Clinical science · 6 min
Treatment planning is 37 questions of “what would you do”
Most appropriate does not mean every option is wrong. It means one of them is the adult in the room.
Development of Treatment Plan is about 27% of the exam. That is 37 items where anatomy knowledge is necessary and still not sufficient. The stem gives you a person. You have to pick a first move.
Office worker, chronic tension headaches, forward head, eight hours at a screen. You are not hunting a mystery diagnosis. You are ranking: postural pattern, likely short anterior chain, likely overworked posterior chain, contraindications, then a 60-minute priority. The distractors will all sound like something a therapist might do on a good day. The key is the one that matches the mechanism the stem named.
Current content weights (March 2025 blueprint as taught here)
Professional Standards and Practices
Application of Treatment Skills
Development of Treatment Plan
Assessment and Evaluation
Red flags beat clever technique
Fever, acute inflammation, left hemiplegia as a body-side word (not “left brain stroke”), a sprain from half an hour ago. If the stem hands you a red flag, the fancy stroke is bait. Acute plantar fasciitis wants ice and rest, not a heroic first-visit deep scrape.
Quiz with wrong-answer writeups
Upgrade if you have burned the 25-question trial
Forward head from a desk job. Treat the pattern, not a random knot on the scapula.
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