NPTE

The National Physical Therapy Examination is the national exam licensing authorities use for physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. FSBPT develops, maintains, and administers it. Passing the NPTE is not by itself a license.

Quoted from official pages checked November 10, 2026. Confirm current requirements, fees, and dates on those sites. This page is not legal advice and does not guarantee eligibility, certification, or licensure.

What the exam is

FSBPT’s National Exam (NPTE) page states: “Taking the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) is an important step toward receiving your physical therapist (PT) or physical therapist assistant (PTA) license.” It says the PT and PTA exams are designed to assess basic entry-level competence after graduation from an accredited program or from an equivalent non-accredited program, and that FSBPT administers the NPTE to help ensure that only those individuals who have the requisite knowledge of physical therapy are licensed in the physical therapy field.

That page also states that the NPTE is only one part of the evaluation process used by licensing authorities, and that you should contact your jurisdiction to find out what additional requirements there are, such as taking a jurisprudence exam or a jurisprudence assessment module.

Eligibility

The official NPTE eligibility page states that candidates must meet requirements from both FSBPT and the state in which they seek licensure. FSBPT’s listed requirements include submitting an online registration and paying the registration fee; having a degree appropriate for the exam level from a CAPTE-accredited institution, or an education determined to be substantially equivalent by a recognized credentialing agency; complying with test-security requests; completing any sanctions related to FSBPT disciplinary action; and being approved by the licensing authority in the jurisdiction where you intend to be licensed.

That page also states these attempt limits: the maximum consecutive attempts is three per exam level; the maximum attempts in a lifetime is six per exam level; and candidates may have no more than two scores of 400 or less after January 1, 2016 at an exam level. It states that FSBPT’s eligibility requirements are independent from a state’s requirements, and that individuals must also meet their state requirements to be made eligible for the exam or considered for licensure.

License and jurisprudence

FSBPT’s Applying for State License page says to contact your licensing authority, apply there, and register for the NPTE and any jurisprudence exam using the FSBPT online processing system.

On its jurisprudence exam page, FSBPT states: “A jurisprudence exam is a test of your state’s laws and rules.” As of November 10, 2026, that page stated that more than 50 percent of states require a jurisprudence exam for initial licensure, and that a jurisprudence exam is required in twenty-nine states for licensure. It tells readers to contact the licensing authority for the most up-to-date information rather than relying only on a static list.

Official tools

After you are licensed, multi-state practice is covered on the compacts page.