Attendance and Participation

Dr. Steven Tulkin, Program Director

Attendance and Participation

Classes are held on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays, 9am-4pm Pacific Time) and meet approximately every third weekend for 28 months. We encourage students to attend all classes, but we realize that over a 28-month period students may need to miss some classes.

Students in our previous cohorts have reported that they spent between 4-8 hours per week studying the course materials and preparing for the exam given during the first hour of each class. This depends somewhat on students' previous coursework and experience. However, we also have a small number of students who feel they “need to master all of the material” presented who report that they can spend 12 hours per week studying. Also, some instructors prepare study guides to help students prepare for the exams, but preparation of study guides is not a required part of the faculty contract.

Psychopharmacology Class Delivery

Classes will be held over the Internet, using a sophisticated, real-time interactive system called Elluminate. All classes will be live, and will also be archived electronically in case a student is not able to attend synchronously on the day(s) of the class. Classroom sites will be utilized only to the extent that they are required by state legislation or licensing board policy. At the present time, no state has mandated this requirement, so all students will participate in classes from their own computer, or, if desired, make personal arrangements with other local students to participate together at the home or office of one of the students.

Our program provides live synchronous interactive classes in which students have the opportunity to ask questions and initiate discussion with the professor and with other students. Instructors usually allow short “clarification” questions at any time, but designate specific times for questions that expand on certain points. Most professors will ask that questions be typed as an instant message, but some may provide for audio communication. If students want to ask questions using audio, we recommend that they have a noise-cancelling headset/microphone. A web camera is not required.

The Elluminate platform also provides opportunities for study sessions, chats, sharing of references and related readings, and many other learning options.

Students MUST have access to a cable or DSL connection. Click here for resources on the Elluminate System Requirements, Training Guides and other resources.

Continuing Education Credit: Attendance Requirements

Most of our classes are eligible for APA continuing education credit. For any class that is one or two weekends, students must attend the entire class to receive CE credit. For classes lasting more than two weekends, students are allowed to miss up to 20% of the total class hours and still get CE credit, provided they notify us in writing that they have viewed the archived class and fulfilled other requirements for accrual of CE credit.

Graduation Requirements

Completion of all coursework. Courses are graded on a Credit/No Credit system. An average grade of 70% is required for credit in each class. Students are permitted to remediate a limited number of examinations. Individuals who have taken academic courses in Neuroanatomy, Neurophysiology, Neurochemistry or Clinical Biochemistry may apply to receive transfer credit for these courses by submitting the relevant transcript(s) and course description. There is a $200 transfer fee per course. Please see the program website for details.
Payment of all tuition and fees before graduation clearance.