What We Learned from the Resources on the NBCOT® Website
Due to race, ethnicity, gender, age, creed, disability, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, or national origin, NBCOT® does not discriminate against any person. NBCOT® reserves the right to modify the procedures described in this manual.
For any reason, all documentation submitted to NBCOT® becomes the organization’s property. This documentation includes but is not restricted to: eligibility for certification, initial certification, renewal of accreditation, reinstatement, disciplinary action, international regulatory affairs, or other issues of NBCOT®.
See the OTR or COTA Exam Outline for an overview of the content on the certification exams. Each outline defines the domain areas covered by the examination, the set of associated tasks and statements of knowledge, and the percentage of items dedicated to each area. According to these statements, all exam items classified.
Educator’s Resources
NBCOT® completed a revalidation of the contents of the OTR and COTA exams in 2017. The revalidation resulted in minor structural changes and text editing to reduce duplication, provide clarity, and reflect the currency of practice. The knowledge being tested doesn’t change on the examination.
NBCOT® conducts regular studies of OTR and COTA practice analysis following certification industry standards to determine the domains, tasks, and knowledge needed to practice occupational therapy effectively. The objective is to ensure that the contents of the certification exam reflect current practice. The study results are used to create the examination outlines and to guide the examination construction.
In 2016-2017, NBCOT® carried out revalidation of the practice analysis studies for the national certification examinations of OTR and COTA. External accreditation standards require certification organizations, such as NBCOT®, to perform these every five years to confirm the relevance of the test to current entry-level practice.
Resources for Examiners
For the exam prep, a lot of study guides are available, and you’ve probably heard about them all. The list includes TherapyEd, Johnson, and The Official NBCOT® Study Guide, but not limited to them. TherapyEd is perhaps the most well-known study guide, and when combined with study materials such as class notes or course textbooks, it is a great resource to review content.
You’ve been studying the material, and it’s time to test that knowledge. A wide range of study questions is available, similar to study guides. Here is a list of the most helpful things I thought were.
Study Questions. The Castle Practice Test Castle provide questions that are outstanding in helping you understand the wording of the items and give you a bright vision of what to expect on the test day. Like the Castle Practice Test, the Occupational Therapy Knowledge Exam (OTKE) will also give you a clear idea of how the questions are going to be structured. There is a fee for this exam, and your program director must register you.
AOTA’s NBCOT® Exam Prep TherapyEd Caryn Johnson’s Content-Based Practice Questions Guide to Castle
Review Sessions. Often schools are hosting a review session at a price. Some sessions can take several days to complete and even provide material for review. Of course, these are another excellent resource for the study. To see if they are accommodating NBCOT® review sessions, check with local occupational therapy programs.
In occupational therapy, your class notes and textbooks contain valuable information about each topic. These are, after all, the building blocks of your knowledge, and they comprise some of the many resources that teachers draw.
Getting the Resources Count
It is followed by memorizing the conditions caused by injury to the brachial plexus’ posterior cord. The problem is that the damages to the brachial plexus can be the same conditions that reduce wrist extension.
Think about it that way. Your brain is a library, and when you only memorize information by category (i.e., hand conditions & brachial plexus injuries), you create more work for yourself by creating duplicate books that stored in different locations.
There will be moments when you can’t remember all you’ve reviewed. There will also be moments of “Eureka” when all becomes super clear. Keep your textbooks handy, but refer to them only if you have no understanding of the material. Above all, when you reference charts and examples, use your books. These visual indications are critical for embedding the essential concepts in your mind.
Takeaway
Don’t make the experience a painful one. Only once must you pass this. Get this, and you can choose the date to take the test, how great is it? This article can be the first time all the information that crammed into your head throughout the graduate school can be connected.
These resources can provide you with an idea of what to expect from a score to help you evaluate whether you are ready to schedule a test date. Most importantly, the study guide goes through the reasoning, which can be useful in getting out of the overthinking mindset and using real clinical judgment.