Chrissy Durrough Lugge
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Hi Nannon!
Congratulations on finishing your MOSC exam! Thank you for your kind words and I’m so happy the course was beneficial! Your certificate of completion is now available on your dashboard! 🙂
Chrissy
Hi Anna! Thanks for your kind words! It looks like you were just missing the complete case-based exam. I submitted it for you and your certificate is now on your dashboard! 🙂
Hi Deana! You were just missing practice exam 4. I submitted it for you and your certificate is now available on your dashboard. I’m sending you an email with CEU information! 🙂
Hi Jason! We provide documentation for you to submit for CEUs in your state. I’m sending you an email now.
Oh my gosh Kate…this is the sweetest note! I’m so happy you are party of our community!
What a stressful exam experience you had. I’m so proud of your resilience. (Also relieved the severe weather was a flop…we’ve had our share of severe weather events in the last few years that have caused quite a few headaches with home repairs, etc.)
The pain points you mentioned are exactly why I started the NCS Advantage in 2016, and I’m so happy we achieved our goals with you! Taking the NCS exam felt so isolating for me and my study partner. I wanted a way to connect with others – and also reassure expert clinicians that they are actually experts.
Thank you for this wonderful reminder of why we do this…I’ll be rooting for good news for you in June! Please follow up and let me know how you did!
Chrissy
Hi Tyler!
I think I’m with you and don’t like the foot slap answer. Interested to hear what others think.
If someone has PF spasticity at mid-end range DF, that would present in mid-terminal stance and mid-terminal swing through initial contact. I don’t think we are less likely to see right foot drag or steppage gait (due to PF at mid-swing when the foot should be dorsiflexed) or even a shuffle on the right foot.
I guess we have more dorsiflexion at terminal swing going into initial contact – if they are trying to test when there is the most DF to induce the spasticity, but the other deviations could occur during the last 50% of ankle ROM.
Congrats, Christina! I’m pretty sure my blood pressure is elevated for the entire exam window every year…I feel the stress for all of you and am so relieved when it is over! 🙂
Hi Lisa! I think there are multiple PD cutoffs (>11.5, >7.95) for the normal TUG (https://www.sralab.org/rehabilitation-measures/timed-and-go#neurologic-conditions – look under “mixed conditions”). I don’t see one for MS. That being said, I wouldn’t stress too much about memorizing too many values for a single test, especially since the available cutoffs for a single condition vary so much. I’d just have a general idea of how to interpret TUG scores.
Hi Chelsea! Yes, visual input is unreliable (2, 5) and/or absent (3, 6) in these conditions. A patient with these conditions could also have impaired use of vestibular cues since these are isolated in conditions 5 and 6 – but imbalance on conditions 2 and 3 indicate problems beyond the vestibular system.
Hi Emma,
We would expect someone with cerebellar ataxia to have difficulty standing with feet together with eyes open and eyes closed. Their imbalance does not stem from visual dependence, so we wouldn’t necessarily expect a big change in their balance when they close their eyes.
Hi Hrant! Prosthetics and amputation management is fair game. I don’t even broach it in the NCS Advantage because it’s such a huge topic that (1) isn’t purely neuro and (2) will constitute a very small part of the NCS exam. I feel like people are better off focusing their study efforts on the more foundational neuro topics and give their best guess on the prosthetics questions on the exam because they won’t be enough to make or break you.
If I were to guess a few topics to check out if you have extra time to study, I’d be familiar with the most common types of amputations, phantom limb pain and common treatments (like mirror therapy), basics of caring for the residual limb, and some considerations of gait with prosthetics. Again, those are just high level topics and you could go so deep into each of them.
If you think about it, after your exam, let me know if you wished you’d studied more about amputations and prosthetics and, if so, what you would have studied! I’m always happy to develop new content but never want to send anyone down rabbit holes that aren’t necessary!
Well done, Christina!!! You guys are all so close and I’m rooting for you! Keep doing what you’ve been doing and trust the process. 🙂
