the AATBS readings. They were so dense and took forever to get through with all the extraneous details, which are, IMHO, overkill when it comes to prepping for the EPPP.
