NPTE October study tips
- Thread starter sassyPT
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sassy PT what is ur mail id . i am taking npte in july 22 nd 2014 i would like to share some tips for npte ,
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- Physical Therapy Student
HI DEVATHA LAVANYA,
CAN U SEND THOSE TIPS TO MY MAIL TOO... I WUD LOVE THAT. THIS S MY EMAIL ID [email protected]
CAN U SEND THOSE TIPS TO MY MAIL TOO... I WUD LOVE THAT. THIS S MY EMAIL ID [email protected]
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Take 3-5 practice exams. I used scorebuilders (and took the scorebuilders class cause it was offered to my school). I thought it did a good job. Take practice exams from different sources...so borrow books and exams from your class mates
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In response - Study. Those of us who have taken it cannot give you any information other than what is published about the exam. The exam is HARD. I took 10 practice exams, 2 of the old PEAT (66.5%, 66%), 3 O'Sulivan exams (66%, 66%, 71%), 3 Scorebuilders exams (71%, 72%, 83%) and 2 more PEAT (the new one) exams (78%, 79%), I never RETOOK an exam. I passed the NPTE this July on the first try. I read the Scorebuilder's book cover to cover, the O'Sullivan book cover to cover and reviewed both missed and correct answers. You need to know how you study best. I started off in a large group and couldn't maintain my focus, I then started to study one on one - one on two, and found this was better FOR ME. The bulk of my studying was done by myself at home without other people or significant distraction. I focused on where I was weak and worked to increase my knowledge; my scores didn't start really improving until the week before the exam. Good Luck in October
Thanks for the tips. I am still reading textbooks because I could not understand reading reviewers.
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Any one appearing for oct NPTE from Tallahassee Florida ?
hi,i am interested in study tips. do email me @ [email protected]
im also reading textbooks first like sullivan, magee, and goodman bt not all chapters just the important ones.. what did u read @sassyPT
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What do you consider "important ones"? The review books pull out much of the materials, if you have questions when studying that material, find the reference, find the answer to your question and get out of the reference book. There is not enough time to relearn everything you ever learned in PT school, my school was 33 months long, I had 12 weeks after graduation to review for the exam.
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i meant i read the chapters in sullivan just the neuro part, motor learning. in goodman i only read the gi, endo and metabolic, in magee scanned thru each chapter bt not all.. haha bt now im about to do practice exams everyday maybe 100 till oct. but while im answering as soon as i check my wrong or weakest points i wud go back to the reference or reviewers. wud that be enough preparation till oct?
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Read the npte review book over and over. I studied 6 weeks and never consulted any lectures or outside sources of information except the two PEATs. Your lecture notes probably have information more up to date than the exam has- use the review book as THE reference. Passing the exam is about putting the time in- simple as that. There are no other tips or tricks that aren't highly personalized that specific people have used bc it is the best way they study. You made it through school so you know by now how YOU study best so use the same principles applied to the information in the book and you will be fine.
SPT James - are you getting a commission from that company? You have but 4 posts, and you posted the same info on 4 different threads.
Edit: it's nice to see those spam posts removed.
Edit: it's nice to see those spam posts removed.
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Before I share my experiences, a little about me. I got trained as PT in India and, have been out of field for a while pursuing other interests. I took NPTE July 2015 and got my results yesterday. I passed.
I picked up on a couple of things that might be helpful (specially if you were trained outside of US and more specifically in India) for getting in the right mindset. When I was in PT school the emphasis was always on memorizing stuff. You would write these essay type answers to exam that you would mug up. This is great of recalling stuff but not so good for assessing cases using ICF model and thinking clinically. Thinking clinically is the major difference in the training. Thats the one thing that NPTE psychometrics test. Memorizing information and applying it correctly are two different things and, I would recommend focusing on application.
Now on to some more specific stuff, I brought the Sullivan NPTE book and started going through it 3 weeks before the test. I got very frustrated with the book because the way the information is presented is fragmented. There is no explanation and that does not work for me. I ditched the book (well I mean I just used it to identify topics) and went to textbooks. I focused on Biomechanics (not ortho) and on Anatomy and Physiology (cardio-resp and neuro both). I know that this sounds like a very short time but I was devoting close to 8 hours/day. So instead of focusing on the clinical conditions focus was on fundamentals.
