The FTCE Physical Education K–12 examination (test code 063) is the Florida subject area examination for certification to teach physical education in kindergarten through grade 12. It is a computer-based test (CBT) of approximately 80 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours and 30 minutes, weighted across thirteen competencies, the largest of which — developmentally appropriate instructional strategies — carries 13 percent. The passing score, in the Florida Department of Education’s published form, is: A scaled score of at least 200. The FLDOE/Pearson examination fee is $150.
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What this examination certifies
The FTCE Physical Education K–12 examination is the subject area examination attached to Florida’s Physical Education (K-12) certificate. It measures whether a candidate holds the knowledge a Florida physical education teacher is expected to command across the whole school span — from a kindergartner’s first locomotor patterns to a twelfth grader’s personal fitness program. The official Test Information Guide organises that span into thirteen competencies and fifty-nine published skills, running from the history and philosophy of the profession and standards-based curriculum development through movement, fitness, assessment, law, and safety to professional ethics, advocacy, and technology.
A note on naming and currency, because Florida’s own history invites one specific error and this page will not make it: the only current physical education examination is Physical Education K–12, code 063. “Physical Education 6–12” and “Physical Education K–8” are old, discontinued certification areas — not current examinations, and not alternative names for this one. This program covers the FTCE Physical Education K–12 examination — code 063, its thirteen competencies and fifty-nine skills — and nothing borrowed from those discontinued areas or from any other state’s paper. The companion reference is the FTCE Physical Education K–12 Exam Guide, which sets out the route, the competencies and skills in full, and the sitting in detail.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Examination | FTCE Physical Education K–12 — Florida Teacher Certification Examinations, test code 063 |
| Certification | Subject area examination for Florida’s Physical Education (K-12) certificate — teaching physical education in grades K–12 |
| Format | Computer-based test (CBT) with approximately 80 multiple-choice questions. Tests may include questions being evaluated for future administrations that do not affect the score |
| Length | 2 hours and 30 minutes of testing time; total appointment time is longer, and any time taken for breaks is considered part of the available testing time |
| Content | Thirteen competencies under the official Test Information Guide: Instructional Strategies 13%; Movement Skills and Concepts 12%; Lifetime Health, Wellness, and Physical Fitness 12%; Curriculum Development 10%; Assessment Strategies 10%; Human Growth, Development, and Motor Learning 8%; Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Development 7%; Effective Learning Environment 7%; Safety, Rules, Strategies, and Terminology 5%; Technology 5%; History and Philosophy 3%; Laws, Legislation, and Liabilities 4%; Professional Ethics, Advocacy, and Development 4% — percentages are the guide’s approximate percentages of total test questions |
| Passing score | A scaled score of at least 200 |
| Examination fee | FLDOE/Pearson fee: $150 |
| Reference materials | None provided for this test |
| Delivery and scores | By appointment, year-round, at computer-based test sites throughout Florida and nationwide. On-site score reports are typically provided immediately after testing; all official score reports are released within 4 weeks of testing |
| Administrator | The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) owns the FTCE program; Pearson administers the examinations. PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with FLDOE or Pearson |
What the examination covers
Competency 1: Knowledge of the History and Philosophy of the Physical Education Profession — 3%
The smallest competency, in two skills: historical events and trends that have influenced the profession, and the relation of physical education’s goals and values to the philosophies of education they reflect. At 3 percent it cannot decide a sitting alone, but it frames all the others — the profession’s present standards-based form sits inside that history.
Competency 2: Knowledge of Standards-Based Physical Education Curriculum Development — 10%
Five skills carry curriculum from model to lesson: characteristics of various curriculum models; factors in curriculum planning — student ability, time, environment, equipment, facilities, space, and community resources; the use of national and state documents, standards, and benchmarks to design curricula; long- and short-term planning — scope and sequence, annual, unit, and lesson plans, and emergency plans — to maximise participation and success; and cross-curricular content. This is the planning competency: can the candidate build a defensible program before teaching a single lesson in it?
Competency 3: Knowledge of Developmentally Appropriate Physical Education Instructional Strategies — 13%
The largest competency, in six skills: strategies and adaptations for the diverse needs of all students — cultural, linguistic, cognitive, motor, and experiential; teaching styles, communication delivery systems, and materials; motivational theories and techniques; developmentally appropriate, research-based teaching methods, analysed rather than merely identified; feedback as a strategy; and differentiated instruction. Its centre of gravity is adaptation: the standard item is not “which method exists” but “which method, adapted how, for this learner, at this stage.”
Competency 4: Knowledge of Human Growth and Development and Motor Learning as They Relate to Physical Education — 8%
Four skills supply the developmental science: developmentally appropriate practices demonstrating knowledge of growth and development; learning theories applied to a positive environment supporting psychomotor, cognitive, and affective development; principles of motor development and motor learning applied to skill acquisition; and sequential progression of motor skill development. This competency makes “developmentally appropriate” an examinable judgement rather than a slogan: the sequence in which skills emerge governs what may properly be taught next.
