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!