# Cadence - NPTE Board Prep — Pass the NPTE with Confidence > NPTE board preparation platform for physical therapy students and graduates. (iPhone/iPad app by Derrick Hutchinson.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cadence-npte-board-prep/id6762703895 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Derrick Hutchinson](https://appshunter.io/developer/1894972329) - Category: Education - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 5.00/5 from 26 App Store ratings · 6 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.6 · 28 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-06-16 - Data updated: 2026-09-01 - Monetization: subscription - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cadence-npte-board-prep/id6762703895/reviews.md ## What is Cadence? Cadence is the all-in-one NPTE prep platform built specifically for Doctor of Physical Therapy students and graduates. Study smarter with a system that adapts to you from your first diagnostic to exam day. Cadence combines complete blueprint coverage, textbook-anchored content, and intelligent spaced repetition so every study session moves the needle. What's inside: • 100% NPTE blueprint coverage, with every exam topic mapped to a dedicated lesson • Lessons written from the textbooks your program already assigns, so you are studying the source instead of somebody's summary of it • A personalized study plan paced to your exam date that adjusts as you go, so you always know what to study next and whether you're on track • 5 full-length, timed 225-question mock exams spaced across your prep timeline, mirroring the real FSBPT format • 2,400+ adaptive practice questions covering MSK, Neuro, Cardiopulm, Peds, and more • 1,700+ flashcards and counting, with intelligent spaced repetition that adapts as you study and resurfaces what you're most likely to forget • A rationale for every answer choice, not just the right one, so you learn why the other three are wrong • Smart review that points you straight to the lessons tied to the questions you missed • Daily challenges, XP, and leaderboards to keep you consistent Why the sourcing matters: Most NPTE prep is somebody's notes on the material. Cadence is built from the textbooks physical therapy programs actually teach from, and every lesson and question names the book behind it. When an explanation doesn't click, you can go read the source yourself, in a book you already own. Built by a DPT student, for DPT students. Whether you're a first-time candidate or a retaker, Cadence meets you where you are and gets you where you need to go. Full access to all features requires an active subscription. A 7-day free trial is included with every plan, with no charge today. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled 24 hours before the renewal date. Manage or cancel anytime in Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://derrickpainandperformance.github.io/npte-prep-privacy/ ## Key features - 3,000+ flashcards by NPTE category - Full-length timed mock exams - Adaptive quizzes - Personalized study plan - Daily challenges and leaderboards - Lessons from leading PT textbooks ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | Monthly | $14.99 | per month | | 3-Month Exam Prep | $34.99 | per 3 months | | 6-Month Exam Prep | $59.99 | per 6 months | | Annual | $99.99 | per year | ## Recent user reviews (6 of 6) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cadence-npte-board-prep/id6762703895/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Great app *2026-06-21* This app is awesome. As a father of an 8 month old, life can be very busy. This app allows me to make the most of my moments. The quick reference lesson plans, practice questions and simple flashcards have been so helpful. I highly recommend it! ### 5/5 — Great app *2026-06-21* This app is amazing and has everything you need in one place. I love the lessons feature to brush up on things you may not feel the most comfortable with. I would highly recommend this app to anyone studying for the NPTE. ### 5/5 — Best NPTE App *2026-06-18* Even when using other resources for board prep, I found myself coming back to this app to brush up on content through the built-in lessons. The practice questions consistently challenged me at the right level, and overall, the app is perfect at tailoring your experience to exactly what you need. Highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Has everything you need *2026-06-18* This app has everything you need to be successful on the NPTE. I’ve tried it out for a couple weeks and it is comprehensive of boards content. Pair it with some Google image searches occasionally to get a visual idea of some things and you’re gonna get