How to use EPPP flashcards

EPPP questions often give you a clinical or professional scenario and ask for the best action, explanation, or principle. Flashcards help with the facts behind those decisions, but they work best when you retrieve an answer and apply it—not when you simply reread a definition.

Use this deck as a short retrieval session. For each card, answer the question before turning it, compare your response with the answer, then choose a grade that reflects how well you knew it. Mark a card as difficult if you reached the right answer by guessing or could not explain its boundary. A correct answer for the wrong reason is not secure knowledge.

This is a cross-domain starter deck, not a full EPPP curriculum. Check the current official EPPP materials for the exam’s blueprint and policies. The cards below focus on durable concepts that can help you reason through ethics, diagnosis, safety, and psychological testing questions.

MySummaries can turn a revision board built from your own study material into a spaced-repetition deck. A deck on these EPPP topics ends up looking like this:

Cards — EPPP foundations: ethics, diagnosis and testing18 due

In DSM-5-TR, what is the minimum duration of a major depressive episode, with at least five symptoms including depressed mood or loss of interest?

At least 2 weeks.

All 18 cards
In DSM-5-TR, what is the minimum duration of a major depressive episode, with at least five symptoms including depressed mood or loss of interest?At least 2 weeks.
How many of the nine MDD symptoms are required during the same 2-week period, including which core symptom condition?Five or more, including depressed mood or diminished interest or pleasure.
What is the minimum duration for a manic episode, unless hospitalization is necessary?At least 1 week; any duration if hospitalization is necessary.
For a manic episode, how many additional symptoms are required when mood is only irritable, rather than elevated or expansive?Four additional symptoms; three are required when mood is elevated or expansive.
What duration distinguishes PTSD from acute stress disorder in the duration criterion?PTSD symptoms persist for more than 1 month; acute stress disorder lasts from 3 days to 1 month after trauma.
What is sensitivity?The proportion of people who have the condition who test positive: true positives divided by all people with the condition.
What is specificity?The proportion of people without the condition who test negative: true negatives divided by all people without the condition.
In classical test theory, what is the standard error of measurement?SEM = SD × √(1 − reliability), using the test’s standard deviation and reliability coefficient.
What does a reliability coefficient describe?The consistency or dependability of scores under specified conditions; it does not by itself establish validity.
What does validity evidence support?The interpretation and use of test scores for a particular purpose—not a test as universally valid in every setting.
A screening test has high sensitivity. What kind of error does that help reduce?False negatives: people with the condition who receive a negative result.
What is a Type I error?Rejecting a true null hypothesis—a false positive.
What does random assignment to treatment groups primarily help strengthen?Internal validity, by reducing systematic pre-existing differences between groups.
A significant correlation is found between two variables. What causal conclusion can you draw from correlation alone?None; correlation alone does not establish that one variable causes the other.
A client reports suicidal thoughts. What should you clarify before deciding on a disposition?Assess current intent, plan, access to means, timeframe, prior behavior, protective factors, and immediate safety needs; then act on the risk and applicable standards.
When may a psychologist disclose confidential information without client consent?When disclosure is required by law or permitted for a valid purpose under applicable law and ethics standards; take reasonable steps to limit disclosure.
Is every multiple relationship automatically unethical under the APA Ethics Code?No. The concern is whether it could reasonably impair objectivity or competence, or risk exploitation or harm.
What should a psychologist do when a requested service is outside their competence?Seek appropriate training, consultation, or supervision, or refer the client when that is the appropriate way to provide competent care.

That is a MySummaries deck, filled with EPPP material. Yours is written from your own notes. Start free

Work the deck, not just the answers

The first cards test diagnostic thresholds. Retrieve the duration and symptom count separately: knowing that major depressive disorder involves five or more symptoms is incomplete if you forget the 2-week period or omit the requirement for depressed mood or diminished interest. For mania, remember the hospitalization exception to the 1-week duration. The symptom-count distinction—three additional symptoms for elevated or expansive mood, four for irritable mood—is an easy detail to blur under time pressure.

The PTSD card tests the duration boundary, not the whole diagnostic criteria. A vignette may also require you to consider trauma exposure and the relevant symptom clusters. Do not treat a single duration fact as enough to establish a diagnosis; use the details in the stem and consider the differential.

The psychometrics cards reward precise language. Sensitivity uses people who have the condition as its denominator; specificity uses people who do not. Reliability concerns score consistency, while validity evidence supports a proposed interpretation or use. These distinctions matter when a vignette asks what a test result can support. Keep the SEM formula attached to its terms: the standard deviation is multiplied by the square root of one minus the reliability coefficient.

The research cards are short because each tests one distinction. A Type I error is a false positive. Random assignment can strengthen internal validity, but it does not make every study limitation disappear. And an association between two variables, even a statistically significant one, is not by itself proof of causation.

The ethics and safety cards need more than a memorized slogan. In a confidentiality vignette, identify the applicable legal and ethical basis before considering disclosure, and limit information to what is appropriate. Rules about protective disclosure can depend on jurisdiction and facts; do not assume one universal duty from a brief stem. For a suicide-risk scenario, assess the immediate facts that affect safety before deciding what to do next. The best response depends on the level of risk and the applicable professional and legal requirements.

A board distilled from these cards can keep the most testable distinctions together:

Must not miss coreEPPP foundations: ethics, diagnosis and testing
Major depressive episode: at least 5 of 9 symptoms during the same 2 weeks, including depressed mood or diminished interest/pleasure.
Manic episode: at least 1 week, or any duration if hospitalization is necessary; 3 additional symptoms, or 4 when mood is only irritable.
PTSD duration criterion: symptoms persist for more than 1 month; distinguish from acute stress disorder, which lasts 3 days to 1 month after trauma.
Sensitivity = true positives / all with the condition; specificity = true negatives / all without it. SEM = SD × √(1 − reliability).
Ethics and safety: establish the facts, assess immediate risk, check applicable law and standards, and choose the least harmful appropriate action.

A practical review loop

After the first pass, sort cards by how well you could explain the answer. For a difficult card, say the distinction aloud in your own words, then connect it to a brief example. For instance: a test can be reliable without supporting the particular interpretation a clinician wants to make. Or a confidentiality question can turn on whether disclosure is legally required or ethically permitted, rather than on a blanket rule to disclose or never disclose.

When a card returns, retrieve the answer again before looking. If you miss a threshold, say the number and the condition together. If you miss an ethics card, name the facts you would need before choosing an action. Keep separate cards for separate facts; a card that asks for an entire diagnostic work-up is harder to review and gives you less useful feedback than one focused question.

If you repeatedly miss a fact, trace it back to the source you are studying and check whether the wording or context changes its application. The short answers here are prompts for retrieval, not substitutes for the full diagnostic criteria, ethics standards, or test manual. In particular, consult authoritative, current materials for legal duties and practice requirements in the jurisdiction relevant to your training or intended licensure.

A remediation card can bring a repeated miss back into the next review:

Remediation tray

You lost this mark twice: sensitivity uses which denominator—the people who test positive, or everyone who truly has the condition?

Add cardDismiss

The answer is everyone who truly has the condition. After retrieving it, explain why: sensitivity is the true-positive rate among people with the condition. If the question instead asks about people without the condition, switch to specificity. That denominator check is a useful way to avoid a near-miss answer.

How MySummaries helps

Build a board from your own EPPP notes or course materials, then use it to generate flashcards for spaced review. Revisit the facts you miss and keep your cards tied to the material you are studying. Open MySummaries.