Category: EPPP Study Tips
EPPP Strategies and Tips for Visual Learners
Last month we shared some tips and strategies for auditory learners. In the video below Graham Taylor addresses visual learners, explaining what visual learners can do to get the most out of their EPPP study.
How to Effectively Rest from your EPPP Studies
Since we’ve been posting recently about the problems associated with over-study, it seems appropriate to revisit an observation I made last year, namely that one of the best things you can do during your EPPP exam study is to take frequent and structured breaks.
When combined with other activities such as short walks, regular rest periods help to oxygenate brain cells and can be a powerful antidote to over-study and cognitive overload.
Here’s what I suggest: at the beginning of the day, strategically select activities that you will do during your study breaks, and proactively decide to do those activities before the mental fatigue sets in. Set a timer if you need to, so that you stop at regular structured times to break.
Continue reading
EPPP Strategies and Tips for Auditory Learners
Part 5: DSM-5 EPPP Lecture Series By the Taylor Study Method
Anyone taking the EPPP is now expected to know the material in DSM-5, the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The changes that the American Psychiatric Association introduced in DSM-5 incorporate significant scientific advances in more precisely identifying and diagnosing mental disorders.
DSM-5 represents an opportunity to better integrate neuroscience and the wealth of findings from neuroimaging, genetics, and cognitive research that have emerged over the past several decades, all of which are vital to diagnosis and treatment.
It also provides a common language for clinicians to communicate about their patients and establishes consistent and reliable diagnoses that can be used in the research of mental disorders. In addition, it establishes a common language for researchers to study the criteria for potential future revisions and to aid in the development of medications and other interventions.
Many people who are studying to pass their EPPP are nervous about these changes, and have been asking some of the following questions: What is the relationship between DSM-5 and the EPPP, and how will the former affect the later? How will I learn what I need to know for the various EPPP content areas that have been affected by DSM-5? Is everything I learned before about mental illness suspect and unreliable? Are my test-preparation materials up to date with DSM-5?
Since your EPPP success is important to us at the Taylor Study Method, we have been running a lecture series on DSM-5 and the EPPP. The purpose of the Taylor Study Method’s DSM-5 Learning Series series aims to
- to provide an overview of the content areas that the DSM-5 has integrated
- to identify the critical points you’ll need to remember regarding the various content areas
- to utilize motion graphic illustrations and footage to help you further consolidate and retain this new DSM-5 information
- to demonstrate how the content areas may be presented to you as a question on your licensing exam
In order to fully address these concerns, Part 5 of our lecture series looks at five mental disorders affected by DSM-5. Alternatively, the following links will take you to a video and full transcript for each of these areas:
- ADHD (Psychological Assessment Domain): DSM-5 EPPP Lecture Video by Taylor Study Method
- Autistic Disorder (Psychological Assessment Domain): DSM-5 EPPP Lecture Video by Taylor Study Method
- Mental Retardation: DSM-5 EPPP Lecture Video by Taylor Study Method
- Feeding and Eating Disorders: Infancy or Early Childhood: DSM-5 EPPP Lecture Video by Taylor Study Method
- Autistic Disorder (Physiological Psychology Domain): DSM-5 EPPP Lecture Video by Taylor Study Method
We trust this series will be very beneficial to you as you take this final step towards licensure.
You can watch earlier parts in this lecture series, and register for future webinars, by clicking here.
Oxygenating The Brain During Your EPPP Studies
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We all know that our bodies need some attention in order to grow and be healthy” writes Steve Riggs, “But what about our brain? What does it need to be able to grow, to heal, and to learn in the best way it can?”
This question is obviously of crucial importance as you prepare for the EPPP.
Riggs answered his own question in an article for The NACD Foundation (Volume 25 No. 5, 2012). He gives three easy steps for achieving a healthy and fully oxygenated brain:
Now what were those simple things that must be practiced for increasing oxygen to the brain? Here they are: 1) Breathe easily and normally with your belly in a relaxed way. 2) Breathe through your nose under normal conditions and not your mouth. 3) Take short walks throughout the day. Short walks will increase your circulation and increase oxygen to your brain, whereas while forced walks or runs may be good for you too, they also cause your muscles to absorb much of the oxygen in your system, and that hinders increasing the oxygen being carried to your brain.
How to Create Confidence in your EPPP Preparation
A recurring theme on this blog has been the power of positive thinking. I have tried to emphasize that there is a reciprocal relationship between how we think of ourselves, on the one hand, and our performance outcomes, on the other.
For example, it is hard to succeed if we continually think of ourselves as a failure. On the other hand, as we act in ways that earn our own confidence, then we have a basis to expect positive outcomes, and that expectation can be then be channeled into success. Continue reading
Prepare for EPPP with Shakespeare
Okay, we’ve encouraged you not to drink soda when preparing for your EPPP, and to avoid all energy drinks that might lead to sleep deprivation.
“What will I do without soda?” you may ask. The answer is simple: read Shakespeare.
While studies are showing that sugary drinks can make you dumber, evidence is also pointing to the fact that reading Shakespeare can increase cognitive functioning.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph earlier this year, Julie Henry reported the results of a study conducted at Liverpool university which used scanners to monitor brain activity on volunteers as they read works by Shakespeare, as well as other English writers such as William Wordsworth and T.S Eliot. Continue reading
Summary of Recent Posts on Neuroplasticity and EPPP Prep
In our series on study skills, we kept returning to the principle of brain plasticity in offering tips to help you study effectively to pass your EPPP. My overall point was simple: understanding how the brain works, and then acting on that understanding, puts you in a better position to optimize cognitive functioning and succeed when you come to sit your EPPP.
But appreciating the science of brain-plasticity goes beyond simply giving you a leg-up in your EPPP prep. The implications are actually quite broad and affect every area of life. This is something I have been trying to convey in our recent series of posts on neuroplasticity. Now that this series has finished, I thought it might be helpful to summarize the ground we have covered.
In this series I have been showing how cutting-edge research in the science of brain-plasticity can help us to understand ourselves better, and can also give valuable insight into what happens when we learn. Continue reading
Too Much EPPP Study?
Preparing for your EPPP is no joke. Like the Bar exam for lawyers, or the medical licensure exams for doctors, a pass in the EPPP is recognized as among the highest academic achievements a person can achieve.
Precisely because of this, the EPPP is hard. At TSM we don’t pretend to make it easy to pass your EPPP. But we do provide you with the tools so that what would otherwise be an insurmountable goal can be broken down into a series of manageable steps.
These steps are based on the fact that success at the EPPP is not simply the result of how much you study. Of course, how much you study plays a large role in your ultimate success, but what is more important is how you study. Continue reading