an 800. Consistency is key. Use this app daily for not even an hour for a few months in advance and you’ll pass with flying colors ### 5/5 — Great Idea *2026-06-18* This app is much different than other apps out there. This one has flashcards, lessons and questions all in one place which makes it unique. I also love the readiness score it gives me confidence in days even when I’m not doing great ### 5/5 — The Best NPTE Prep App *2026-06-17* Out of all of the NPTE Prep Apps I have used this app has it all! Spaced repetition to reinforce concepts that are hard to memorize at first glance. Plenty of practice questions to begin preparing for board style questions and clinical reasoning. The lessons fill in gaps that existed in my education, because let’s be real one university can not teach you every single topic that may show up on the board exam in the level of detail that may be needed on exam day! And ontop of that the app puts together a custom study plan for you based on your performance!!! You can tell the app was designed by PT students for PT students, highly recommend! ## Frequently asked questions about Cadence ### What is Cadence's learning methodology? Cadence uses intelligent spaced repetition and adaptive quizzes to tailor the study experience. It combines high-yield content with exam-style practice to ensure effective learning and retention for the NPTE. ### How does Cadence track progress? The platform offers a personalized study plan that adjusts based on your performance in quizzes and mock exams. Daily challenges and leaderboards also provide a gamified way to track consistency and engagement. ### Does Cadence offer certifications? While Cadence is designed to help users pass the NPTE board exam, it does not directly offer certifications. Passing the NPTE is a requirement for obtaining a physical therapy license. ### What are the subscription options for Cadence? Cadence offers several subscription plans, including Monthly ($14.99), 3-Month ($34.99), 6-Month ($59.99), and Annual ($99.99). All plans include a 7-day free trial. ### How can I cancel my Cadence subscription? Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled 24 hours before the renewal date. You can manage or cancel your subscription anytime through Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions. ### Is Cadence suitable for retakers of the NPTE? Yes, Cadence is built for both first-time candidates and retakers of the NPTE. Its adaptive system meets users at their current level of knowledge and guides them towards exam readiness. ### What devices does Cadence support? Cadence is available on iPhone and iPad, making it accessible for studying on the go or at home. ### How often is Cadence updated? The latest version of Cadence is 2.2, and it was last updated on July 8, 2026. Updates typically include content refinements and feature improvements to enhance the study experience. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 4.3 — 2026-08-30 Version 4.3 gives the mock exams five complete, fixed forms and a question pool nothing else in the app can touch. FIVE FULL-LENGTH MOCK EXAMS, EXCLUSIVE TO THE MOCKS Every mock exam is now a fixed, hand-written 225-question form, and there are five of them - 1,125 questions written for the mocks and served nowhere else. That second part is the real change. Until now, mock exams were assembled from the same question pool your practice quizzes draw from, which meant the app could hand you an item on a Tuesday quiz and then "test" you on it in a five-hour exam a month later. The heavier you practiced, the less a mock could tell you. Mock questions now live in their own bank that no quiz, mastery check, diagnostic, or flashcard can reach, so every mock is a genuinely cold read. Each form is fixed rather than randomly assembled, so it means the same thing for every student, the way a published paper form does. Every question is matched to the 2024 NPTE content outline in both dimensions the outline uses - body system and clinical phase - so all 29 areas land on target. Every question carries a rationale for every answer choice, right and wrong, plus the textbook chapter and page it came from. Your bookmarks, review history, and half-finished exams all carry over untouched. If you have a mock in progress, it will resume exactly where you left it. FINISHED LESSONS STAY ON YOUR DAILY PLAN Passing a lesson's mastery check used to make that lesson disappear from the day's task list, with a brand-new lesson sliding into its place. The work counted, but you lost the checkmark and the day's plan grew instead of shrinking. Completed lessons now stay put with the check they earned, on every device, and today's list holds the shape it had this