While I was studying for the NPTE I came across these forums. The majority of the people on there seem to be foreign born people taking the NPTEi, but the information that can be found on there is still quite helpful.

A member by the name divya12 has created a blog to help others in their preparation for the NPTE.

This site is for helping physical therapists appearing for NPTE. The information given here should only be taken as an aid/tool to help prepare for the license examination and not otherwise. Actual exam questions will not be shared/discussed here.

It is only a few weeks old but already divya has written a few quality posts covering various topics and I would imagine she will have plenty more as time goes by. She seems like she knows her stuff and from slightly stalking her on the forums she has recently passed the NPTE after failing it before so I am sure she can understand what most people are going through when trying to prepare for the test.

I highly recommend this blog!

Go to it now!! physicaltherapyprep.wordpress.com

I had always wanted quick reference sheets without having to pay for them. I am a broke student after all! Well after two years of hoping and crossing my fingers no luck, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I tried to make them as full of important, pertinent information as possible. I trimmed out all of the fluff and stuck with the main points consisting of: muscles that cross the joint along with their corresponding insertion, action, and innervation; normal ROM values; important ligaments; open/closed pack positions; special tests; etc etc

UPDATE: I realize there are only 3 guides currently. I am still working on the shoulder, wrist, and elbow. If you have any comments or I got something wrong, let me know here.

UPDATE #2: The shoulder and elbow are now finished and ready to be downloaded. See below!

UPDATE #3: The shoulder is NOT finished! I will finish it soon,  promise!

UPDATE #4: The shoulder is IS finished! Yay!!!

So without further adieu here they are:

The elbow

Link: Elbow Quick Reference Guide
Version: 2.1
Downloaded: 2486 times
Description: Two page quick reference guide consisting of:

• muscles that cross the joint along with their corresponding insertion, action, and innervation
• normal ROM values
• important ligaments
• open/closed pack positions
• special tests
• etc etc

The ankle

Link: Ankle Quick Reference Guide
Version: 2.0
Downloaded: 1449 times
Description: Two page quick reference guide consisting of:

• muscles that cross the joint along with their corresponding insertion, action, and innervation
• normal ROM values
• important ligaments
• open/closed pack positions
• special tests
• etc etc

The knee

Link: knee quick reference guide
Version: 2.0
Downloaded: 2422 times
Description: Two page quick reference guide consisting of:

• muscles that cross the joint along with their corresponding insertion, action, and innervation
• normal ROM values
• important ligaments
• open/closed pack positions
• special tests
• etc etc

The hip

Link: hip quick reference guide
Version: 2.0
Downloaded: 1631 times
Description: Two page quick reference guide consisting of:

• muscles that cross the joint along with their corresponding insertion, action, and innervation
• normal ROM values
• important ligaments
• open/closed pack positions
• special tests
• etc etc

The Shoulder

Link: Shoulder Quick Reference Guide
Version: 1.0
Downloaded: 1713 times
Description: Two page quick reference guide consisting of:

• muscles that cross the joint along with their corresponding insertion, action, and innervation
• normal ROM values
• important ligaments
• open/closed pack positions
• special tests
• etc etc

Today our DPT class finished our Scorebuilders NPTE Exam prep course and I left with a feeling of wow I need to study. One of the many things I have forgotten or purged from my brain since the start of school is basically anything related to research… Oh my research professor is so disappointed in me right now!

Anyways, I decided to be proactive and start looking through some stuff as I slowly (very slowly) start to piece together a study plan. That is where I found the amazing website experiment-resources.com. It has just about anything and everything you could ever need when it comes to research.

The idea for the website came to life while trying to make sense of an enormous raw data collection, during the autumn of 2007.

The idea developed and Experiment-Resources.com was launched in February 2008. We have been adding new sections and articles ever since.

Check em out if you need to know anything related to research. experiment-resources.com

Normally when I review something I will usually give it “x” number of donalds out of 5, but when something is free I don’t feel like it needs a rating. If people are nice enough to give it out freely then it automagically gets 5 donalds!!

Anywho enough of the blaaaaaaaaaah, on to the good stuff.

I spent the last week trying out f.lux to get a better understanding of how it works and whether or not it does in fact work.

Let me start by saying, during the day or in a brightly lit room you shouldn’t notice anything at all. It’s when the sun starts to set is when this thing starts to work its magic. It creates a reddish hue to your screen that cuts down on the eye strains and I think it makes a computer screen  more comfortable to use in a dimly lit or dark room.

After you download and install f.lux, once you start it for the first time you need to set it up.

The first time I ran f.lux I wasn’t given the initial settings options so if that happens to you just look in your taskbar by the clock if you are using Windows.

So as you can see you set the lighting to fit your needs, then you set your location and finally choose how fast you want the screen to change.  At the very bottom there is a check box to disable for one hour. This is if you are working on pictures or photoshop or something else that require you to see the true colors.

That’s it! So like I said early I spent the week using f.lux and I can honestly say I will continue to use this program. The biggest change I noticed is when I finally turned off my computer to go to bed I was able to fall asleep much faster and easier. I know that is a subjective statement, but I felt like I was able to unwind while I was still on my computer since the screen wasn’t so harsh. Some people would say why not just turn down the screen brightness. Well you could, but there is something about dimming my screen I don’t like. To each their own I say!

f.lux is available for Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X, and Linux

Check out and download f.lux here

Following up to the prior mnemonic of the week we have, drum roll please…….. ok I am sure you already know based on the title of the post. Cranial Nerves!!!

Before I begin allow me to give those not familiar with the nerves a little background and maybe something educational all at the same time.

The cranial nerves are 12 pairs of nerves that can be seen on the ventral (bottom) surface of the brain. Some of these nerves bring information from the sense organs to the brain; other cranial nerves control muscles; other cranial nerves are connected to glands or internal organs such as the heart and lungs.

G: On Old Olympus Towering Top A Famous Vocal German Viewed Some Hops

R: Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Virgn Girls Vagina So Happy

olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, vestibulocochlear, glossopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory, hypoglossal.

Now there are a million different ones to choose from so don’t think that these are it. Google it and I am sure you will find another that will work better for you.

Below is a chart of the cranial nerves and their corresponding function.

Sources:

1. the nifty chart
2. oh good ol wikipedia
3. allnurses forum
4. washington.edu

If you are like me you are all about working smarter and not harder.

My good friend Kaitlin had given me this power point sometime last year for me to look it over for her. Well now I figured I could share it with the rest of you.

Let me be clear, I AM IN NO WAY SAYING YOU SHOULD COPY THIS FOR YOUR OWN IN-SERVICE. I think this is a great tool for those of you who are struggling with ideas to help give you some ideas.

There are a million different ways to have an in-service at your clinical. Some do power points while others just type up a single piece of paper, to each their own! This is just one example. If this isn’t what you had in mind fear not! There will be plenty more posted up here in the coming months.

If you have done an in-service and feel like sharing it with the rest of the world then contact us here and we can post it for the world to see!