Category: EPPP Study Tips

6 Things to Know Before You Begin Studying for the EPPP

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6 Tips Before You Begin Studying TSM

If you’re thinking about taking the EPPP, you’ve already come a long way in your journey to licensure. The EPPP is the last step toward the prize that is almost yours.

Before you being studying for the EPPP, there are 6 things you should do, especially if you want to pass on the first attempt.

1. Fully Commit.

Dr. Graham Taylor says that if you’re going to commit, do it fully. Plan to pass on the first attempt and set a goal for a specific passing score, not just to pass in general.

To commit fully will involve making lifestyle modifications to create room for dedicated EPPP study. Don’t start studying until you’re ready to make it a priority.

2. Set a Date.

When you’re ready to make the EPPP a priority, set a date for your exam. Creating a deadline will give you a tangible goal and an accurate timeline for studying. From there, you can create a realistic study schedule and truly dedicate your time to achieving your goal.

3. Tell Your Family and Friends.

Tell the people closest to you that you are preparing to take the EPPP. Invite them to gently hold you accountable to your goal and be specific with ways they can help you. Inviting those you care about along this journey will provide you with a support system and help you combat isolation as you dedicate much of your time to studying. Your close friends and family can act as motivators when you’re struggling or in need a day off.

4. Gather Materials.

When you use Taylor Study Method, you will take an initial assessment exam. Based on your strengths and weaknesses, TSM will tailor your exam process. Then, you can utilize the tools that work best for you. TSM’s tools are designed to suit your learning style and content strengths and weaknesses. We will point you to what materials you need based on those factors.

5. Develop a Study Schedule.

You determine how many hours a week you want to study and when your exam date is. Then, TSM will help you design a study schedule around that. Dr. Taylor has great advice on creating your study schedule as well as 7 general principles to guide you.

6. Go For It!

It’s time to begin! Check out more of TSM’s unique features here!

 

Further Reading

Our Top Tips for Staying on Track During the Holidays: Part 2

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In Part 1 of this series on studying during the holidays, we explored five tips for staying on track with your EPPP studies during the stressful and busy holiday season. Today we finish off the list with five more tips for keeping the course so you can enjoy the season and keep your study schedule!

Tip 6: Mornings are Best.

All things being equal, it is best for your holiday studying to take place in the morning so you have the entire day ahead of you to enjoy. If you save your EPPP prep for the evening, you may have to pull yourself away from an enjoyable activity with family and friends or risk leaving it until too late once everyone else has gone to bed and you are too tired to study effectively. This is not a hard and fast rule, but it does represent one very good best practice.

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10 Tips for Staying on Track During the Holidays: Part 1

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The holidays can be a wonderful time to reconnect with family and friends, as well as a time to focus on the things that matter the most to us. But the holidays can also be a time of stress. One of the things that can add to holiday stress is the type of intense study regime familiar to anyone preparing for their EPPP.

Sometimes I hear people ask questions like:

How can I possibly enjoy this holiday season with the licensure exam hanging over my head?

Should I just skip Christmas this year to focus on my EPPP studies instead?

How can I balance my EPPP preparation with the events of the holiday season, including my commitment to friends and family?

If you find yourself resonating with any of these, I have good news for you. Keeping to an EPPP course of study does not need to ruin the holiday season. In fact, if you follow the 10 techniques laid out in Parts 1 and 2, you’ll find that you can have a productive course of EPPP study and still enjoy a relaxing, fun-filled holiday season!

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6 Steps to EPPP Success

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“Not even the rigors of grad school and internship prepared me for what I face now studying to pass the EPPP.”

“I keep putting off my EPPP test preparation because it overwhelms me. I know I need to start but I don’t know where to begin.”

“My entire career has been put on hold until I pass the EPPP. The problem is that I’ve already failed once.”

“I tried to start preparing for the EPPP once before, going through hundreds and hundreds of practice questions. It only showed me how unprepared I actually was. I know I need to put together a study plan but I don’t know where to start. I feel overwhelmed with the amount of material I need to learn.”

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Do any of the above concerns sound familiar? These types of anxieties represent typical feelings among those who are aspiring to become licensed psychologists.

Through almost two decades of working to prepare students to pass the Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology (EPPP), I’ve listened to anxieties such as those represented above. In the process of my work, I’ve collected the following tips and coping strategies that have proven effective in helping psychology students overcome these types of fears and steer a course toward EPPP success.
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Your EPPP Exam Day Routine

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In all the focus on being academically prepared to take the EPPP, it’s easy to overlook some of the important practical preparations a candidate needs to do in order to be properly prepared.

In the video below, Dr. Graham Taylor walks us through the best practices for your exam day routine, from the moment you wake up through to the process of taking the exam itself. Dr. Taylor also addresses what the week before your exam should look like, as well as the day directly prior to it.