morning. FASTER LESSON MODULES Opening a module could take several seconds while the app rescanned the entire flashcard and question banks to draw one screen. Those lookups are now indexed and cached, and module screens open immediately. FIVE NEW LESSONS Five lessons fill gaps found by working back through missed exam questions: - Direction and supervision: what a PT may direct a PTA to do versus an unlicensed aide, and why an aide has no scope of practice of its own - Wheelchair propulsion: the four propulsion methods, when one-arm drive applies, and hemi seat height - Platform attachments: how a platform shifts weight bearing to the forearm, and where it sits among assistive devices - Chest percussion: therapist positioning for upper, middle, and lower chest motion, mediate percussion, and diaphragmatic excursion - Aphasia and communication: fluent, nonfluent, and global aphasia, how each differs from dysarthria, and matching the communication aid to the intact half of language Each comes with cited mastery questions, and all five appear in the module list alongside the rest of the catalog. CORRECTED WOUND CARE CONTENT Support surface selection and ABI compression thresholds have been rewritten to match the source text. The prevention lesson no longer maps surface types to risk levels - current guidelines do not recommend a surface by injury stage or severity - and now teaches matching the surface to the individual patient, plus when a surface should actually be changed. The vascular lesson's ABI table now carries the correct compression bands, including the point that calcified vessels read falsely high. Pressure injury staging is also taught in full, including how epibole and an obscured wound base change what you can stage. Cadence now includes 588 lessons across 287 units, 3,600+ questions - including the five 225-question mock exams built to the NPTE content outline - 1,000+ in-lesson mastery checks, and 1,700+ flashcards. Built by a DPT student, for DPT students. ### 4.2.2 — 2026-08-24 Version 4.2.2 makes your daily plan the same on every device. YOUR DAILY PLAN NOW AGREES ACROSS YOUR DEVICES 4.2.1 got your progress syncing again, but the daily plan itself was never synced — each device built its own. Almost everything it reads does cross devices, so the plans looked like they ought to match. Three things kept them apart. The day's focus area was drawn at random. Your top few weak categories all have a genuine claim on that slot, and each device rolled independently — so one could open on Musculoskeletal and the other on Neuromuscular, on the same morning, from identical scores. That draw is now fixed by the date, so every device lands on the same category. The lesson recommendation followed the focus area, which is why it differed too. Two settings never synced at all: the categories you flagged as priorities during setup, and the daily study time you committed to. Both feed the plan — the first weights which category surfaces, the second sets how many lessons a day you're asked for and whether full coverage is still within reach. Change them on one device and the other kept planning around the old numbers. They sync now, with the most recent change winning. And the plan only rebuilt at midnight. Finish a lesson on your Mac at noon and your iPhone went on recommending it for the rest of the day. It now rebuilds as soon as new progress arrives. FINISHED TASKS CHECK OFF EVERYWHERE Completing a daily task on one device left it unchecked on the other, even though the XP behind it synced. Task completion now travels with the rest of your progress. If you studied on two devices at once — or offline on both — the day's finished tasks combine rather than one device overwriting the other. A task stays checked only while the work behind it still matches: if your plan shifts and a slot comes to ask for something different, it returns unchecked rather than taking credit for work you didn't do. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU UPDATE Your plan rebuilds once, so today's focus area or lesson may change. Nothing is lost. Your scores, question history, flashcard scheduling, lesson progress, bookmarks, streak and XP are untouched, and full coverage by exam day is still the guarantee. Cadence at 4.2.2: 583 lessons, 282 units, 2,400+ practice questions, 1,000 in-lesson mastery checks, 1,700+ flashcards and five 225-question mock exams. Built by a DPT student, for DPT students. ### 4.2.1 — 2026-08-22 Version 4.2.1 fixes iCloud sync on iPhone and iPad. SYNC ACROSS YOUR DEVICES IS WORKING AGAIN Before using iCloud, Cadence checks whether a build is permitted to. On iPhone and iPad that check misread App Store installs and switched sync off, so the