So you’ve recently graduated, and now you’re ready to get licensed and begin your career as a physical therapist. That means preparing to pass the NPTE—the National Physical Therapy Examination. It’s arguably the most important step in your journey, and that means it can also be the most intimidating. Fortunately, the experienced physical therapists of PRO~PT have all overcome this milestone themselves, and they’re here to provide advice on how you can be ready for this exam.
What Is the NPTE?
The National Physical Therapy Examination is designed to assess a physical therapy graduate’s basic competence in their field before licensing them. The NPTE is only one part of the evaluation process, but it’s a major one. The exam is designed to help the regulating bodies of the physical therapy field ensure that standards for the practice are kept consistent across all jurisdictions.
Setting Your Study Schedule
With the intensity and importance of the NPTE, it’s paramount to take studying for it seriously. The experienced physical therapists of PRO~PT confirm that they studied from three to eight hours a day in the run-up to taking the exam themselves. Plan out the amount of study time you’ll need for your own efforts and schedule it in blocks on your calendar—then stick to that timeline, no matter what.
You can separate and arrange these study time blocks by different topics, keeping them rotated to make sure your attention stays held throughout the schedule.
How you go about studying is as important as the time you spend doing so. Here are some quick study tips from our PTs who have passed the exam:
The Most Recommended Resources
Apart from the advice of your physical therapy peers, there is a wealth of resources online to assist you in preparing for the NPTE. NPTE Final Frontier is a program that has proven tremendously successful. It allows you to enroll in courses and classes to supplement your studies—PRO~PT actually offers access to this program as a free benefit to all students and new graduates who sign on with us ahead of taking the exam
The Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy is another body supplying several resources for prospective physical therapists. They provide breakdowns of licensing processes and information on the NPTE’s purposes. They also offer the Practice Exam & Assessment Tool, or PEAT. This is recommended by many licensed physical therapists, including those here at PRO~PT, as the most effective way to prepare for the NPTE. PEAT follows the same format with the same type of questions as the NPTE, with references and tools allowing you to assess your strengths and weaknesses prior to the exam proper.
Other Resources
Everyone’s approach to studying is going to be different, and there is a multitude of other resources online to support your own efforts to prepare for the NPTE. PRO~PT’s physical therapists note that there are several options for practice exams that can be found, as well as free resources on platforms like YouTube.
One choice recommendation comes from The PT Hustle in their NPTE Clinical Files Podcast. Hosted by Dr. Kyle Rice, this series takes listeners through topics relevant to physical therapy which will be found on the NPTE exam. The podcast even walks through practice questions and works to provide a deeper understanding of the answers to those questions, assisting with that all-important clinical reasoning.
Being Ready for the NPTE
The NPTE demands a fair amount of preparation and studying, but know that it will be worth it to prove your readiness to properly begin your career in physical therapy. It’s one of the most important steps you’ll take to becoming a physical therapist in California.
Thankfully, you have an established group of peers who have already surmounted this obstacle and can pass their experience down to you. The resources that have been assembled and curated are here to assist you in studying for the exam, so don’t hesitate to utilize everything at your disposal to give yourself the best chance at success.
