Find Your Learning Style to Prepare for the EPPP

How can you discover your own particular learning style? What is the difference between being a visual learner, auditory learner or tactile learner? As you’re studying for the Examination for Professional Practice of Psychology (EPPP), how can you leverage the strength of your personal learning style to better learn, consolidate and recall content?

These were just some of the questions that Dr. Graham Taylor addressed in last Thursday’s Facebook Live event. In the video, which can be watched below, Dr. Taylor shared research-based approaches of learning and memory to help you make your learning a dynamic and active process.


Further Reading

Overcoming Fear of the EPPP Exam

Have you ever felt that the minute you let your guard down, something bad will happen? Perhaps you’ve felt that minute you stop worrying about passing the EPPP, you’ll forget everything you’ve learned. There’s a fear of what will happen if all your studying goes to waste; a fear of failure.

In immediately dangerous situations, fear is a survival tool. Our bodies sense fear when there is danger to alert us to get out of harm’s way. When we sense fear of something distant – like failing the EPPP – fear can be a burden that gets in the way of success. EPPP failure is avoidable and not immediate danger, therefore it is not worth fearing. (TSM has a 94% success rate so you’ve already taken a step to success by being here.)

So how do we overcome the fear that’s not worth fearing but, alas, still haunting?

 Fear can be overcome when it is diminished. It holds less power over us the more exposure we have to what is causing it. For example, someone who is afraid of the ocean should slowly start to acquaint with the water and will eventually work up the courage to confront what’s scary.

Lisa Fritscher of Very Well wrote The Psychology of Fear and says

“Repeated exposure to similar situations leads to familiarity. This greatly reduces both the fear response and the resulting elation, leading adrenaline junkies to seek out ever new and bigger thrills. It also forms the basis of some phobia treatments, which depend on slowly minimizing the fear response by making it feel familiar.”

If you’re afraid of failing the EPPP, you should acquaint yourself with the test material and what test day will be like. Familiarizing yourself with practice tests and EPPP concepts will help you understand that you are capable.

Another tactic, presented by Dale Carnegie in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is to familiarize yourself with the worst possible scenario and then accept it. Learning that you will not only live but be okay after failure will help you create action steps and ultimately avoid the situation you fear altogether because fear is no longer something standing in the way of you moving forward.

Think through what failure means for you. Perhaps you are afraid of failing the test because it means you’ll have to re-take it which means you’ll have to study again during an inconvenient time. What would a study schedule during such a time look like for you? Think through the possibilities of what could be a worst-case scenario, then accept it and move forward without fear hindering your success.

EPPP Anxiety Part 2: The Power of Positive Breathing

 

In our previous post, ‘EPPP Anxiety Part 1: Anxiety and Your Brain,’ we looked at how to use focused meditative breathing to relieve anxiety, including the type of anxiety experienced by those preparing to take the EPPP. I promised to share research on how this type of meditation can actually increase the size of the brain, improve social skills, make it easier to achieve mental clarity and focus, in addition to increasing emotional intelligence, self-regulation and resilience.

Before jumping into this research, let’s review three reasons why slow breathing is so powerful for maintaining a positive orientation in the mind and body.

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EPPP Anxiety Part 1: Anxiety and Your Brain

Here at TSM we talk a lot about anxiety management, and with good reason. We are in the business of preparing psychology students to take the psychology licensure exam, known as the EPPP. This is one of the hardest exams a person can ever take, with 225 multiple-choice questions spanning topics everything from legal issues to psychopharmacology. It’s not unusual that those studying for this test experience high levels of stress and anxiety.

But even if you aren’t preparing to take the EPPP, we all need help managing anxiety. Ironically, it is often the people who need help with anxiety the most who are least aware of it, since anxiety has become such a way of life that it can start to feel normal.

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How to Develop an EPPP Course of Study over the Holidays (part 3)

In my earlier post, ‘How to Develop an EPPP Course of Study over the Holidays (part 2)’ I shared that one of the reasons we often find it difficult to study during the holidays is not because we don’t have enough time – quite often we have even more time during the holidays. Rather, the difficulty arises because the holidays bring so many distractions.

Because of the distractions, we often enter the holidays with ambitious plans for how much we’re going to study, but time somehow slips away from us. Before we know it, the holidays are over and we haven’t done anything productive.

I explained that this problem can be overcome by developing a study schedule that allows you to keep forward momentum with your EPPP studies without compromising the integrity of your holiday celebrations. This post continues offering holiday eppp study tips by considering the neurological benefits that holiday celebrations can bring. I will suggest that once your holiday study regime is in place, you should take full advantage of the benefits afforded by periods of rest and recreation. Instead of seeing your holiday time as an annoying interruption to your EPPP study, you can begin to see it as a valuable time for your brain to solidify and “incubate” what you’ve learned before.

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How to Develop an EPPP Course of Study over the Holidays (part 2)

In our earlier post, ‘How to Continue EPPP Study over the Holidays (part 1)’ we talked about balancing your EPPP study with holiday celebrations. We gave advice on creating a flexible study schedule that allows you to continue studying little and often.

Clearly this type of study routine cannot be achieved without being pro-active and deliberate about the times when you are studying and the times when you are not studying.

By being deliberate, you will preserve the integrity of your study times as well as experience the full benefits of the holiday season.

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Know the 8 Secrets to Success When Tackling your EPPP

Many have claimed to know the one secret to success. What if there are eight?

In his Ted Talk, ‘8 Secrets of Success’, Richard St. John condenses over a decade of research about success into three minutes and eight key words.

If success is what you desire, St. John’s eight secrets apply to you whether you’ve failed the EPPP and you’re trying again, or you’re about to make your first attempt.

Ask yourself these eight questions as you discover the secrets:

  1. What am I passionate about in the psychology field?
  2. Am I willing to do what it takes to reach my goals?
  3. Will I be good at what I do?  
  4. Do my psychology-related goals have my focus?
  5. Am I willing to push myself through failure?
  6. How will my success serve others?
  7. What are my most exciting ideas?
  8. Will I persist in the face of opposition?

Take a look:

 

Further Reading:

How to Continue EPPP Study over the Holidays (part 1)

The holidays can be a wonderful time to reconnect with family, friends and to focus on the things that mean the most to you. But holidays can also be times of significant stress.

One of the things that can add to holiday stress is the type of intense study familiar to anyone preparing for their EPPP. Questions such as the following are common:

  • “Should I just skip my holiday this year and focus on my EPPP prep instead?”
  • “I want to be able to enjoy spending time with my loved ones during this holiday season, but I can’t stop thinking about all the EPPP studying I’m supposed to be doing! Is their a solution?”
  • “How can I possibly enjoy this holiday season with the licensure exam hanging over my head?”

If any of these questions sound familiar, I have good news for you. Keeping to an EPPP course of study does not need to ruin your holiday. Whether it’s Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, summer camping or a family reunion, it is possible to pursue a productive course of EPPP study and still enjoy a relaxing, fun-filled holiday season.

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Why You’re Always Late to Your EPPP Study Session

Despite your best efforts, you can never manage to make it out the door on time to get studying for the EPPP. Or maybe you’re constantly waiting on a friend who, though well-intended, is always late.

Chronic lateness has simple solutions in theory: set an alarm, pick out your clothes the night before, or pack your lunch a day early. Yet, in practice, solving chronic lateness may seem impossible to overcome. Continue reading