Similar to the first blog I shared with you guys, this site is from a member of the www.physicaltherapyforum.com website. It’s a great source of information or moral support. His site is just starting out, but he promises to update it frequently. Enjoy!

Go to it now! nptebasics.blogspot.com

This post has been a long time coming. I totally agree with what Chad said in this article on the same subject. It is good to know how others prepared for and passed the NPTE…so here are my 2 bits:

I studied for 5 weeks, nearly every day. I used a hybrid system between the PTEXAM by Scorebuilders (Giles) and TherapyEd’s Review & Study Guide (O’Sullivan). I stared with O’Sullivan, digging deep into the Musculoskeletal and Neuromuscular sections. Also, like Chad, I had my anatomy atlas (Grants) opened next to the study guide. After those 2 chapters (which are extremely detailed) I switched tactics and used Scorebuilders for my academic review. I am glad I did this for a couple reasons. The layout of the book suited my eye better…I felt more comfortable and could study longer from it. Also, although pertinent, the information inside is not as detailed and has more charts/tables. I think they describe it nicely on the back cover of their book: ” We don’t try to teach you everything there is to know about physical therapy-only the information and strategies you will need to pass the exam.” I felt like TherapyEd was trying to re-teach me everything sometimes, and it got overwhelming. It became my secondary guide if I needed supplemental information.

After those first two chapters I took my first TherapyEd practice exam. This may have been a mistake as I was not prepared at all, but also it gave me a good baseline as to what I would need to focus on in the future. After that, I really took the rest of the practice exams whenever I felt like I had learned more in my weaker areas. No set schedule, but I alternated between Scorebuilders and TherapyEd. I also took the PEAT exams…a long time ago. Here are my practice exam scores:

PEAT 1- 141

PEAT 2- 132

TherapyEd A- 121

Scorebuilders 1- 144

TherapyEd B- 134

Scorebuilders 2- 161

TherapyEd C- 140

Scorebuilders 3- 158

As you can see, I performed better on the Scorebuilders tests. I don’t know that they are any easier, just different. I like how they mimic the PEAT in format with the blue screen, etc. I also found them easier to navigate, etc. I considered purchasing the Scorebuilders Online Advantage tests, but considering I took 8 practice tests I don’t think I really needed it.

I got to a point (after the 161) where all I wanted to do was take practice tests. I think they really helped me identify weaknesses, but they also helped me study. After every exam I went back through the questions with my book and re-examined all my responses, even the correct ones. Scorebuilders was great in that they gave a reason for EVERY response. Not a catch all “refer to information about such and such if you missed this question.”

Finally, I prayed. A lot during the whole process. I am a religious person and this helped me. It may not be something you do, but a little extra help couldn’t hurt, right?

Anyways, I passed the exam and am now waiting for a license. How will you know when you’re ready? I don’t know how to say, but I had a feeling deep down saying I was good to go. Have confidence, study hard, and you’ll do great!

I know many physical therapy students are out there studying away for the NPTE.  I know when I was studying I wanted to know how others were preparing and what they were getting on their practice tests.  So, I thought I would give a little insight into how I studied and what my practice test scores were.

I used Scorebuilders PTEXAM: The Complete Study Guide as my primary study source.  I also attend a review session provided by Scorebuilders.  I supplemented this with a very general review of images (I’m a visual learner) from Clinically Oriented Anatomy by Moore, Dalley, and Agur.  While going through the Scorebuilders book, I wrote down any information I was unfamiliar with to review at a later time.  This was the method I used for studying.

If you are a visual learner as I am, it might benefit you to review our videos of special tests at http://videos.rehabstudents.com/.

I took 5 practice tests including 2 PEATs and 3 Scorebuilders from the CD provided in the book.  My scores were as follows.

PEAT 1: 142

PEAT 2: 155

Scorebuilders 1: 152

Scorebuilders 2: 148

Scorebuilders 3: 149

I took the tests in the order listed above and studied for 24 days after graduation with occasional sessions before I graduated.  I was a little paranoid about my scores not increasing over the course of studying but I did pass the NPTE.  Hopefully this will be of help to some of our readers out there.  If nothing else maybe it will give you a little peace of mind prior to taking your exam.

