My Quest to Conquer the EPPP & Secure a Jobby Job

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Oregon rocks!!

An update on the licensure front...

I'm impressed, Oregon. You are doing things quickly, you are very reasonable and easy to reach by phone. I got a letter a few weeks ago (unbeknownst to me cause it went to work...BLERG!) and I had some questions. So, I called and you resolved it in under 2 minutes and were not mean, snooty, or exasperated! Not only that, but you're giving me access to my status online so I can check it all I want (until I start EX/RP and the checking behavior will have to go). And, my fingerprints were turned around and sent in for my background check within a couple days.

All in all, Oregon is a good option for licensure and quick turnaround...so far. I haven't received my notification yet, but that is due to some issues (ahem) with my references being slow. I should have it in plenty of time to hit my goal time.

This is a promising relationship. Now if I could only convince someone in your state to give me a fantastic jobby job.

EB, MH...what were your experiences like getting approval?

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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

As some of you probably know (especially if you're reading this in like 2015--I hope I have a job then!--and it's probably changed big-time or it's a virtual-reality tx module or something) the EPPP is going to be slightly different come August 1st, 2011. Oddly enough, that's my birthday. Anyways...

The changes include having only 175 of the 225 total questions count toward your total score. The percentage for passing is still at 70%, and my calculator tells me that is 122.5 or 123 questions right. MH had a great question about the change in percentages/breakdown of the subjects. The ASPPB peeps have published the updates, which are fairly nominal (see pg. 22 to start the info on the subject breakdown). Also, I'm posting a message from the EPPP Prep group where someone said it so succinctly.

An interesting change

While looking through test data wondering about how the test will change in
August, I found an interesting site:
According to ASPPB the test will have the following weights

Biological Bases of Behavior   12% (up 1 % from last year)
Cognitive-Affective                  13% (same as last year)
Social And Cultural                  12% (same as last year)
Growth & lifespan                    12% (down 1% from last year)
Assessment                              14% (same as last year)
Treatment, Intervention              14% (down 1% from last year)
Research methods                      8% (up 1% from last year)
Ethics                                        15% (same as last year)

which suggests more focus on Research methos and Biological Bases of Behavior.

Interesting,
xxxx

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Why is diagnosis so hard?!?!

I'm not sure why, but I am finding the my scores on the Dx questions to be shameful. It's not so much that I can't diagnose someone, but the types of info they want in the section is not usually a list of symptoms and then come up with a diagnosis. It's more like which of the many associated factors of the disorder can you identify, which group has more or less, and what are the most likely comorbidities and symptoms in a group of equally likely comorbid conditions. Tricky, tricky...

So, I've been trying to make it through and make the most effective notes for remembering. I think I got the diagnostic criteria for most of them down just fine, so it will be remembering the nitty-gritty details, like that approximately 60% of adults continue to have achievement, psychological, social, etc. problems when they have a childhood dx of ADHD.

My review of the Exchange flashcards is up and you're welcome to look. There are a couple that follow my AATBS materials, some with AR materials, and one in particular with just test questions about Dx (handy when you want a quick run through of just that subject) There is also an outline based on the AATBS materials from the EPPP Prep group.

Here's to finishing this section and being a diagnostic beast (and by beast, I mean right at least 70% of the time).

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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Why not study like I workout?!?!

For me, a good workout plan includes building on my strengths and boosting my weaknesses. I'm not sure I have been really paying too much attention to either, though definitely more of a weaknesses-first plan. But, as EB has reminding me this weekend, a good tactic may be to focus on building on strengths, especially when there is so much to do and some weaknesses may be pretty low.

I like this tactic of not forgetting the strengths, and am trying to keep in mind ceiling and floor effects, regression to the mean, and all that jazz. I'm thinking that building on a strength will be good until I hit my ceiling, wherever that may be (when I feel saturated with info, when I consistently answer the AATBS end-of-chapter questions right, when my practice test scores on that section are stable). Then it's maintenance. Like running my 1.5 milers at a steady speed, not building speed or distance.

As for weaknesses, I am thinking I have a lot of room to grow so I won't neglect them. But, I'm not going to give them a SUPER amount of time either. I figure that any studying in these weakness areas (I/O, Development, Social) will probably give me some pretty good gains and a moderate amount will be sufficient. In other words, I'm not going to bother memorizing every leadership style theory and job satisfaction statistic. I think there are much better ways to spend my time. I'll do just enough to get a moderate amount of details so I can get a few more right in the end. Getting back to my analogy...I know that speed is not my forte in running, nor will it ever be. BUT, I can work on once a week and it will end up helping me with endurance and adding mileage.

Speaking of all this, I should probably get back to studying!

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Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Real World Application: Florida

I have been at a conference in FL for the past week, and struggling to find time to study, especially any new content. So, I've been doing my best to fit in some review here and there (thank you electronic flashcards!). Also, I have been, much to the annoyance of my friends/fellow postdocs, finding little ways to apply the knowledge I am trying desperately to consolidate.

Case in point: The Skinner Lizard

Last night we came back from Miami and were getting ready to settle in when my friend screams and sees a little lizard in our room. She is begging me to get rid of it (apparently when you let people know you grew up in Montana on a farm you are the resident "icky thing remover). Little guy was in the closet and I tried a couple things to get him to go toward the door, no dice. Took a hanger started banging it near him hoping he would move away from it, and successively prompted him out the door. The first thing out of my mouth was, "So, Becky, that was technically negative reinforcement on my behavior because it increased the hanger banging and removed the negative stimulus, the lizard." I went on to try to describe what type of operant conditioning principles could be applied to the lizards behavior. NERD ALERT!

That's my real world application story. Someday soon I will be back to normal.

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