NCS Exam Scoring

[claudia guzman]

Hello! I was wondering if the NCS exam is curved or if we just need to get 62.5% of the questions right. Thank you for all your help

[Chrissy Durrough Lugge]

Hi Claudia,
The NCS exam will be curved. After the exam window closes, a careful analysis of all exam questions will be completed. Here are some details provided by the ABPTS:
“What happens between my test completion and notification?
Although there is a time lapse between the close of the examination window and the availability of examination results, there is a lot activity occurring during this period of time. Key validation takes place after the exam window closes in March. Key validation is a process of preliminary scoring and item analysis of the exam data, followed by careful evaluation of the item-level data, to identify potentially flawed or incorrect items prior to final scoring. During April and early May, standard setting committees are convened at PSI to participate in content-based standard setting studies. The outcome of each committee’s standard setting meeting is the recommendation of a passing standard of each of the specialty examinations during their May meeting. PSI then scores the specialist certification examinations and candidates are notified of their exam results as soon as this information is received by the specialist certification office.”

https://specialization.apta.org/become-a-specialist/exam-specialty-resources/exam-day

[claudia guzman]

Thank you for the information! I had an additional question on full or 3/4 foot plates in regard to AFO. Does a full foot plate help promote more plantar flexion as opposed to 3/4 helps with dorsi flexion? I came across a practice question when reviewing shepherds practice tests

[Chrissy Durrough Lugge]

Hi Claudia,
I haven’t seen the question to which you’re referring, but I will try to provide some information without that context.

AFOs generally block ankle plantarflexion ROM to facilitate foot clearance during gait. Regardless of footplate length, I think it would be expected that AFOs will block PF ROM. I did find one article indicating that AFOs with full-length footplates produce increased stance phase PF moments compared to no AFOs (wherease 3/4 footplates were no different than no AFOs). That same study found that AFOs with 3/4 footplates resulted in significantly less than normal dorsiflexion in late stance. It was hypothesized that AFOs with full-length footplates increased DF ROM and PF moment in late stance by delaying or impeding heel rise more than the 3/4 footplate.

Here is a link to the article: https://www.archives-pmr.org/article/S0003-9993(09)00122-1/fulltext#:~:text=Both%20AFOs%20with%20full%2Dlength,foot%2Dplate%20resulted%20in%20ankle

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