Doctor of Physical Therapy | NPTE Prep from Someone Who Passed It

Tim S.

I hold a Doctor of Physical Therapy from the Medical University of South Carolina and am a licensed Physical Therapist in South Carolina. I am an APTA Credentialed Clinical Instructor and a board-certified Geriatric Clinical Specialist. I personally studied for and passed the NPTE, and have practiced continuously since 1999 across acute care, outpatient orthopedics, geriatrics, inpatient rehab, and pediatrics. I currently work full-time in an acute care hospital, handling daily medical complexity, differential diagnosis, and safety/risk-based decision making, areas heavily tested on the NPTE where many candidates struggle. I also have extensive formal teaching experience. I was adjunct faculty at Midlands Technical College (2019-2022), teaching Anatomy and Physiology labs, and at South University (2017-2019), teaching Modalities, Orthopedic Interventions, and Tests and Measures to Physical Therapist Assistant students. I have served as a Clinical Instructor for Lexington Medical Center since 2013, directing PT students one-on-one in an outpatient setting, and previously for Lexington School District One (2006-2013), supervising PT students in pediatric clinical practice. I have also guest lectured for the DPT programs at MUSC and the University of South Carolina. My teaching approach emphasizes clinical reasoning over memorization: understanding why an answer is correct, eliminating distractors under time pressure, and systematically targeting weak content areas rather than passively re-reading material. This combination of active clinical practice, formal teaching experience, and one-on-one clinical instruction makes me well suited to tutor NPTE candidates who need targeted, exam-focused review and strategy from someone with recent, applied expertise.