Thanks so much for all your responses. My argument is that on the website, it is not at all transparent on how the exam is graded. I have included a portion of the response I received from AAPC exam team and it is contradictory.
“The exam is based off a 70% passing score, meaning you do need to get at least 70 questions out of 100 correct in order to pass the exam. (This is considered the “Straight Grading Scale” and is what is mentioned on the website. 100% of people who read this assume that if they get 30 questions or less you pass). However, keep reading….
To protect the integrity of the exam, we are unable to provide you the specific questions that you missed. Each area of study consists of a different set number of questions, and it does have 18 areas of study listed on the website matching what you received in your email with your breakdown (can be found here: https://www.aapc.com/certification/cpc/). You may have received a 100% in one area that only consisted of 4 questions, while scoring a 50% for a section that consist 20 of questions. (This statement, completely contradicts what is mentioned above.).
Therefore, your final score would be lower than what you may have calculated using your areas of study percentages. (WHAT? this means is that depending on how many questions are in an area of study, sometimes as low as three, can wildly skew your percentage score of each area of study. That is crazy. If you want to focus on the areas of study, then why not have five questions for each section? Fluctuating the number of questions wildly fluctuates the percentage you get and sets you up to fail. Not to mention the fact that none of this is mentioned on the website. You cannot say one thing then do another. Students have the right to know how their grades are calculated.
We recommend focusing your studies on an area of the breakdown you received less than 70% on.
I received a 64% grade. If you go by the straight grading scale, that would mean that I got 36 wrong. I can tell you, I may not be an “A” student, but I know I did not get that many wrong. Everyone knows how they feel after they take an exam and I came out feeling in did OK. At least OK to pass. Then I received my score, and the 64% was the average from the amalgamation of percentages from the “areas of study”. Why not just do what they say and calculate scores based on what is stated on the website? If I got 36 questions wrong, I can accept that even if it is embarrassing, but to be hit with a score that I didn’t even get that low on my test exams, and received a 95% on my coursework, really was a shock. Other exams may be graded this way, but this field is not rocket science, you don’t need many years of study to achieve the level of knowledge, and I have taken other exams for professional certificates, none of them where like this, but I guess that has changed. In the end, student’s have the right to know how their grades are calculated and none of this information is given in a transparent way. Given the fact that I received no less than three different answers from the responses I received, you can see this is true.
Again, thanks so much for all the encouraging words, I will need to weigh my options before I decide if I want to re-test.