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 just thought I would share an email from Chad with all of you people out there. Its about that time when we are all starting to take the NPTE, so I am sure you guys would like to know how to check to see if you passed.

Hey everyone!  Just wanted to let everybody know how to check to see if you passed the NPTE if you didn’t already know.

Use this link: https://pt.fsbpt.net/spa/ServiceStatus/

Fill in the required information and click continue.  On the next screen when your results are in you will see “Score Received from Prometric – Passed” (which I did!) or failed (which I know none of us will do).  If your results are not in you will just see the authorization to test information.  I took my test June 1st at 12:30 and found out June 2nd at 7:00 AM.  Good luck everybody!

Chad

On a side note, I took my exam yesterday at noon and finished around 5:30pm and found out this morning around 7am eastern time, so 4am out here in AZ. (I didn’t sleep all that great last night… not sure why)

The battle of the NPTE prep practice exams, more specifically Scorebuilders vs. TherapyEd aka O’Sullivan. Let me preface this by saying this is only my opinion and not necessarily the opinion of rehabstudents.com or anyone else associated with the site.

I hate reading something that blabs on, on, and on when all I really care about is the bulleted talking points, so here are my quick bulleted points. Remember these reviews only cover the provided CD practice tests and are not reviews of the actual study guides themselves. Those are coming later… much later as I am sooo busy doing my hair.

I have taken a few screen shots of each test to give a better understanding of what I am talking about, but I did not take any of the actual tests mainly because I don’t feel like being sued.

Scorebuilders

http://www.scorebuilders.com/

Like

Actual test is similar to the PEAT and I would imagine the actual NPTE. Each section is broken up into blocks of 50 with a 15-minute break after 100 questions.

You can mark questions to be reviewed so you can go back prior to submitting that block of 50 questions.

I am not 100% positive on this one but I think you cannot submit the 50-question block until you have answered each question. So basically you can’t forget to answer a question.

The break down following the test was informative and semi-easy to navigate.

The printed answer sheet tells you what answer you picked vs. the correct one. So when you look back in the book for the explanation you can see what you chose.

Similar to the PEAT, each question is referenced with a page number so know where to start looking if the provided rationale doesn’t quite do it for you.

Dislike

I felt the questions were too easy when compared to the PEAT and O’Sullivan.

The user interface seemed a bit out dated and not the greatest when trying to look at the break down of your scores.

The score results make it hard to find out the answers to your incorrect questions by category. The interface doesn’t allow you to view only incorrect answers. The user ends up scrolling through all the questions.

TherapyEd aka O’Sullivan

http://www.therapyed.com/nptexamreview.htm

Like

The questions seemed similar to those in the PEAT; they seemed more situational based and overall tougher when compared to Scorebuilders.

The user interface is very easy to use.

You can “Create an Exam”, which basically means you can pick and choose the subjects you want to be tested on along with the 3 included tests.

You are able to go through your missed questions in the software but you still need the book for full explanations.

Very few questions based on straight memorization.

Easy to use interface allowing the user to look through incorrect questions easily by category.

Dislike

The test did not break the test up into 50 question sections like the NPTE nor was there time allowed for a break.

You can and probably will skip a question or two by accident when taking this test. (I did twice, not very happy about it).

After you finished the test, the graded answer sheet doesn’t tell you what answer you picked, only whether you got it correct or not.

Most of the longer clinical scenario questions did not have a detailed answer for them in the book.

The questions are not referenced so you do not know exactly where to look if you have additional questions about the answer or rational.

Someone by the name Marmite22 has created 27 “sets” of online flashcard over various categories covered on the NPTE over at quizlet.com. They are mostly based from IER aka TherapyEd’s review book aka the O’Sullivan review book and some from Scorebuilders. This should be a welcomed tool for those of us taking the NPTE before June 30. Let me know if you guys find this helpful.

Click here for the list of flashcard sets

Its about that time of year for the soon to be new PT grads to start applying to take the NPTE. Up until a few weeks ago I had no idea as to what I had to do in order to take the NPTE. I always thought that by graduating from PT school you were set, but man was I wrong.

