# New to aapc



## bbutler2293 (Feb 20, 2011)

Hi, everyone. I'd like to intriduce myself to everyone here. My name is brian and i recently recieved a diploma in outpat med coding and i'm very excited to get started. I also registered to take the cpc exam in april so if there is any words you can share with me as i prepare, i would greatly appreciate that.


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## winterhawks (Feb 20, 2011)

*Best of luck*

From someone who has taken their CPC exam at the end of last year, the three pieces of advice I can give, is:

1)  Don't study the day before your exam. Let your brain rest for that time.  It helps keep you from getting stressed out.

2)  Get any practice exams that you can before hand and use them for the 4 weeks leading up to your exam.

3)  When you head to your exam, have someone else drive you, if possible.  When I took mine, I had my father drive me and was I ever happy for that.  I was really mentally worn out by the time it was over and it gave me a chance to relax and wind down.  It helped to have someone there to talk through what I was feeling after I had taken it.

Again, this is just my advice and opinion


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## Alicia Scott (Feb 21, 2011)

*Advice on the CPC exam*

I am a billing and coding instructor and took the CPC exam last month. I had not needed it in my past job positions so had not bothered to take it. One of the many things I love about the AAPC is that you can take the CPC exam twice. This really takes the pressure off of you as many people have test anxiety. I missed passing the exam by just a couple points and have rescheduled my re-take for April. What I learned from taking the exam is to pase yourself. Do the parts of the exam you know you are good at first and get them out of the way. Terminology, HCPC, etc I should have done first. A good portion of the exam is knowing guidlines. The first part of my exam delt with a lot  of CPT codes and I took to much time on them. I actually ran out of time so had to fill in the blanks which is only a 25% chance of getting correct. Pace yourself, have a watch so that you can tell when you are at the half way mark. Go with your gut and do not dwell on an answer. I agree with the previous post. Do not study the day before. Eat a good breakfast and try to relax and have fun with it. Consider the test a celebration of knowledge. 

Good luck,
Alicia, NRCCS
San Angelo, TX


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