How to Study for the NPTE®

You’ve made it through DPT school, and all your hard work and dedication has paid off big time! Now it’s time to prepare for the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE®). This is a huge step in your path to your dream career. In this blog, we’ll tell you how to study for the NPTE®, give you a sample study schedule, and give you some tips along the way!  

Step 1: Get to know the NPTE

The Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) requires licensure by taking the NPTE. It is given four times per year, in January, April, July, and October. The exam consists of 250 multiple-choice questions, some of which may include images or video, and is 5 hours long. In 2022 the pass rate was 85%. Scoring for the exam is between 200-800, and 600 or higher is passing. It is important to know the content breakdown so you can focus your studies appropriately, for example “the big 3” (musculoskeletal, neuromuscular/nervous, and cardio) consists of up to 70% questions so it’s important to focus a lot of your effort there. You can view the full exam blueprint on fsbpt.org.

NPTE 2024 Changes

There are some changes coming to the NPTE in 2024. The exam will have 225 items and some questions will be scenario-based. The blueprint is also slightly different, so make sure you check out the 2024 blueprint. And watch our recent webinar on the exam changes so you can navigate the new NPTE format.

Step 2: Create a Study Schedule

Before you dive into your studies, take the time to make a study schedule. A schedule is important and will help keep you on track and make sure you stay organized. Start by figuring out how long you have until your exam date and divide the content into manageable sections. 

How long you need to study for the NPTE varies student by student and is dependent on your learning style and other life commitments. In general, we recommend that you give yourself 3-4 months to study. Consider all your other commitments when making your schedule and be realistic about how much time per day you can assign to studying. Below is a sample study schedule to prepare for the NPTE.

Sample Schedule

• Week 1 & 2 – Musculoskeletal
• Week 3 & 4 – Neuromuscular and Nervous  
• Week 5 & 6 – Cardiovascular and Pulmonary
• Week 7 – Integumentary, Metabolic, Endocrine
• Week 8 – Gastrointestinal, Genitourinary, Lymphatic, System Interactions
• Week 9 – Non-systems
• Week 10 – Review other systems and non-systems
• Week 11 – Review the big 3
• Week 12 – Focus on practice questions every day to build your testing endurance. You need to get yourself accustomed to focus during a long test. For example, take 50 questions on Monday, 100 on Tuesday, 150 on Wednesday, 200 on Thursday, and the exam total on Friday. Remember, this is a marathon not a sprint.
• Week 13 – This is your exam week. Review anything you missed the week before and focus on self-care. Eat right, sleep well, and don’t let your nerves get in the way.

How to Approach Studying Each Day

• Morning: 2 hours of content review (i.e., musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, etc.)
• Afternoon: 10-20 practice questions over the content you studied in the morning
• Evening: Review topics you missed from the practice questions

Step 3: Choose Your Study Resources

Use a variety of study materials, but don’t overwhelm yourself with too many. At this point, you know your study/learning style and which resources work best for you, so stick to it. Some resources to consider are prep books, online prep courses, PEAT, lectures from your professors, a quality question bank like TrueLearn, an audiovisual mnemonic program like Picmonic, flash cards for fast facts, NPTE podcasts, and even YouTube.

NPTE Study Tips

1. Prioritize studying your areas of weakness.
2. During the day while studying make sure to take plenty of brain breaks. Make sure you make time for fun activities/hobbies, healthy food and some movement as well.
3. You should be doing practice questions daily, at least 10-20. As you are doing practice questions, ALWAYS read the rationale even if you got the answer right as this reinforces your knowledge. Consider writing a flash card for each question you got wrong so you can review them and quiz yourself later.
4. Instead of just passively reading through the material you are studying, use active learning techniques to enhance your understanding and retention. Active learning techniques use things like teaching the content to others, creating mnemonics and content maps, and summarizing the information in your own words.
5. Learn from physical therapy tutors, who have taken the exam and helped others pass. TrueLearn hosted a webinar where Physical Therapists gave advice on how to pass the NPTE.

Marissa Heilig, PT, DPT is a graduate of the University at Buffalo and proud to be from Buffalo, NY. She is a pediatric physical therapist who specializes in working with the preschool age group. Marissa is the founder of the “Pediatric Physical Therapy” Instagram page, offering clinical and educational resources. Since 2018, Marissa has also provided mentorship and insight into the Pediatric PT profession through her social media. She currently resides in New York City and practices in Queens.

The Day Before Your Exam

Do not study the day before or the day of your exam! Instead give yourself the opportunity to relax and unwind from all the hard work you’ve put into studying. Do something fun, have your favorite food for dinner, just do anything that will make you happy. Basically, prioritizing your wel-lbeing is the most important thing you can do for yourself during this time.

Using TrueLearn

Our question bank has over 1,600 NPTE-style practice questions! Our topics are mapped to the exam content outline, so you can rest assured the questions will be relevant. Each of our questions are written by content experts in the field. The TrueLearn dashboard gives you a performance snapshot so you can see how you are performing compared to the national average and keeps a list of your incorrect topics for you to focus your attention on. We also offer a first-time pass guarantee! Test your best with TrueLearn. Sign up today to begin studying smarter for your upcoming NPTE exam. 

TrueLearn also provides an optional assessment you can purchase to mimic the content percentages of the exam. After you’ve finished studying this can be a good wrap up to test your knowledge or a pretest to help you find your weak areas.