CPC exam prep guideline, which year textbooks to order?

[CCO-support]

1. If a student will be finishing school Dec. 2012, should they still aim for the 2012 exam before the 2013 textbooks are required?
2. Are the 2013 textbooks required in March 2013 when taking the CPC at that time? The required textbooks are all released on different dates so it is hard to know which books to order and, more specifically, which prep guide for the CPC exam to order!
3. How long, on average, should a person give themselves to study for the CPC after they have finished schooling for Medical Coding?
Thank you!

 

[Ruth Sheets]

Alicia answered this in the June 2012 Q &A webinar. Basically, this is what she said:


First of all, lets jump down to #3, if you are going to graduate your medical coding course or finish your online training, As soon as you finish or right before you finish, if you have not joined the AAPC I recommend that you join before your graduation because it only cost $70 to join versus the $125. With AHIMA , I think you have to be one of their students to get a discount. Some people join and sign up for the exam and order the exam the same time. You don't get a discount for that. So don't worry about doing it. I would join first, pay the $70 start getting the Coding Edge magazine and networking on the site.

Now if you will be graduating in July, when should you take the Board Exam? First of all you need to look up and see when when a test is available in your area. If you are not willing to travel you might have to wait three months before they have a test come up. You have to sign up four weeks in advance for the Board Exam.

Call the AAPC and ask them which set of books do I need and let them tell you. Don't let anybody else say you need the 2012 or the 2013, call them, get it straight from the horse's mouth. Don't trust anybody else but them.

 

[Ruth Sheets]

My personal experience of studying for the exam for 4 weeks after was ample, but I was not working so I could devote quite a bit of time to it. I think if I had only 3 weeks it would not have been enough, so allow yourself plenty of time, and arm yourself with plenty of practice exam questions! You should read the rationale for all the answers to all the questions whether you got the answer right or not. This takes an enormous amount of time but I felt it was extremely helpful to make sure I really understood everything about the questions. Keep brief notes from the "lessons learned " from the questions you missed. You can review this list several times to remind you of where you tended to mess up. I had a lot of "Read the notes!" in my list of "lessons learned". When you keep seeing "Read the notes!" over and over, it really drives the point home, and then you make sure you look for and read the notes, and your score improves.