Seven Steps to Creating an EPPP Study Schedule

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In the world of EPPP test preparation, there’s a familiar story. It goes something like this.

You finished your graduate work, you completed your internship and now you’re all ready to do what you’ve always dreamed of doing—helping people through your work as a psychologist. There’s only one problem: you haven’t passed your licensure exam. Compared to the rigors of grad school and the stress of internship, this final hurdle seems comparatively easy. So you order a box of books and other preparation materials that promise to train you for everything you need to know to successfully pass the EPPP and get licensed. The box of preparation materials arrives. Not wanting to waste a moment and delay your longed-for career, you jump right in and start studying. As you get into the material, it quickly becomes clear that the task is more daunting than you anticipated. You feel overwhelmed, and with good reason: after all, the EPPP is like the bar exam or a medical exam—one of the hardest tests among all the professional disciplines.

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10 Steps to Learning Anything Twice as Quick

Posted on in Brain and memory, EPPP Study Tips by Robin PhillipsLeave a Comment

We often assume that the ability to quickly learn material and master different fields of study comes down to how smart a person is, or how good of a memory they have. But research increasingly suggests that raw talent has very little to do with overall success in life, including success in learning. Instead, success has a lot to do with the strategies and techniques you choose to follow.

Over the years I’ve been blessed to work with TSM in researching the techniques used by various experts who have become leaders. Many of these strategies have been woven into our learning platform.

Whether you’re a high school student studying for a final exam, a college student struggling to keep up in class, or a psychology student preparing to take the EPPP, these learning techniques can make the difference between success and failure. These ten strategies can also spell the difference between a study process that is full of stress and frustration vs. one that is fulfilling and fun.

  Continue reading →

A TSM Success Story

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At TSM, your success is what we strive for; it’s why the method exists. Success means motivated and supported study, confidence in the testing center, and a passing score. Take a look at how TSM helped one member succeed:

“I studied for the EPPP using TSM’s monthly online program, and I found it to be very helpful to me passing the exam, and just recently! I liked the attention to different ways people learn by providing material across video, audio, and written formats. The initial assessment and the resulting customized study plan according to the scores on the assessment were incredibly helpful. Topics are covered thoroughly and with explanations that are generally user friendly versus technical.  Each topic includes a mind map (visual summary) and is followed by notes that you can revise and make your own. After reading on several topics, you take a quiz and get that content further reinforced. Everything is online so I didn’t have to worry about downloading and taking up data, or lugging stacks of study materials around. I felt connected to the support from TSM through the use of the program, specifically meeting via phone with an instructor to discuss study schedule and answer any questions and availability of chat with staff or peers who are studying themselves. Thank you for calling me every so often to check in, especially when I had put studying on pause. The program worked very well for me and I am so thankful that once in the actual exam, I felt very prepared after studying, and I passed.

While the program was excellent, it did take me a good amount of time to move through the material (as in there is heavy content). There are pros and cons of this, and since I have been out of school for some time, it was helpful to have more rather than less.

Thank you for taking the time to hear my feedback on the TSM program, and I hope that you continue to provide the service that you do.

Best wishes to you!  – Nicole”

EPPP Studies and the Crucial Difference Between Dedication and Workaholism

Posted on in EPPP Study Tips by Sophie KoppLeave a Comment

Has your dedication to the EPPP become an unhealthy obsession? Of course, passing the EPPP takes dedicated study, as if it were a part time job. When it comes to work, however, there is a difference between dedication and workaholism or, in this case, study-aholism.

Authors, Marjan J. Gorgievski and Arnold B. Bakker describe the difference between work engagement and workaholism in their article Passion for Work: work engagement versus workaholism.

Clarifying the difference between a healthy dedication and an unhealthy obsession can help you better understand your relationship with your EPPP studies.

Gorgievski and Bakker point out and define the one thing necessary to thrive at any job: passion.   Continue reading →

How to Overcome Temptation and Achieve Discipline for EPPP Success  

Posted on in EPPP Study Tips by Graham TaylorLeave a Comment

Summer weather and activities can be a distraction and a difficult temptation to resist while studying for the EPPP.  How do you study for the EPPP when you would rather be soaking up the summer sun?

A rush of dopamine rewards us when we give into temptation. This is how habits are formed. When you do something that is immediately rewarding you are strengthening those neuropathways, eventually making it easier to give into temptation and more difficult to be disciplined the next time you are tempted.

For example, say you have a set EPPP study time for each afternoon and you are constantly faced with the temptation to participate in outdoor summer activities that force you to choose between studying and being in the sunshine. The decision to skip studying becomes easier with each temptation that is given into, therefore making discipline much more difficult to accomplish over time.

The good news, however, is that discipline becomes much easier to accomplish when those neuropathways are strengthened over time. We know that dopamine is a factor in habituation and that the more you choose to study, the easier that decision will become. Incorporating immediate reward into your EPPP studies could therefore help studying become a habit.  Continue reading →