In addition, I would recommend practicing reasoning both inductive and deductive. Sullivan has a neat explanation of this in their book. Read the questions very carefully and, use the fundamental concepts that you should be able to apply not just recall and thinking critically is what will do the trick.
One last thing, the books that I used were Norkins- Biomehcanics, some random book on anatomy and physiology that I found in the library, Sullivan - Physical Rehab, Cameron - electro (although I did not focus much on electro), and the only thing that I found the Sullivan NPTE book useful for was the tests (I took 1 sullivan and 1 PEAT) and for reading up on professional standards and ethics and roles and responsibilities (I don't believe we have the same standards outside of the US)
Hopefully this helps. All the best to everyone who is preparing for October.
I picked up on a couple of things that might be helpful (specially if you were trained outside of US and more specifically in India) for getting in the right mindset. When I was in PT school the emphasis was always on memorizing stuff. You would write these essay type answers to exam that you would mug up. This is great of recalling stuff but not so good for assessing cases using ICF model and thinking clinically. Thinking clinically is the major difference in the training. Thats the one thing that NPTE psychometrics test. Memorizing information and applying it correctly are two different things and, I would recommend focusing on application.
Now on to some more specific stuff, I brought the Sullivan NPTE book and started going through it 3 weeks before the test. I got very frustrated with the book because the way the information is presented is fragmented. There is no explanation and that does not work for me. I ditched the book (well I mean I just used it to identify topics) and went to textbooks. I focused on Biomechanics (not ortho) and on Anatomy and Physiology (cardio-resp and neuro both). I know that this sounds like a very short time but I was devoting close to 8 hours/day. So instead of focusing on the clinical conditions focus was on fundamentals.
In addition, I would recommend practicing reasoning both inductive and deductive. Sullivan has a neat explanation of this in their book. Read the questions very carefully and, use the fundamental concepts that you should be able to apply not just recall and thinking critically is what will do the trick.
One last thing, the books that I used were Norkins- Biomehcanics, some random book on anatomy and physiology that I found in the library, Sullivan - Physical Rehab, Cameron - electro (although I did not focus much on electro), and the only thing that I found the Sullivan NPTE book useful for was the tests (I took 1 sullivan and 1 PEAT) and for reading up on professional standards and ethics and roles and responsibilities (I don't believe we have the same standards outside of the US)
Hopefully this helps. All the best to everyone who is preparing for October.
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I would disagree about TherapyEd (O'sullivans) but it also depends on how you study/learn best. Between the two study books available (TherapyEd and Scorebuilders/Giles) I found therapyed much more helpful. It's presented in an outline format so going into it, you have to have some knowledge and background. But it touches on most things that the NPTE will focus on, but not everything. If there's anything you don't understand in therapy ed, just look it up, but it is a convenient place to find most of the answers or at least start. But it doesn't give you all the fluff that scorebuilders does. When you go through the practice exams, there are trends in the questions based on the body system and it'll help clue you in to what you should focus your studying on. Don't focus on the details and memorizing. Study broad and wide and find the clinical trends... when you review each practice test make sure to also understand what the question is asking and why the answer choice they chose is correct... it's usually a key word/s and on the NPTE make sure you answer the question asked, not what you think it could be implying --- overthinking will likely lead you to the wrong answer. At the end of the day, the NPTE is more about how good you are at taking their test. Best of luck to all October examinees
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Hi guys,
I know its a little late to jump into this particular thread, but just wanted to say I see a lot of good advice on here. I also wanted to share two pages from my website:
How to Pass the NPTE
and
Which NPTE Review Guide is Best?
Everyone studies differently, but these pages outline what worked best for me, and what has worked for a lot of our students. Also, If you want a free practice exam, we're giving away our development version for free with the promo code 61915
Free Practice NPTE
It's missing some answer explanations, and there are a few spelling errors as it is still under development, but we have gotten lots of great feedback so far!
Hope you guys all get some good news on Tuesday night!