Jenny is hard at work writing up what it takes to get everything taken care of so keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime I found the list of Licensing Authorities the FSBPT has put together. It has each state with the person to contact as well as all of the available websites for that state. This should be your first step! Find the state you are looking to be licensed in and then find their application to test packet to download. Each state has different requirements so keep that in mind.

Since the federation will be switching to fixed-date testing, I would encourage you to check with the board of the state you are planning to work in so that you can find out what contingencies they might have for the fixed testing situation.

I know that the Tennessee State Board has allowed the head of our PT department to send a letter containing a list of the students in my class who will graduate, which will allow us to be eligible to test in lieu of our transcripts since there is a deadline to apply for the NPTE. Hopefully your school has set something like this up as well to help make this time not as stressful!

Below is the link to find your state licensing authority. Good luck!

https://www.fsbpt.org/LicensingAuthorities/index.asp

Holy cow! If this doesn’t upset some people I don’t know what will. A few days ago The Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy announced that they will discontinue continuous testing effective July 1, 2011 and move to a fixed-date testing schedule.

What that basically means is after June 30th, 2011  you will no longer be able to take the NPTE at any time, but instead have 3 select dates to take the test on for the remainder of 2011. Sounds like a great idea right?? Yeah right.

Below is what their website has on the matter. I can understand the reasoning behind it, but to only offer 3 dates to take it on and having the first available test not until September seems a bit ridiculous to me.

In order to address security concerns and protect the integrity of the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE), while complying with the recent order entered in Georgia, the FSBPT will cease continuous testing and begin fixed-date administration for ALL candidates for the NPTE for PTs. (You can view the Georgia order by going to www.fsbpt.org/NPTE-i and selecting “Latest Updates.”)

Continuous testing until June 30, 2011
Continuous testing will be available for PT graduates until June 30, 2011.

2011 testing dates beginning July 1, 2011
Beginning July 1, 2011, all PT NPTE candidates will be able to schedule their test on one of three dates in 2011.

• September 7, 2011 (Wednesday)
• October 20, 2011 (Thursday)
• December 5, 2011 (Monday)

2012 testing dates
There will be five testing dates in 2012 for the PT NPTE. We are working with Prometric to determine best dates for accommodating candidate volume.

Purpose of fixed-date testing
By offering the NPTE on a limited number of fixed dates, the FSBPT will be able to ensure that the NPTE given on a particular date will not contain previously compromised items. This change in procedure is designed to substantially reduce or eliminate candidates’ ability to gain a score advantage by having advance access to NPTE questions. The new procedure’s purpose is to ensure the validity of scores on the NPTE and fulfill the member boards’ and FSBPT’s shared responsibility of protecting the public.

PTA students are not affected
Note that this does not affect PTA graduates; continuous testing continues for PTA graduates.

Background:
As you may know, Georgia candidates had initiated a lawsuit challenging the Federation’s decision to develop a version of the NPTE for graduates of physical therapy schools from Egypt, India, Pakistan and the Philippines (the NPTE-i). The Federation’s decision to develop the NPTE-i was made in response to objective, compelling evidence of pervasive sharing of recalled items by and among graduates of these programs.

On February 9, 2011, a Georgia Superior Court judge granted an injunction to three graduates of physical therapy programs in the Philippines against the Georgia State Board of Physical Therapy and the FSBPT. The injunction prohibits the Georgia Board and the FSBPT from enforcing in Georgia a July 2010 security measure implemented by the FSBPT that requires graduates receiving their first physical therapy degree from programs in Egypt, India, Pakistan and the Philippines to take an NPTE-i form of the National Physical Therapy Examination.

The judge’s ruling was based upon the plaintiffs’ argument that the Georgia Board failed to follow the formal “rule making” requirements of the Georgia Administrative Procedures Act and exceeded its statutory authority by adopting the FSBPT security measure. The judge’s ruling was limited to these two issues and does not address the plaintiffs’ additional arguments, including their assertion that the security measure violates their Due Process and Equal Protection rights under the Georgia Constitution.

source|fsbpt.org