Competency 5: Knowledge of Developmentally Appropriate Movement Skills and Concepts Related to Physical Education — 12%
Jointly second-largest, in seven skills: movement concepts — spatial awareness, body awareness, relationships, and effort; fundamental movement patterns — locomotor, nonlocomotor, and manipulative skills; sequentially progressive activities across the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains; cues and prompts for teaching movement skills; mechanical principles of motion; analysis of a skill or movement sequence to identify how students can improve; and how skill-related fitness affects performance. The technical core: not whether the candidate can perform a skill, but whether they can decompose, cue, sequence, and correct it.
Competency 6: Knowledge of Lifetime Health, Wellness, and Physical Fitness — 12%
The other joint second-largest competency, in nine skills — the longest list on the blueprint: analysing fitness assessment data and selecting strategies to improve health-related fitness; health-related components of a personal fitness program; nutrition and exercise for all students; risks and benefits of physical activity; training principles; exercises for the major muscle groups; how body systems — muscular, cardiovascular, nervous, skeletal — adapt to activity; physical education’s contributions to lifetime health and fitness; and community opportunities for participation. Its direction is outward: fitness as a lifetime practice students can maintain without a teacher.
Competency 7: Knowledge of Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Development Through Physical Education and Physical Activity — 7%
Four skills examine what activity develops besides movement: physical education’s role in developing an understanding of diversity; its role in developing responsible behaviours and values; the intellectual, sociological, and psychological benefits of participation; and factors in social and emotional health through activity — communication skills, self-concept, fair play, conflict resolution, character development, and stress management. The affective and social yield is examined as professional knowledge in its own right.
Competency 8: Knowledge of Various Types of Assessment Strategies That Can Be Used to Determine Student Levels and Needs in Physical Education — 10%
Six skills, structured by domain: assessment strategies, authentic and traditional, for the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains — one skill each; assessment for curriculum design, lesson planning, and program evaluation; assessment for an inclusive environment; and physical fitness assessment strategies. The three-domain structure is the point: a candidate who can assess only performance — times, distances, successful attempts — is prepared for one of three parallel skills.
Competency 9: Knowledge of Strategies That Promote an Effective Learning Environment — 7%
Four skills examine the managed environment: selecting and maintaining equipment and facilities; organisational strategies — rituals and routines, maximum participation, rules and standards; supervisory and behavioural management techniques; and appropriate action for the care and prevention of injuries. In a subject taught to moving classes in open spaces, environment is the discipline of keeping many students active, supervised, and safe at once.
Competency 10: Knowledge of Laws, Legislation, and Liabilities That Pertain to Physical Education — 4%
Two skills, consequential out of proportion to their weight: major federal and state legislation impacting physical education, and legal liabilities applicable to it. Physical education carries a distinctive liability profile — foreseeable injury in supervised activity — and this competency, with the injury skill in Competency 9 and the safety competency below, forms the paper’s legal-safety spine.
Competency 11: Knowledge of Appropriate Safety Considerations, Rules, Strategies, and Terminology Related to Physical Education and a Variety of Physical Activities — 5%
Three skills examine activity knowledge itself: applying rules and strategies of play to game and sport situations; terminology for physical education and physical activities; and safety considerations for a variety of activity settings. A coaching background underestimates this competency: deep knowledge of one or two sports is not the breadth across activities — each in its own terminology, with its own safety considerations — that is tested.
Competency 12: Knowledge of Professional Ethics, Advocacy, and Development — 4%
Three skills examine the profession’s standing: professional development experiences that enhance effectiveness, collaboration, and student performance; professional organisations, literature, research, and other resources — a code of ethics among them — for continuous improvement; and ways to advocate for physical education. Advocacy is here because the subject’s timetable place is contested, and the blueprint treats defending the program as part of practising the profession.
Competency 13: Knowledge of the Appropriate Use of Technology as Related to Physical Education — 5%
Four skills close the blueprint: appropriate uses of technology in instruction; in assessing student performance; in supporting cross-curricular learning; and ways all students can use technology in physical education. The recurring word is appropriate — judgement about where technology serves movement-centred teaching, not familiarity with devices for its own sake.
The route, in order
Step 1 — Confirm this is your examination
The Florida Bureau of Educator Certification decides which tests a candidate needs, after the candidate applies for certification. Confirm with the Bureau that the FTCE Physical Education K–12 examination (063) is the subject area examination on your file — and that it is this examination, for kindergarten through grade 12, and not a discontinued physical education area — before you register or prepare.
Step 2 — Register and schedule
Registration runs through the official FTCE program site. Tests are by appointment, year-round, and you schedule your test during registration, based on available dates, at computer-based test sites located throughout Florida and nationwide. The FLDOE/Pearson examination fee is $150. When you register, you must agree to abide by all testing rules and policies — read them at registration, not at the test center door.
Step 3 — Sit the examination
Approximately 80 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours and 30 minutes, delivered as a computer-based test (CBT). Your total appointment time will be longer than the testing time, and any time taken for breaks counts as part of your available testing time — there is no pause in this examination’s clock. No reference materials are provided for this test. The test may include questions being evaluated for future administrations that do not affect your score and cannot be identified, so every question earns full effort.
