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Background and Purpose. Successful completion of the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) is a requirement for entry into professional practice. Physical therapist education programs assess a variety of information about enrolled students, including demographic, academic, and clinical performance factors. The purpose of this study was to determine which factors are related to NPTE score. Subjects. Data were analyzed from 92 alumni of the professional (entry-level) Master of Physical Therapy program at The University of Scranton (graduating classes 2001, 2002, and 2003). Methods. Pearson correlation analyses were conducted for the following variables: age at graduation, professional grade point average (PGPA), comprehensive exam (CE) score, Physical Therapy Clinical Performance Instrument (CPI) score, and NPTE score. Multiple regression analysis was performed to develop an equation for prediction of NPTE score from comprehensive exam score and professional grade point average. Results. Of the variables studied, CE score (R = .617, P Discussion and Conclusion. Of the factors studied, CE score and PGPA were most closely related to NPTE score. It seems likely that these factors assess the same dimension(s) of professional physical therapist practice as the NPTE. Perhaps it is time for the physical therapist profession to consider the development of a standardized comprehensive examination. Key Words: Physical therapy, License examination, Score, Grade point average, Comprehensive examination. INTRODUCTION The overarching goal of any physical therapist education program is to ensure that graduates become competent, ethical, and effective physical therapists. The first post-graduation step toward this goal is successful completion of the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE).1 However, graduation from an accredited physical therapist education program does not ensure NPTE success, and as Thieman and colleagues have pointed out, "License examination scores appear to be only weakly predictable."2 A method to estimate NPTE success would be useful for students (and their faculty advisors) as they develop strategies to prepare for the NPTE, and for program directors as they conduct program and curriculum assessment activities. The problem, therefore, is the need for a method to estimate the likelihood of NPTE success. Review of Literature Health professions educators have looked for factors related to license examination success. Often, investigators have searched for program admission criteria that could be used to predict license examination scores. Others have studied the relationship to academic performance in the professional education program. Some have considered the relationship to demographic variables, noncognitive variables, and clinical performance. The relationship of license examination success to comprehensive examinations has also received some scrutiny. Roehrig used American College Testing (ACT) score (a program admission requirement), prerequisite and nonprerequisite grade point averages, interview score, and recommendation score to predict physical therapist licensure examination score.1 Roehrig found that ACT score was most correlated to license examination score (R = .48, P |
