# CIC Exam Prep help!! :)



## orange_krush78 (Dec 28, 2015)

So I am taking my CIC certification exam Wednesday and am so worried about passing. Anyone take this exam and pass fairly easliy. Any helpful hints, tips, etc.....
I need as much help as possible I'm sure!! 

All advice is appreciated. Thank you


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## pamlheureux (Nov 26, 2016)

*Not impressed with AAPCs lack of support for feedback re expensive exams*

I am taking the exam on 12/3.  This will be my second attempt as I was not prepared the first time for all of the questions specific to the CMS regulations in particular WHO is responsible to sign and submit/file specific forms.  The form is named only by the actual form code and the answer is the CFO of the facility.   WHY do we need to know about stuff that is not even our responsibility??  Be prepared for the trick questions that are worded as which of the following  DOES NOT apply.....Pace yourself  the 5 hours and 20 minutes is just the right amount of time to finish the exam. I was in a room of 23 people taking the exam and only 2 finished in less than 5 hours.  There is little time to go back and review the exam.  There is also little feedback when you get your results without any specific information as to what you got wrong nor is there any proof that there was not an error in the exam or any way you can challenge the results.  Also the test is graded in sections then an average of all sections makes your final grade. You can do extremely well in several sections most important the parts of a coder's job and not do well in the other business office/CFO stuff and end up with missing the passing grade by 4 points like me and end up taking it all over again without knowing what you actually did wrong.   Blind results and going into it again with a wing and a prayer hoping I studied the correct sections again.

Good Luck


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## Mushlit.Insnow (Nov 28, 2016)

*Pam - Concerned for PCS*

Hi Pam,

I'm sitting for CIC exam on 12/17 (attempt #3, but first attempt in ICD 10).  How painful was the PCS portion?  I HATED the regulatory questions.  In our facility, coders code.  We don't touch anything to do with regulatory stuff and we don't venture into the outpatient coding world, either.

I got the Study Guide and am surprised with how many errors are in this book!

Deane


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## lcioffi (Jul 3, 2017)

I am about to make my 3rd attempt on the CIC. I asked for someone to regrade my last test as they said that I had gotten all of my Anatomy questions wrong. As I gave been coding for several years I found this impossible to believe. It appears from my experience that they are never willing to admit when they are wrong.


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## camillekorb (Oct 11, 2022)

I agree with everything everybody just said.  A lot of the questions weren't even in my study material, it's also all mostly regulatory questions.  I've taken it twice now and still haven't passed, and prior to this I was a licensed massage therapist and esthetician for many years and the anatomy and physiology for the massage program were college level and just like lcioffi they said I failed my anatomy questions both times, which I don't believe at all.  I'm very proficient in that area and aced that area on my CPC.  I wonder if they get a commission on how many tests they grade so it's beneficial for them to fail people and then AAPC gets more money for the cost of retakes.  Did anyone from this thread pass, and if anyone is reading this who has passed can you share some more tips and suggestions?
Thanks!


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## sls314 (Oct 11, 2022)

camillekorb said:


> I agree with everything everybody just said.  A lot of the questions weren't even in my study material, it's also all mostly regulatory questions.  I've taken it twice now and still haven't passed, and prior to this I was a licensed massage therapist and esthetician for many years and the anatomy and physiology for the massage program were college level and just like lcioffi they said I failed my anatomy questions both times, which I don't believe at all.  I'm very proficient in that area and aced that area on my CPC.  I wonder if they get a commission on how many tests they grade so it's beneficial for them to fail people and then AAPC gets more money for the cost of retakes.  Did anyone from this thread pass, and if anyone is reading this who has passed can you share some more tips and suggestions?
> Thanks!



No, there is no scheme to make people fail certification exams intentionally.  Are the exams challenging? Yes, of course. The exams are meant to test high-level knowledge of the material.

However, every person has equal opportunity to pass if they know the material and answer 70% of the questions correctly.  (I hold multiple certifications and have passed all my exams on the first try.)

It's not surprising that there were a lot of regulatory questions on the CIC exam. That's what the majority of the multiple choice questions come from.

