To pass the Exam for the Professional Practice of Psychology (EPPP) you need help, a strategy. You can’t just walk into a test center, sit down, and pass this test without preparing.
How important is the EPPP?
The EPPP is one of the most important tests that a psychologist will appear for.
It doesn’t matter how well you did in your graduate school classes. It doesn’t matter how well you did on the comprehensive exams. Or how brilliant his thesis defense was. Or how many journals accepted articles based on his dissertation. You may have been the star in your internship. Your internship director may have introduced you as the model intern. Yet despite everything…
If you don’t pass the EPPP…
If you do not pass the Psychology Professional Practice Exam, you will have very limited internship opportunities in the US or Canada. You practically won’t be able to practice anywhere without passing it. At least not in any state or province that has a psychology board that is a member of the Association of State and Provincial Psychological Boards (ASPPB). The only exceptions to the requirement to pass this exam are Prince Edward Island and Quebec. However, even Quebec requires out-of-province applicants to pass the exam before being allowed to practice.
The list of professional activities that restrict you when you do not have a license is long: You cannot have private patients. You cannot get reimbursed from the insurance company. You may not print “Licensed Psychologist” on your business cards. Many employers require you to have a license. Basically, if you can’t pass the EPPP, you’ll have wasted years of graduate school and thousands of dollars in education, and all the sacrifices you’ve made.
The EPPP defined
The EPPP is the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. Any psychologist who wants to hang out in any state in the US or almost any province in Canada should successfully complete it.
Who does the EPPP?
An organization in Montgomery, AL creates and markets the EPPP to state and provincial psychology boards.
Content of the EPPP
The EPPP contains these 8 domains: Ethical, legal and professional aspects, Treatment, intervention and prevention, Social and multicultural bases of behaviour, Biological bases of behaviour, Assessment and diagnosis, Cognitive-affective bases of behaviour, Research methods and statistics, and Growth and development throughout life.
EPPP Administration
The EPPP is made up of 225 multiple-choice questions. The examinee has exactly four hours and fifteen minutes to complete the exam.
The exam is administered by computer. The examinee locates and sits for the exam at a Prometric testing center.
It is natural to assume that having earned a Ph.D. or PsyD in psychology, having passed an accredited graduate program in psychology, completed an internship, and defended a dissertation or research project, you will be able to easily pass the exam. Or perhaps pass it by with a little refresher. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Why the EPPP questions are difficult
In the EPPP, examinees must choose the “best” answer, not necessarily the “correct” answer. The wording is often reversed. Questions can specify “all are true except” or “all are false except”. Discriminating small differences between the answers on this psychology test can be very challenging.
The exam questions require you to not only be familiar with each of the eight domains, but also to demonstrate the application of that knowledge.
It is unrealistic to believe that you can prepare minimally for the EPPP, or prepare for exams the same way you have in the past. It is also unrealistic to minimally prepare and just plan to continuously retest until you pass the test. There are many reasons for this.
EPPP Registration Fees
One of the reasons why it is unrealistic to continue testing is the high cost. Each administration of the EPPP costs you $450. Each session at the Prometric Test Center to take the psychology test costs $68.
State and provincial psychology boards require payment of administrative and license fees before you are allowed to take the exam. You must obtain an Exam Authorization letter from your psychology board before the ASPPB will allow you to register for the psychology exam. Psychology board costs related to licensing and taking the test, depending on where you live, can be over a thousand dollars.
How many times can I take the EPPP?
Another reason it’s unrealistic to go back to taking EPPP repeatedly is that there are limitations on how many times you can take it. The ASPPB restricts you to taking the exam four times a year, while your local psychology board may restrict you further. After a certain number of failed attempts on the Psychology Practicing Exam, many psychology boards require you to convince them why you should be allowed to try to pass the exam again. Before you can retake the exam, the psychology board may require you to do additional classwork, gain more experience, or undergo supervision (for example).
All of these additional requirements can significantly increase the time it takes you to pass the EPPP.
Financial costs of retesting in the EPPP
EPPP recoveries are not free. You must pay the full fee to ASPPB ($450) and to Prometric ($68) each time you take the exam. Your psychology board will also charge you additional administrative fees to reapply for another clearance letter to retake the exam. Altogether, the process of taking and passing this test is quite expensive.
How to pass the EPPP
So, in summary, passing the Exam for Professional Practice in Psychology is a difficult task that requires special preparation. However, there is help available. Websites, such as How to pass the EPPP without even trying! They exist to facilitate the process. With careful preparation, an understanding of the exam structure, appropriate exam study materials, and EPPP-specific exam-taking strategies, you can and will pass the exam.