What NOT to do when preparing for the NPTE

[PTMattI]

If you are preparing for the NPTE, be very careful about sharing / accessing study guides, questions or practice exams. The FSBPT is very protective when it comes to their copyrighted intellectual properties and aggressively goes after those who break the copyright laws and share or access their material illegally.

For more info, go here:
https://www.fsbpt.org/NewsEvents/News/PEATInvestigation.aspx

If someone online offers to send you a study guide or anything, it is best to just say no and purchase it yourself through the proper means. (The FSBPT sells the PEAT.)

In the case above, everyone should receive their scores. However, if the items shared were questions found on the actual board exam scores would have been probably been invalidated irregardless of whether or not the persons receiving the study guide knew in advance what they were getting!

So protect your license and your career and DO NOT SHARE OR ACCESS ANY STUDY MATERIAL YOU FIND ONLINE.

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[Azimuthal]

Also, for anyone who failed the NPTE. Study groups may be a good idea, but do not discount your individual study time. If you failed, you made mistakes and studying with someone else who failed is probably a bad idea.

 

[James221]

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.