From this exam breakdown on the AAPC website, most of these sections are at least somewhat related to regulations and government policies.  The detailed breakdown shows at least some regulatory/government policy/compliance component to pretty much every section, except for the 3 Med Term/Anatomy/Pathophysiology section and the 7 multiple choice Inpatient Coding section.

You can see the detailed description for what topics could be included in each section here: https://www.aapc.com/certification/cic/

7 questions - Medical Record and Healthcare Documentation Guidelines
3 questions - Medical Terminology, Anatomy and Pathophysiology
7 questions - Inpatient Coding (multiple choice)
9 questions -  Inpatient Payment Methodologies
3 questions - Outpatient Payment Methodologies
6 questions - Regulatory and Payer Requirements
5 questions – Compliance

The rest is the Coding Cases.  7 cases with 5-15 questions per case. Each answer is weighted the same.


Additionally, there are only 3 questions on the CIC exam in the Medical Terminology, Anatomy, and Pathophysiology section.  No matter how well-versed you are in anatomy, it is certainly possible that you just got a bad luck of the draw and the 3 questions came from an area you didn't know as well.

For example, perhaps all 3 of your questions were more pathophysiology related instead of strictly anatomy and physiology. 

Either way, missing 3 anatomy questions isn't a huge impact on an overall exam score - you can miss 30 questions on the exam and still pass.  (70% of 100)

The bulk of the points come from Coding Cases - how did those go?  Do you have a section percentage for that?

The good news is that the regulatory/government related multiple choice sections are something you can brush up and take notes on for reference.  Did you take the CIC course or use the study guide?  You can brush up on those regulations in either the course book or study guide. 

You can make some notes in your coding books for the next time you take the exam to trigger your memory for some of the government regulations - those can be hard to memorize, especially if it's all new information to you.

Good luck!


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## camillekorb (Oct 11, 2022)

Thank you, I didn't do so well on the cases either.  I put all the diagnosis codes in order from what was most relevant to the patient was being treated for, I took the course, used the study guide, I have the practice exams but wasn't able to take them yet but they are probably expired because aapc wants to charge the additional extension fees for all the programs that I paid for, and took thorough notes in my book to the point that I whited out pages in the "deleted codes section" because there weren't enough free pages for notes.  I am aware how the test is structured though, thank you.  I do notice that you do not hold a CIC certification so I'm not sure how much practical advice your able to give besides a breakdown of the test format and telling me to study


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## sls314 (Oct 11, 2022)

camillekorb said:


> Thank you, I didn't do so well on the cases either.  I put all the diagnosis codes in order from what was most relevant to the patient was being treated for, I took the course, used the study guide, I have the practice exams but wasn't able to take them yet but they are probably expired because aapc wants to charge the additional extension fees for all the programs that I paid for, and took thorough notes in my book to the point that I whited out pages in the "deleted codes section" because there weren't enough free pages for notes.  I am aware how the test is structured though, thank you.  I do notice that you do not hold a CIC certification so I'm not sure how much practical advice your able to give besides a breakdown of the test format and telling me to study



You should be aware that you can't white out pages in the books and write over them.  It is specifically against the rules and if detected you won't be able to use those books to take the exam.  Fortunately, it didn't get detected for you on this attempt, but I'd recommend not doing it when you get your 2023 books.

As for your other comment, I am an expert in inpatient reimbursement methodologies, outpatient reimbursement methodologies, and inpatient regulations after a lengthy career in facility reimbursement and analysis. Normally I'd offer some suggestions to learn and retain the information, but I guess you already have that under control.

You are correct - I have delayed sitting for the CIC exam, despite having completed all the preparation.  My employer requested that I obtain a specific specialty credential this year, so I've been focusing on that first.

I already hold an inpatient coding auditor credential from another organization (I only put my AAPC credentials in this forum signature), so I don't need to be in a big hurry to sit for the CIC.

However, I can respect the fact that you don't want further input from me, so I will see myself out of the thread.  Best of luck to you on your next exam attempt.


