12.1 Final Two-Part Review and Official Fact Check

Final Official-Facts Audit

Before your last week of review, align everything to the current EPPP structure confirmed in the January 2026 ASPPB Candidate Handbook. The Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) has been administered since 1963 and is owned and developed by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB), with Pearson VUE as its test vendor. Since 2020 it is a two-part exam.

EPPP Part 1-Knowledge assesses broad foundational psychology across eight content areas through objective multiple-choice items (each item has three or four options, one correct). EPPP Part 2-Skills assesses applied decision-making for independent practice across six competency domains, using standard and extended multiple-choice plus scenario sets and audio/video items.

Memorize the item architecture so nothing surprises you on test day:

Pretest items are embedded for future exam development and do not count, but you cannot identify which items are pretest. Treat all 225 (or 170) as scored. A common trap is assuming you can "skip the experimental ones" the EPPP gives you no such signal.

Separate exam administration from licensure authority. ASPPB constructs the exam and publishes recommended passing scores. The licensing authority (your state board or provincial college) decides eligibility, which parts you must take, score requirements, supervised experience, jurisprudence exams, retake approval, and final licensure. Read both ASPPB materials and your board's current instructions any conflict resolves toward the board for licensure questions.

Scores are reported on a 200-800 scaled-score range. The recommended passing score is 500 for independent practice and 450 for supervised practice. All current licensing authorities accept the recommended independent-practice cut score for Part 1-Knowledge, but supervised-practice rules vary by jurisdiction, and Part 2 scoring uses the same procedures as Part 1. A scaled score is produced by equating across forms it is not a raw percentage, so do not try to back-calculate "how many can I miss."

Use final review to strip out stale assumptions. The EPPP is not a single exam anymore, fees are not what older forum posts claim, and there is no fixed number-correct pass line. Your last-week fact-check list:

1. Confirm which part(s) your board requires and the required sequence.
2. Confirm your authorization status before scheduling.
3. Confirm the current ASPPB application fee and the Pearson VUE sitting fee.
4. Confirm the exact first/last name on your Authorization to Test email and your IDs.
5. Know total, scored, and pretest item counts for the part you sit.
6. Know the 200-800 framework and your board's required score.
7. Save board rules on retakes, remediation, jurisprudence, and supervision.

The final week stabilizes recall and pacing it is not the time to rebuild the curriculum. Part 1 candidates should refresh assessment, intervention, research methods/statistics, and ethics; Part 2 candidates should rehearse applied judgment across scientific orientation, assessment and intervention, relational competence, professionalism, ethical practice, and collaboration/consultation/supervision. The exam is national in administration but licensure is jurisdiction-controlled that single distinction is the most important final-review fact.

A Final Pass Over the Eight Part 1 Content Areas

Final review is most efficient when weighted by how heavily ASPPB samples each content area. The exact percentages come from the Job Task Analysis and live in Appendix A of the Handbook, but the practical hierarchy is stable: assessment/diagnosis and treatment/intervention together carry the largest share, ethical/legal/professional issues and research/statistics are reliably heavy, and the four "bases of behavior" areas round out the rest. Spend your last hours where the items are densest, not where you feel most comfortable.

A few high-yield distinctions trip candidates every cycle: reliability (consistency) versus validity (accuracy); Type I error (false positive, controlled by alpha) versus Type II error (false negative, related to power); sensitivity versus specificity in diagnostic testing; and negative reinforcement (removing an aversive stimulus to increase behavior) versus punishment (decreasing behavior). For ethics, remember that the APA Ethical Principles are aspirational while the Ethical Standards are enforceable, and that confidentiality has defined exceptions: imminent danger, child or elder abuse reporting, and court order.

For Part 2, the six competency domains are tested through judgment, not recall. The recurring exam logic is that the most defensible answer protects client welfare, stays within competence, secures informed consent, and respects jurisdictional law usually in that priority order when options conflict. If two options both seem ethical, the better answer is typically the one that gathers more information, consults, or documents before acting, rather than the one that acts unilaterally. Carry that heuristic into the exam alongside the content facts above.