CCC Exam! HELP PLEASE

[Codergirl93]

Hello all! I am sitting for my CCC exam for the second time. I was wondering if anyone who has taken the test and passed has any advice or tips on what to really study. I am coding cardiology now and understand it. I also code for EP as well and now just started peripherals as well. It's just when I got to the exam I forgot everything. So anyone have any helps tips or advice for this exam?

 

[espressoguy]

I passed the CCC on my first try this past December. Of my 3 certifications, I thought it was the easiest of the exams. I finished in about 3.5 hours. Of course I was an overall more experienced coder by then. When I took the CCC I had been coding cardiology for 2.5 years.

How close were you to passing? It sounds like you know your stuff and that this was a case of test anxiety. One piece of advice to overcome test anxiety I can give is to remember that you can miss 45 questions and still pass. No one question is that vital to your success. Our electrophysiologist does his EP procedures at another hospital so I had never even read an EP op report much less coded one. We have 2 cardiologists who do peripherals but they don't do that many procedures since our vascular surgeons do most of them. There were about 30 questions that I had varying degrees of uncertainty about. 5 had really long op reports and I just didn't feel like reading them, so I skipped them.

What additional resource did you bring? I used "Navigator for Comprehensive Cardiology" from Coding Strategies. I also brought anatomy charts from Z-health Publications.

I think the biggest part of test anxiety is the uncertainty. Now that you know what to expect your next attempt should be more successful.

Good luck

 

[ChrisZim]

I recently passed my CCC on the first try after coding cardiology & other specialties for about 10+ years. I have never worked for an EP, so I studied that extra & was glad I did because IMO there was a quite a lot about EP on the test (mine tend to do caths/IR/stents, etc.). It sounds like you probably have a good foundation. I watched a lot of videos on youtube from Laureen Janropp's (CCO??).

My main strategy on it was the same as on the CPC (also passed first try) -

• watch your time, and if you find one question is taking you more than a few minutes, skip it and go on to the next. Concentrate on answering ALL questions that you CAN answer with 90 - 100% confidence (quickly) and then go BACK and work on the ones you skipped. This way you will get positive scores on all the ones you have nailed, and the ones that you have to figure out you have at least a shot.

• On the problem ones, try to narrow the answers as best you can - the multiple choices given may let you eliminate some choices even if you are not completely sure of the final answer. Every one of the 4 options you can fully eliminate, increases the odds of you making a correct choice by 25%!

Good luck!

 

[hmccal96@comcast.net]

Hello,

I took the CCC exam back in February and passed. As someone who's been coding cardiology for 4 yrs, the procedures were surprisingly simple. For whatever reason, I had a TON of questions on what documentation was missing from echos (TTE, TEE). When I code these, I concentrate on the summary for applicable diagnoses, make sure Doppler measurements are there in the case of TEEs or even for limited transthor echos. Uggghh, I had a difficult time on those. Also, definitely study anatomy. If you're at all doubtful, invest in some anatomical charts for the CV system. They are allowed and are incredibly helpful. In any case, good luck to you. You got this

Heather McC