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## camillekorb (Oct 11, 2022)

I didn't see that in any of the rules for the exam I'll have to read them again, I guess. I appreciate you saying that though and I won't do that with the new book, but thank you very much I do appreciate your input and your advice. As you can tell I'm very frustrated with this exam and I do feel like my pockets are constantly being gouged by aapc. Thank you for your help though, and Congratulations are in order for all of your certifications  maybe one day I'll get that far!  and Thank you for the best of luck wishes, I sincerely wish them back as well for when you take it, but I really don't think you will need it at all since you pass everything on the first attempt! which is awesome


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## dmarble@usdhealth.com (Oct 12, 2022)

camillekorb said:


> I agree with everything everybody just said.  A lot of the questions weren't even in my study material, it's also all mostly regulatory questions.  I've taken it twice now and still haven't passed, and prior to this I was a licensed massage therapist and esthetician for many years and the anatomy and physiology for the massage program were college level and just like lcioffi they said I failed my anatomy questions both times, which I don't believe at all.  I'm very proficient in that area and aced that area on my CPC.  I wonder if they get a commission on how many tests they grade so it's beneficial for them to fail people and then AAPC gets more money for the cost of retakes.  Did anyone from this thread pass, and if anyone is reading this who has passed can you share some more tips and suggestions?
> Thanks!


I am due to take the CPC exam in a little over a week and feel absolutely panicked! A 12-week online study class was organized by my employer, which I have just completed.  There was A LOT of reading material, practice quizzes and also a multitude of annotations that we were permitted to copy into our ICD-10, CPT and HCPCS books. However, it was sooo much information and sooo much time was needed to plod through it all, let alone hand-writing the massive amt of annotations into my books, that I still feel extremely unprepared.  (Why, if it is alright to provide us with all those annotations, can we not just print it out to have during exam?) I mean, either way, we would be bringing the info with us to the exam-- whether we write it all in our books or have it as an informational addendum to our books, right?  I feel like the CPC exam is  harder than it needs to be-- and I'm not saying this because I want an easy ride or because of the kind of student I am-- I'm usually very intense and thorough with my study habits but studying for this just was something really different.   Some more points:  We're told you cannot have a medical dictionary to use during exam--why?  The proctors could supply these at the exam site.  How can you cheat from a medical dictionary provided by AAPC? I use one in my job almost every day- why prevent us from having it? There is only so much anatomy that you can commit to memory.  I feel like AAPC's expectation of medical coders to have the level of  knowledge of anatomy and medicine needed to pass this CPC exam, seems like a real disconnect.  I have been coding for a specialty provider for almost 3 years and I have always done pretty well with anatomy, medicine, path etc. but I'm not trying to be a doctor! I had the feeling that I should have taken a full-on complex anatomy course before this CPC study course.  And also, let's face it- in the real world of coding you would never have to know all this to code in a specific field.  The instructors for my class were super nice but there were multiple moments where they could not explain a question/answer from a mock CPC exam. And I have been told that a huge percentage of people who take this exam don't pass the first time.  With all the study materials/classes available to us to prepare for the exam, why would soooo many people still be failing? The test seems to be purposely designed to be too difficult and it is certainly not made to be fair and reasonable measurement of a medical coder's skills who will be coding in the real world.  If the exam wasn't multiple choice, I don't think I'd have any hope of passing!  As you can tell, I am also very frustrated and am double-guessing my decision to spend this money and take this exam.


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## camillekorb (Oct 12, 2022)

