EPPP Study
Today in How To Pass the EPPP Exam Without Even Trying! we will discuss Using Old Notes To Study For The EPPP Exam.
The first pillar of EPPP study is one of the most obvious strategies for passing the EPPP exam. You must be familiar with the concepts of each of the eight domains or content areas that the EPPP tests for.
As a quick recap, these are the eight domains:
- Biological bases of behavior
- Cognitive-affective bases of behavior
- Social and multi-cultural bases of behavior
- Growth and life-span development
- Assessment and diagnosis
- Treatment, intervention, and prevention
- Research methods and statistics
- Ethical, legal, and professional issues
You must be familiar with the material in each of these domains that is commonly tested for on the EPPP exam.
How do you do this? Well, you could gather up all of your psychology notes from graduate school, put all your textbooks in a pile next to you, and gather the content that you don't have by perusing the Internet.
Is this a good strategy? Well, on the positive side, at first glance it is free. Also, you may already have most of the content materials that you need.
What about the negative side? Well, I say that it appears to be free at first glance. But, it is not free. Here's why.
You must take the time to gather up all your notes and textbooks from your years in graduate school. Do you still have all these books and notebooks? Maybe. Can you find them all? Are they well organized? Legible? Are your notes complete?
Did your graduate program cover each of the domains fully? Many psychology graduate programs, while excellent programs, emphasize some of the eight domains covered on the EPPP exam more than others. You will need to fill in the blanks yourself. For example, some programs may give more weight to psychoanalytic theories, while other programs may give more weight to cognitive behavioral theories. Did your program cover industrial organizational psychology? If you are relying on your notes and textbooks I hope so, because it is on the EPPP exam.
Allocation of EPPP Study Time
Do you know how much time to devote to studying each particular domain on the EPPP? For example, do you know how much material tends to show up as questions on the EPPP exam for treatment of mental disorders? How about ethics? How much of the EPPP exam covers statistics? You must allocate your precious EPPP study time to the topics that frequently appear as questions on the test. There is too much material to study all of the material for each of the content areas. You would be an old, old man (or woman) before you could learn every concept in every domain that could possibly be on the EPPP exam.
Are your old notes and old textbooks up to date? Some material, no doubt, has changed since you began your graduate school psychology program. It is important that the EPPP study materials on which you are spending your important time studying is up to date and includes new material that may be included on the EPPP exam.
The material that is not contained in your textbooks or notebooks you could look up on the Internet. You would need to examine the source of the content to be sure that it comes from an authoritative source and is accurate. Using the Internet to get much of the study material you need for EPPP study would be time consuming, to say the least.
By now, you have probably drawn the conclusion that relying on your old notes, old textbooks, and the Internet for learning the content of the eight domains you must master for EPPP study is impractical. Notice though, that I did not say these sources do not have their place in preparing for the EPPP exam. Your notes, textbooks, and the Internet are all valuable resources for clarify the concepts that you need to learn (if you don't already know them) and review.
In my next article I will discuss more of what you need to know about The First Pillar of The Three Pillars Of How To Pass The EPPP in How to Pass the EPPP Exam Without Even Trying!
Next Article: Why You Need Commercial Study Materials To Pass The EPPP Exam