Trevor Lohman PT, DPT
I know its a little late to jump into this particular thread, but just wanted to say I see a lot of good advice on here. I also wanted to share two pages from my website:
How to Pass the NPTE
and
Which NPTE Review Guide is Best?
Everyone studies differently, but these pages outline what worked best for me, and what has worked for a lot of our students. Also, If you want a free practice exam, we're giving away our development version for free with the promo code 61915
Free Practice NPTE
It's missing some answer explanations, and there are a few spelling errors as it is still under development, but we have gotten lots of great feedback so far!
Hope you guys all get some good news on Tuesday night!
Trevor Lohman PT, DPT
I just want to give my story. I took the NPTE 2x. Failed first time by a hair (594). Passed the 2nd time (654). Here's what I did.
First time, I read through Scorebuilders cover to cover and took the 3 scorebuilders, 1 O'Sullivan's, 1 PEAT, 2 Online Advantages (made by Scorebuilders). All practice tests I went over every question and read the commentary on each answer.
Practice test results: 65-68 in scorebuilders, 61 in O'Sullivans, a 608 on the PEAT, 65-68 in Online Advantage tests.
I went into the exam in a haze and I really felt disoriented. I think for me a lot of it was that I felt fatigued when I took the exam and it was just overwhelming--too much at one time.
After the exam, I prepared exclusively with O'Sullivans and wrote out a study guide. The first time I took the test I had just read through the book and didn't create my own study guide. Will send this to anyone who wants it. Creating a study guide and the harder content of the O'Sullivan's text just made my preparation go better.
Practice exam scores were in the mid to high 70s, early 80s at this point, but that is not a good predictor because I had taken the practice exams once already and remembered some of the answers.
I continued studying O'Sullivan until I had read the entire book through cover to cover. I kept taking the practice exams over and over and I bought two Iphone Apps-- PT Content Master ($20) and PT Question of the Day. ($10 for 6 month subscription). I kept doing questions and reading O'Sullivan.
Second time I took the exam I was more relaxed and when I finished the exam I felt like I could have kept going. My endurance wasn't shot to hell at that time. I also learned a trick or two. I budgeted time better. You have 5 hours. I used 1 hour for every section and made sure to mark and go back to any questions I didn't know. I used ALL the time. Up to the last second I spent checking and rechecking my answers.
Something else my 2nd time, I just felt like I had more mental endurance--for me that was the main thing so I saw the more studying and mental "muscle" you can build up, the better.
First time, I read through Scorebuilders cover to cover and took the 3 scorebuilders, 1 O'Sullivan's, 1 PEAT, 2 Online Advantages (made by Scorebuilders). All practice tests I went over every question and read the commentary on each answer.
Practice test results: 65-68 in scorebuilders, 61 in O'Sullivans, a 608 on the PEAT, 65-68 in Online Advantage tests.
I went into the exam in a haze and I really felt disoriented. I think for me a lot of it was that I felt fatigued when I took the exam and it was just overwhelming--too much at one time.
After the exam, I prepared exclusively with O'Sullivans and wrote out a study guide. The first time I took the test I had just read through the book and didn't create my own study guide. Will send this to anyone who wants it. Creating a study guide and the harder content of the O'Sullivan's text just made my preparation go better.
Practice exam scores were in the mid to high 70s, early 80s at this point, but that is not a good predictor because I had taken the practice exams once already and remembered some of the answers.
I continued studying O'Sullivan until I had read the entire book through cover to cover. I kept taking the practice exams over and over and I bought two Iphone Apps-- PT Content Master ($20) and PT Question of the Day. ($10 for 6 month subscription). I kept doing questions and reading O'Sullivan.
Second time I took the exam I was more relaxed and when I finished the exam I felt like I could have kept going. My endurance wasn't shot to hell at that time. I also learned a trick or two. I budgeted time better. You have 5 hours. I used 1 hour for every section and made sure to mark and go back to any questions I didn't know. I used ALL the time. Up to the last second I spent checking and rechecking my answers.
Something else my 2nd time, I just felt like I had more mental endurance--for me that was the main thing so I saw the more studying and mental "muscle" you can build up, the better.