hey Dmarble!
It is a lot for 12 weeks! That's how long my CPC course was but it took me so much longer than that because of the volume of info (plus I wrote down every little thing from the live lectures so pausing and stopping to do that probably dragged things down substantially for me).  It took me about a year and a half to actually complete,  I can't imagine being under the pressure of an employer to complete it in the 12 weeks plus working on top of that.  I agree with all your points! and I always thought that about the medical dictionary and the notes, especially the notes.  Why can't we have notes stapled in if we are going to put them in our book anway but just painfully have to handwrite the info in wherever you can find room.  I also found the externship practicode very frustrating, some cases were completely contradictory with no rhyme or reason as too why and sometimes the support staff weren't able to even answer as to why something was coded the way it was and then not in another identical situation, or other questions I had. Is there any way you can delay your exam until you have more time to study and feel more comfortable when you take it or does your employer need you to take it by a certain date?  I wish you all the best of luck! I took the CPC when it was longer, like 5 or 51/2 hours I can't remember but CPC tips that helped me pass were starting from the back of the test book for all the general questions first.  The test is set up like the CPT chapter sections, at least the version I took, don't spend too long on a question you're not getting right away, go back to it, sometimes the answer will come to you after reading something else or another question and will jog your memory or give you some sort of process of elimination to make a decent guess at the one that your stumped on.  And pay attention to the fine print underneath a code pertaining to other codes it cannot be billed with.  I also brought ear plugs that I'll bring every time because there's always that one person that's doing something really annoying and distracting because they're nervous like kicking their feet around under the desk back and forth etc etc.....I wish you all the best of luck!!!


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## dmarble@usdhealth.com (Oct 13, 2022)

camillekorb said:


> hey Dmarble!
> It is a lot for 12 weeks! That's how long my CPC course was but it took me so much longer than that because of the volume of info (plus I wrote down every little thing from the live lectures so pausing and stopping to do that probably dragged things down substantially for me).  It took me about a year and a half to actually complete,  I can't imagine being under the pressure of an employer to complete it in the 12 weeks plus working on top of that.  I agree with all your points! and I always thought that about the medical dictionary and the notes, especially the notes.  Why can't we have notes stapled in if we are going to put them in our book anway but just painfully have to handwrite the info in wherever you can find room.  I also found the externship practicode very frustrating, some cases were completely contradictory with no rhyme or reason as too why and sometimes the support staff weren't able to even answer as to why something was coded the way it was and then not in another identical situation, or other questions I had. Is there any way you can delay your exam until you have more time to study and feel more comfortable when you take it or does your employer need you to take it by a certain date?  I wish you all the best of luck! I took the CPC when it was longer, like 5 or 51/2 hours I can't remember but CPC tips that helped me pass were starting from the back of the test book for all the general questions first.  The test is set up like the CPT chapter sections, at least the version I took, don't spend too long on a question you're not getting right away, go back to it, sometimes the answer will come to you after reading something else or another question and will jog your memory or give you some sort of process of elimination to make a decent guess at the one that your stumped on.  And pay attention to the fine print underneath a code pertaining to other codes it cannot be billed with.  I also brought ear plugs that I'll bring every time because there's always that one person that's doing something really annoying and distracting because they're nervous like kicking their feet around under the desk back and forth etc etc.....I wish you all the best of luck!!!


Thank you Camille! 
All very good advice that I will definitely take to heart! (I never thought of wearing ear plugs but I will be doing that for sure since I am easily distracted by noises! )  Unfortunately, this CPC training course was not offered to us early in the year, so we all had no choice but to cram it all in, schedule our exams before the end of the year and hope we pass. Otherwise , we'd have to study all the changes and updates for 2023 before taking the exam next year. I paid for a second attempt exam out of my own pocket because I do not have the confidence that I will pass the first time; so at least I have that safety net and a chance of passing the 2nd time! Thank you so much for the good wishes!


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## dmarble@usdhealth.com (Oct 13, 2022)

dmarble@usdhealth.com said:


> Thank you Camille!
> All very good advice that I will definitely take to heart! (I never thought of wearing ear plugs but I will be doing that for sure since I am easily distracted by noises! )  Unfortunately, this CPC training course was not offered to us early in the year, so we all had no choice but to cram it all in, schedule our exams before the end of the year and hope we pass. Otherwise , we'd have to study all the changes and updates for 2023 before taking the exam next year. I paid for a second attempt exam out of my own pocket because I do not have the confidence that I will pass the first time; so at least I have that safety net and a chance of passing the 2nd time! Thank you so much for the good wishes!


Just curious.... do you mind telling me how many times you took exam before passing?


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