Exam preparation

After graduating, I was faced with the difficult task of organizing all school materials for a thorough review prior to taking the NBCOT exam. Therapists suggested taking a prep course, so I googled just that and found TherapyEd NBCOT Exam Prep. I was taken aback by the price but heard really good reviews from fellow students. I enrolled, received my very thick study guide book, and began studying.

I must also say that I purchased the NBCOT Official OTR Study Guide for $60 from www.nbcot.org and the Occupational Therapy Examination Review Guide by Caryn R. Johnson. After taking Rita P. Fleming-Castaldy's 2 full-day classes, I hardly cracked open either one.

Here is a side-by-side view of the 3 review guides I purchased.

From left to right:

(1) TherapyEd OT Certification Exam Review & Study Guide

(2) NBCOT OTR Official Study Guide

(3) OT Exam Review Guide by Johnson.

Note that when you purchase the TherapyEd Exam Review & Study Guide separately, the cost is $85-it's included in the price of the course-, $25 more than NBCOT's review guide, yet containing MUCH more material plus a CD-ROM with 3 practice exams.

Another view.

The TherapyEd OT Review and Study Guide is extremely thorough. This book is not required at the classes, though, as the purpose of the course is not to review material but to become oriented with the NBCOT exam format and learn invaluable test-taking strategies designed to help you maximize your time during this time-limited test. The remaining time is spent answering practice questions presented in the question formats you will encounter on the test. This is designed to help discover your strengths and weaknesses in test-taking strategies and to practice what you learned.

I'm going to pick on the "official" NBCOT exam review guide for a moment. It is an extremely expensive book that does not in any way compare to the TherapyEd guide. As a matter of fact, scattered within its pages are corrections to material presented. NBCOT glued correction cards onto the pages of its official guide after being informed by third parties of the errors contained within.

A glued card in the official NBCOT review guide due to errors.

Finally, when you arrive at the TherapyEd course, you will receive an additional manual with excellent test-taking and study strategies that helped me pass the exam. It's pretty much a more in-depth recap of the entire course.

A final side-by-side of all 4 books: from left to right

(1) TherapyEd OT Certification Exam Review & Study Guide

(2) TherapyEd OT Course Manual

(3)

NBCOT OT Official Study Guide

(4) OT Exam Review Guide by Johnson.