Account screen read "Sync unavailable in this build" — while the same Apple Account synced normally on a Mac. The check has been corrected. Nothing was lost. Your progress was saved on your device the entire time. The first sync after you update merges it with whatever is already in iCloud rather than replacing it — quiz sessions, question attempts, flashcard scheduling, lesson progress, bookmarks and XP all combine, so if you studied on two devices while sync was off, both histories survive. Your study plan is the one exception: it is regenerated whole rather than merged, so the most recent plan wins. The Account screen is also honest now. If iCloud is signed out, unreachable or refusing to save, the sync row says so instead of quietly claiming everything is fine. Version 4.2 reorders your study plan around what the exam actually asks, and adds 15 lessons. YOUR STUDY PLAN NOW LEADS WITH THE HIGH-YIELD TOPICS Your plan already divided time by the NPTE content outline. Inside each category, though, lessons arrived in the order they were written — so you could spend early weeks on regional anatomy and goniometry technique while special tests, red flags and stroke rehab waited their turn. Cadence now orders each category by exam yield, a unit at a time so authored sequences stay intact and prerequisites still come first. Flagged lessons carry a "High yield" badge on your daily tasks. Nothing is dropped — low-yield material sorts last instead of disappearing, and full coverage by exam day is still the guarantee. 15 NEW LESSONS Lymphatic anatomy — both terminal ducts, lymphotomes and watersheds, load versus transport capacity — which is the foundation the lymphedema unit was missing. Burn and wound topical antimicrobials. Lymphangitis. Scoliosis screening. Hepatic and biliary testing. Prosthetic knee stability and socket alignment. Wheelchair axle position. Posterior versus anterior pediatric walkers. Interferential, premodulated and Russian current. The hip scour test. Rearfoot and forefoot varus. Patellar tilt, orientation and glide. Ectopic pregnancy. Home lighting and fall modification. NICU pain response and facilitated tucking. Each one ships with cited mastery questions. CORRECTED LESSONS Postural drainage was thin where the exam concentrates and wrong in three places: hold times, the right middle lobe and lingula positions (both drain head-down, not head-up) and the timing around meals. It now carries the full segment-by-segment table, the precaution lists and a mastery check it never had. Also corrected: a lumbar traction question that treated 25% of body weight as enough to distract the facet joints (25% elongates the spine, 50% distracts), and an osteoarthritis mnemonic that had B and H the wrong way round in the alphabet — which is the entire point of the mnemonic. Cadence at 4.2: 583 lessons, 282 units, 2,400+ practice questions, 1,000 in-lesson mastery checks, 1,700+ flashcards and five 225-question mock exams. Built by a DPT student, for DPT students. ### 4.2 — 2026-08-20 Version 4.2 reorders your study plan around what the exam actually asks, and adds 15 lessons. YOUR STUDY PLAN NOW LEADS WITH THE HIGH-YIELD TOPICS Your plan already divided time by the NPTE content outline. Inside each category, though, lessons arrived in the order they were written — so you could spend early weeks on regional anatomy and goniometry technique while special tests, red flags and stroke rehab waited their turn. Cadence now orders each category by exam yield, a unit at a time so authored sequences stay intact and prerequisites still come first. Flagged lessons carry a "High yield" badge on your daily tasks. Nothing is dropped — low-yield material sorts last instead of disappearing, and full coverage by exam day is still the guarantee. 15 NEW LESSONS Lymphatic anatomy — both terminal ducts, lymphotomes and watersheds, load versus transport capacity — which is the foundation the lymphedema unit was missing. Burn and wound topical antimicrobials. Lymphangitis. Scoliosis screening. Hepatic and biliary testing. Prosthetic knee stability and socket alignment. Wheelchair axle position. Posterior versus anterior pediatric walkers. Interferential, premodulated and Russian current. The hip scour test. Rearfoot and forefoot varus. Patellar tilt, orientation and glide. Ectopic pregnancy. Home lighting and fall modification. NICU pain response and facilitated tucking. Each one ships with cited mastery questions. CORRECTED LESSONS Postural drainage was thin where the exam concentrates and wrong in three places: hold times, the right middle lobe and lingula positions (both drain head-down, not head-up) and the timing around meals. It now carries the full segment-by-segment table, the