When I first walked into my DPT program, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what was coming. I had been in the fitness industry for 18 years, trained hundreds of clients, and I come from a family of medical professionals – I thought I heeded all the information, experience, and warnings. It turns out nothing could have prepared me for this experience. 

The workload was exactly what I anticipated, but the different types of learning I had to do took me by surprise. The pace, pressure, and personal growth…none of it unfolded the way I pictured, so here is my PT school advice for anyone preparing to start their own journey.

1. PT School is Not as Hard or Easy as You Think

People often ask me, “How difficult is PT school?” The answer is layered. The content itself is manageable if you are committed to university-uber-alles (and if you paid attention in pre-reqs, the material is absolutely uncomplicated), but the pace can be relentless. My first semester, I was juggling lectures, demonstrations, dissection labs, and ethical/professional classes, all of which demanded full focus. In fact, the second year med students who were lab assistants for Gross Anatomy told us we were doing the exact same course they’d just completed (same professor, same syllabus), but we were completing it in a summer, instead of a full academic year. It is not the material that will break you. It is the grind.

The real challenge is time. You cannot cram Gross Anatomy the way you might have crammed a Modern Japanese History exam in undergrad (for the record, I did not cram in undergrad. I just made decisions about what was important to me and what wasn’t, and put in minimal effort for the classes I didn’t care about. I do not recommend this haha.) You cannot pull all-nighters before practicals and expect your brain to identify the various branches of ansa cervicalis tagged in a donor body (start studying that now, actually). What saves you here is structure. My top PT school tips:

• Create a study schedule and treat it like a job: Just like you cannot show up to work whenever, half-ass your deadlines, and still earn your quarterly bonus (I am older than traditional students, so this analogy may mean nothing to you), do not assume you can wing it and keep up with the volume of information coming at you every week. Block out specific times for reading, reviewing, and lab practice. A consistent schedule not only keeps you organized, it keeps the material fresh so you are not scrambling before exams.
• Protect your sleep the way you protect your neck: There will always be more to study and more notes to review. I say this as a person who has struggled with sleep since 8th grade, and has been medicated for insomnia for over a decade: Skipping sleep is the fastest way to sabotage your retention and performance. Treat your bedtime like a non-negotiable deadline. The work is important, but so is allowing your body to recover.
• Invest in REAL self-care — meals, safety, and moments to breathe: Every syllabus I have received in this program has included the following:
  “We learn as a whole person. To learn effectively you must have basic security: a roof over your head, a safe place to sleep, enough food to eat. If you’re having trouble with any of those things, please connect with the Office of Student Affairs, or connect with our Assistant Vice President. Together we can work to make sure those needs are met and connect with resources in our community.”
  Good food and enough of it IS MANDATORY. A safe environment in which to study and sleep IS MANDATORY. You will need some moments of ease (mostly to avoid losing your mind), and that cannot happen if basic necessities are not met. The more you take care of yourself outside the classroom, the more prepared you will be to handle what happens inside it.

Physical therapy programs are difficult if you approach them without a system.

2. Anatomy Will Probably Be the Hardest Subject

What is the hardest subject in PT? The answer is subjective, but in my first year, it was Gross Anatomy, hands down.

Personally, I struggle with rote memorization. If I can use logic or learned concepts to reach a solution, I am golden. If I have to walk into a freezing cold lab and know what part of the Circle of Willis randomly has a pin in it (blood supply to the brain – start learning this right now too), R.I.P. me. WHEN DOES ANYONE EVER SEE ALL THE ARTERIES OF THE HUMAN BODY IN SITU? Never! But you are expected to immediately identify everything from nerves to muscles to tiny vascular branches without hesitation. Anatomy does not care if you are tired. It demands instant recall and precision, which -for me- was challenging.

What helped me was community and repetition:

• Form a study group that keeps you accountable: Choose peers who are consistent and serious, so the time you spend together pushes you forward instead of distracting you. I have never struggled in school, and thrive in solitude, but I would not have survived the first semester or any semester since if I had not worked with my classmates.
• Look at the donor bodies and atlasses often, because anatomy is not abstract, it is tactile: Seeing and touching the structures helps you lock in the details in a way that flashcards never can. The more you handle real examples, the faster your brain learns to connect diagrams to the living body.
• Review daily instead of weekly: Trying to relearn a week’s worth of material at once can be overwhelming. Breaking it into smaller, daily reviews builds lasting recall and keeps the material accessible when you need it in a lab or exam.

Anatomy teaches you that this profession demands more than memory. It demands endurance.

3. The Licensing Exam Is No Joke

Every DPT student eventually asks: how hard is the PT exam? The National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE) is a milestone that sits in the back of your mind from day one. It is not impossible, but it is exhaustive. Hundreds of questions, covering every system, designed to make sure you do not just know the information, but can apply it safely.

One reason I chose my program is because it has the highest first-time pass rate in the state. They prepare you for the NPTE from day one. Everything from the way syllabi are organized, to the way the exam questions are written, builds towards the NPTE – our professors never let us forget it.

Still, you cannot rely only on your school’s track record. My advice is to start early:

• PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS: Especially case studies. In our very first semester, during Gross Anatomy (can you tell that class was a struggle for me), our professor and the upperclassmen recommended we use the BRS (Board Review Series) Gross Anatomy book to study for exams. The exams were formatted in ways that required knowledge and abstract thought…exactly like the NPTE.
• There are apps that gameify studying: I probably sound like an absolute loser saying this, but if you want to familiarize yourself with the format of the questions, download PT365 (it’s free, and no one asked me to mention it) and answer your one question a day. You don’t even need to wait until you know things, because the correct and incorrect answers are explained. I cannot say this will impact your score, because I have obviously not taken the licensing exam yet, but it will familiarize you with what is ahead.
• Train for it like a marathon: You train for it by working steadily, intentionally, and with a clear strategy throughout your program. Your program is supposed to prepare you for the full scope of the exam (or, at least my program is – they remind us of this fact daily). If you build consistent, focused studying as a habit throughout your program, you won’t have to create it as a new habit for the licensing exam. 

4. You Will Grow in Ways Beyond Academics

I entered physical therapy school thinking I was here to begin a new profession. What I did not expect was how much it would reshape me as a person. Academia has hurdles you need to clear that have nothing to do with tests, practicals, or patients. You will need to understand health equity, and how to create recovery plans for people who may have housing insecurity, or are raising children alone, or do not have adequate health insurance. You will learn to advocate for your patients and yourself, whether it is because a physician has written a limiting referral that blunts the care you can provide, or because you require learning accommodations that your professors seem unfamiliar with. Your patients’ healing will not be linear, and neither is learning – have empathy, and give grace.

This journey is about more than a degree. PT school is about building you into a more adaptable, flexible, and resilient human. (That is also, hopefully, what you will provide for your patients.)

What I Hope You Take With You

If you are starting a DPT program, do these things from Day One. Some are things that worked for me, and some are things I had to learn the hard way because I did not do them immediately. Build systems that keep you steady, lean on your peers, and never lose sight of the people behind the diagnoses. The experience may not look exactly like you imagine, but each obstacle shapes you into a stronger, more compassionate clinician.

Lastly, DPT programs are not only about becoming Dr. Whoever. You are doing this to become the kind of person who can carry others through vulnerable moments with knowledge, patience, and care. If that is not a lesson you are prepared to learn, maybe go into finance.

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