Prepare for the CIC® exam
Your success as a CIC is dependent on your ability to prioritize the information presented to you and organize it in ways that allow you to problem-solve efficiently. The following tips will help ensure that you’re fully prepared.
Ensure you have mastered the prerequisites
AAPC offers a three-topic Fundamentals of Medicine (medical terminology, anatomy, and pathophysiology) prerequisite course to provide you with a high-level knowledge of medical terminology and other information that will allow you to succeed in the path to obtaining your CIC credential.
Do I need the prerequisites?
If your education or employment background have provided you with reliable knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, and pathophysiology, you can skip the prerequisite training. Otherwise, you should take this course as the CIC exam will thoroughly test your knowledge in the fundamentals of medicine.
Train with AAPC’s world-class instructors
The surest way to prepare for the CIC exam is to train with AAPC by enrolling in a CIC Preparation course. Designed by the creators of the exam, these courses will ensure you receive a comprehensive education covering proper use of all medical code sets you’ll encounter on the exam. Choose from a self-paced course or a virtual instructor-led course.
Test your knowledge before the exam
Diagnose your strengths and weaknesses. We highly recommend that you take one of the online practice exams to help you become familiar with the format and time constraints of the real test. Each practice exam has 20 multiple choice questions and three fill-in-the-blank coding cases. Our practice tests accurately mirror the exam to ensure you are fully prepared on exam day.
Diagnose and prioritize your focus areas
After you take your first practice exam, you’ll realize not all areas of CIC curriculum require equal study time. Based on your diagnostic results and practice performance, we’ll recommend lessons and exercises at just the right level. Follow these recommendations to make the most of your practice time.
Review the study guide and test-taking techniques
Designed to help you prepare for the exam, our official CIC Study Guide walks you through a review of anatomy and terminology and covers all the content sections found on the exam. Best of all, it provides testing tips for taking the AAPC CIC exam.
AAPC's study guide reviews each section of the CIC exam in detail, providing practical examples, sample questions, and test-taking techniques.
