Updates to the EPPP The Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (the EPPP) has been a tremendous source of stress for many who hope to practice in the field of psychology one day. An exam that claims to cover “everything you learned in graduate school” is an extremely intimidating-sounding exam. Research has shown that demystifying the exam as much as possible has been one of the top strategies for succeeding on the EPPP. With the many shifts that have been going on, both in the global landscape, as well as the field of psychology, your friends at AATBS, think you should be aware of some of the changes to the exam. The information covered in the exam is constantly changing. It’s hard to say for certain exactly which topics and questions will be covered on your exam, especially with the information covered in each exam changing about 20% with each iteration.

This is simply done to ensure that the EPPP is actually reflective of the information you have learned in graduate school and in your clinical placements. Some researchers have said that the half-life of all information learned in graduate school is approximately 10 years. That means that 10 years after you finish your last class in graduate school, about half of what you will have learned will be obsolete! For that reason, the EPPP is forced to keep evolving and shifting to keep up with the current practice standards. In order to make this component of the study process a bit easier for you, AATBS stay on top of the latest versions of the exam to know how to best provide you with relevant and pointed study materials.

It is important to make sure that your study materials provider, whoever you ultimately choose, has a strong grasp on the changes in information being presented with each version of the EPPP. Another major change of which all students should be aware is the second edition of the EPPP, sometimes called the EPPP2 or the Enhanced EPPP. The EPPP2 is intended to be an addition to the original EPPP which will focus more greatly on professional preparedness and competency.

This new addition was promised by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) to be common practice by January 1, 2020. However, most states have yet to adopt this addition to the EPPP. Although the EPPP2 has not yet taken over as a commonplace addition, anyone preparing for the EPPP should be prepared for the addition of this competency measure at any time. The exam will be taken in 4 hours and 15 minutes, which is the same amount of time offered for the first iteration of the EPPP. The Enhanced EPPP is to be taken on a separate sitting from the EPPP, so don’t feel like you are going to have to sit in front of a computer screen for 8 ½ hours straight! This is a stressful enough process—at least it’s broken up! Don’t sweat studying for the EPPP and its many updates--AATBS has your back! We’re on top of all these changes and we’re keeping our study materials up to date. We’re going to be ready to help you study for the latest version of the EPPP as soon as you’re ready to study for it!