Psych GRE Suggestions for Non-Psych Student

[blithe285]

Hello!

I am currently a graduate student in chemistry and will hopefully be finishing up my degree soon; however, I am looking to change career paths into psychology research and am thus looking to do a second Ph.D. in psychology (ooph, right?). I have no official training in psychology, and thus find myself in a somewhat dubious position. Does anyone have any advice for how to do well on the psych GRE without any formal training? Since I will be lacking a related bachelor's degree, I have a suspicion that performing well on the standardized test will be much more important for me than it would be for more traditional applicants.

I have looked into the Princeton Review and Kaplan study guides. If any of you can comment on how well these materials align to the material on the test, I would appreciate it! It seems that the Princeton Review guide is quite outdated, with DSM-IV rather than V material.

Thank you!!

Edited November 18, 2019 by blithe285

[PsyDuck90]

Best bet is to just get an intro to psych textbook. Also, have you looked into specific programs? Most of them don't even want the Psych GRE. I would also look into the requirements for admission. Many of them require certain undergrad classes for admission. 

[justacigar]

In response to PsyDGrad90 above - while the Psych GRE isn't a formal requirement, many suggest it if you are applying without an undergraduate degree in psychology in addition to specific psychology classes you may have to take such as research methods and statistics. So, you are on the right track preparing to take the subject test!

[Clinapp2017]

In terms of your question about DMS-IV vs. DSM 5, I don't recall the subject test being very specific to diagnostic criteria. Some questions may have broadly hinted at differential diagnosis between two wildly different sets of symptoms (like Generalized Anxiety vs. schizophrenia), but most of the test is broader concepts. Unless you have strong background in social psych, I would advise training a lot in the social area, as social makes up about 40-50% of all of the questions. I never took a social class and didn't study much so I bombed that section (but I still got into an excellent school which didn't require psych GRE for me, as a psych grad, LOL ?).

 

The test may have changed, though, so I advise you to talk to more recent test takers. This was circa 2016. 

Edited November 19, 2019 by Clinapp2017

[blithe285]

16 hours ago, PsyDGrad90 said:

Best bet is to just get an intro to psych textbook. Also, have you looked into specific programs? Most of them don't even want the Psych GRE.

I've been looking at Psychology 8th ed. by Gletiman, James, Gross, and Reisberg. Does anyone have any thoughts about the quality of this book?

While I understand that the Psych GRE is usually optional at most, I think that for a student like me without a related bachelors degree, being able to perform well on a standardized test is an important way for me to demonstrate knowledge and aptitude to the admissions committee.

16 hours ago, PsyDGrad90 said:

I would also look into the requirements for admission. Many of them require certain undergrad classes for admission. 

 

15 hours ago, justacigar said:

 in addition to specific psychology classes you may have to take such as research methods and statistics. So, you are on the right track preparing to take the subject test!

This is great to know. I've looked at a few programs which seem to require only that you take enough classes to "demonstrate interest." However, I am trying my hardest to get in to some undergraduate classes in statistics, research, and memory next quarter. It's not guaranteed, though, since space is limited and they will likely not let me into a class until all undergrads are given the opportunity.

I was also thinking of taking some DANTES exams in Substance Abuse, Lifespan Developmental Psychology, and potentially General Anthropology and Fundamentals of Counseling depending on time. DANTES was originally implemented as a program for military members to earn college credit via examination, but it is now open to civilians as well, for a fee. Does anyone think this would be helpful, or should I just stick to trying to nail the Psych GRE?

3 hours ago, Clinapp2017 said:

In terms of your question about DMS-IV vs. DSM 5, I don't recall the subject test being very specific to diagnostic criteria. Some questions may have broadly hinted at differential diagnosis between two wildly different sets of symptoms (like Generalized Anxiety vs. schizophrenia), but most of the test is broader concepts. Unless you have strong background in social psych, I would advise training a lot in the social area, as social makes up about 40-50% of all of the questions. I never took a social class and didn't study much so I bombed that section (but I still got into an excellent school which didn't require psych GRE for me, as a psych grad, LOL ?).

 

The test may have changed, though, so I advise you to talk to more recent test takers. This was circa 2016. 

Ahh, that is interesting a good to know. Did you have any experience with the Princeton Review guide? According to the ETS website, the exam is comprised of only about 12-14% social topics; is this not strictly accurate? 

Thank you all for sharing your viewpoints!!