Step 4 — Read the result in the program’s terms
On-site score reports are typically provided immediately after testing, though on-site reporting may not be available for tests being redeveloped or revised; all official score reports are released within 4 weeks of testing. The result is stated against the published standard: a scaled score of at least 200. The full route and blueprint are in the companion FTCE Physical Education K–12 Exam Guide.
What makes this examination demanding
The first demand is fragmentation. No competency dominates: the largest carries only 13 percent, and competencies at 3, 4, and 4 percent sit alongside three at 12 and 13 percent. A candidate cannot pass on one strength — not playing or coaching experience, not fitness knowledge, not pedagogy alone — because the marks are spread across curriculum, instruction, movement, fitness, development, assessment, environment, law, safety, ethics, and technology, and roughly a quarter of the blueprint is the professional cluster activity-based preparation most often skips. The second demand is the K–12 span: “developmentally appropriate” appears in competencies carrying 33 percent between them, and it means a different answer for a six-year-old than for a sixteen-year-old. The third is breadth at speed: approximately 80 questions across thirteen competencies and fifty-nine skills in 150 minutes leaves under two minutes a question, for items that often describe a class, a learner, and a constraint and ask for the appropriate professional act.
The credential at work
The Physical Education (K-12) certificate is Florida’s all-grades physical education credential. Its holder can be assigned at any level — elementary movement education, middle school physical education, high school fitness and sport — precisely the span the developmental competencies describe. Physical education is also universally staffed: essentially every Florida school timetables it, so this examination’s candidate pool is steady in a way single-course credentials’ are not. The credential’s working value is that flexibility, in a subject whose teachers also carry the safety, supervision, and advocacy responsibilities the blueprint examines at unusual length.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Practice in the examination’s own shape. The FTCE Physical Education K–12 examination is approximately 80 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours and 30 minutes, and the program in the works practises in that shape: timed work at the real pace — under two minutes a question — weighted to the official blueprint across all thirteen competencies, with instructional strategies, movement skills, and lifetime fitness carrying the largest practice shares, as they carry the largest shares of the paper.
Written from the primary sources. The program is written from the official Test Information Guide for this examination — the thirteen competencies, the fifty-nine skills, and the guide’s approximate percentages — and from the official test page for code 063. It teaches the blueprint as published, including the small professional competencies at their full published weights, and it builds only to the current K–12 examination — never to the discontinued 6–12 or K–8 areas.
The developmental judgement worked, not just named. Because the guide’s skills run on application verbs — apply strategies and adaptations, analyse fitness data, determine appropriate technology, apply rules and strategies to game situations — the program practises the operations themselves: selecting the adaptation for the described learner, sequencing the progression for the described stage, and choosing the assessment that matches the domain being measured.
The whole candidate, not only the test-taker. Around the practice, the program carries the Florida route as FLDOE and Pearson publish it — confirming the examination with the Bureau of Educator Certification, registration and scheduling, the break rule that keeps the clock running, and the published passing standard stated exactly as FLDOE states it.
Preparation only. This is preparation for an examination owned by the Florida Department of Education and administered by Pearson. PassProfessor is not affiliated with FLDOE or Pearson, and the Department does not endorse third-party preparation materials. Nothing here substitutes for any certification requirement.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The FTCE Physical Education K–12 program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the examination, and how long is it?
Approximately 80 multiple-choice questions, in 2 hours and 30 minutes of testing time, delivered as a computer-based test (CBT). Total appointment time is longer than the testing time, and break time counts against the testing time.
What is the passing score?
A scaled score of at least 200 — stated exactly as the Florida Department of Education publishes it. FLDOE publishes no percentage-correct or number-of-questions equivalent for that standard, and this page does not invent one.
How is the examination weighted?
By the official Test Information Guide’s approximate percentages of total test questions, across thirteen competencies: instructional strategies 13%; movement skills and concepts 12%; lifetime health, wellness, and physical fitness 12%; curriculum development 10%; assessment strategies 10%; human growth, development, and motor learning 8%; cognitive, social, and emotional development 7%; effective learning environment 7%; safety, rules, strategies, and terminology 5%; technology 5%; laws, legislation, and liabilities 4%; professional ethics, advocacy, and development 4%; and history and philosophy 3% — thirteen competencies, fifty-nine skills.
What does the examination cost?
The FLDOE/Pearson examination fee is $150 — a third-party fee charged by the testing program, separate from any preparation program.
Is there still a Physical Education 6–12 or K–8 examination?
No. Those are old, discontinued certification areas. The only current FTCE physical education examination is Physical Education K–12, test code 063, and this program covers that examination only.
When do I receive my score?
On-site score reports are typically provided immediately after testing, although on-site reporting may not be available for a test being redeveloped or revised. All official score reports are released within 4 weeks of testing.
Are any reference materials provided during the test?
No. The official test page lists reference materials provided for this test as: None.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with FLDOE or Pearson?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Florida Department of Education or Pearson, and confers no certification. FLDOE does not endorse third-party FTCE preparation materials.