precaution lists and a mastery check it never had. Also corrected: a lumbar traction question that treated 25% of body weight as enough to distract the facet joints (25% elongates the spine, 50% distracts), and an osteoarthritis mnemonic that had B and H the wrong way round in the alphabet — which is the entire point of the mnemonic. Cadence at 4.2: 583 lessons, 282 units, 2,400+ practice questions, 1,000 in-lesson mastery checks, 1,700+ flashcards and five 225-question mock exams. Built by a DPT student, for DPT students. ### 4.1 — 2026-08-19 Built by a DPT student, for DPT students. Version 4.1 pulls every lesson, question and mock exam back to the textbooks your program already assigns, and makes the app straighter with you about what you actually know. ALL FIVE MOCK EXAMS NOW TEACH The first mock explained every answer choice, and the later ones got progressively plainer, so your fifth full-length exam taught you the least. All five 225-question exams now carry a rationale for every option: the correct answer explains the mechanism, and each wrong answer names the condition, test, or level it would have fit. A missed special-test item now teaches all four tests. A missed rhythm strip separates Wenckebach from a first-degree block. QUESTIONS THAT READ LIKE THE BOARDS 665 questions were rewritten from bare definition prompts into clinical situations with a patient in front of you, because that is how the exam asks. We also removed answer-choice giveaways: parenthetical explanations that let you strike a wrong option on sight, acronyms spelled out in the stem when the expansion was the answer, and filler options that left the key as the only real choice. Three questions that were keyed incorrectly are fixed. MASTERY CHECKS THAT ASK ABOUT THE LESSON YOU JUST READ Nearly 200 questions were reaching the wrong lesson's check: sundowning inside Shoulder Impingement, jaundice screening inside Carpal Tunnel. Every one now sits on the lesson that teaches it. And every question in the app is linked to a lesson, so missing one always points you somewhere to go. PASS A LESSON ONCE AND IT COUNTS Mastery used to take three passing attempts on three separate days, so a lesson you had read and passed still showed as "Familiar" and sat in your queue for another two weeks. One pass now earns it. A review is still scheduled, but as a nudge rather than a gate. Lessons you have already passed are promoted automatically, so nothing you earned has to be re-earned. A DAILY PLAN THAT MOVES FORWARD A lesson you had read but not yet passed could sit at the front of its queue and come back as an assignment every day, eating a slot that owed you new material. The daily slate is now built from lessons you have not opened. A lesson left mid-read still gets its slot, but it says "Pick up where you left off" instead of passing itself off as new ground. Coverage pacing toward exam day is unchanged. FLASHCARDS TIED TO THE RIGHT LESSON A lesson on pulsus paradoxus was surfacing eighteen low-back-pain cards, and they were not just shown, they were scheduled into your spaced repetition queue. Card matching searched the wrong pool and matched partial words: "traction" inside contraction, "heat" inside sheath. It now searches the whole deck, matches whole words, and weighs how specific a topic is. Lessons that surfaced no cards at all dropped from 17 to 1. ICLOUD SYNC IS WORKING AGAIN Sync was silently switched off on every iPhone and iPad while the app still reported it was syncing. It now works, and if it ever fails, the Account screen tells you why instead of staying quiet. NEW AND CORRECTED CONTENT New lessons on EMG and nerve conduction interpretation, the neuro outcome measures that were tested but never taught (Fugl-Meyer, Mini-BESTest, ARAT, Trunk Impairment Scale, PASS), EMG biofeedback, and human resource process. We also re-read the source material behind hundreds of citations and corrected what did not hold up, including a real teaching error: burn splinting gave one joint's answer as the rule for all of them. Every burned joint now carries its own anti-deformity position. Chest expansion norms and resistance training set ranges were corrected to what the books actually say. A display bug that repeated one joint's content across every joint in a lesson is fixed. Cadence now includes 568 lessons in 268 units, 2,487 practice questions, 960 in-lesson mastery checks, 1,789 flashcards, and five full-length mock exams. Studying for the NPTE alongside you. Good luck out there. ## Related topics [npte prep](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/npte-prep) · [apta cpi](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/apta-cpi) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*