What is the NPTE?
The NPTE is the National Physical Therapy Examination, which is administered by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT). There are two versions, the physical therapist (PT) version and the physical therapist assistant (PTA) version.
How many questions are on the NPTE?
The PT version has 250. The PTA version has 200.
I’ve heard that some of the questions on the NPTE don’t count. Is that true?
Yes. Only 200 of the 250 PT version questions count toward your score and only 150 of the 200 PTA version questions count toward your score. FSBPT puts 50 questions that don’t count toward your score on each exam to test those questions before they are used for real. It’s part of their vetting and review process that every question goes through.
For the NPTE practice questions on The PT Student, how did you come up with the number of questions in each category?
The Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) publishes the content outlines of the NPTE. These outlines tell you which percentage of your exam will be on which topics (18-21 questions on Musculoskeletal System – Physical Therapy Examination, e.g.). The numbers given by FSBPT are out of 200 questions, but your actual exam will have 250 questions. So, The PT Student adds a proportional amount of questions to each category so that you have a 250 question exam. Therefore, each category will have slightly more questions than what the NPTE outline indicates.
Are your NPTE practice questions updated to reflect the 2018 Content Outline from FSBPT?
Yes! The main difference between the 2013 and 2018 versions was the number of questions in each category. Our categories have been updated to reflect the correct number of questions.