Friday, May 13, 2011

Coding Boot Camp

I made it out alive. Two days of sitting in a hotel conference room from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm studying coding. I feel a lot more comfortable with the format of the certification test, that's for sure.
We went through all the different sections that will be on the certification test ex. anatomy, medical terminology, radiology, anesthesia, medicine, pathology/lab, digestion, modifiers, etc, etc. I know, it's a lot. For the most part I did really well on the practice questions during boot camp. I hope that is a sign of how I might do on the test. However, there were three or four sections that I bombed in class, hopefully a quick review tonight will be able to adequately prepare for those sections on the test.
I have to be at the school tomorrow morning at 9:30 am for the "book check". We are only allowed our 3 Coding books: CPT, ICD-9, and HCPCS. No text book, no medical dictionary, nothing. And, they go through the books to make sure there is nothing inside. Every note has to physically be written in the "notes" section of a coding book. Post-its? No way! Bookmarks? Not a chance! (Perhaps they called it "boot camp" for a reason.) The exam itself starts at 10:00 and we get 5 hours and 40 minutes to complete 150 multiple choice questions. Seems like a lot right? If you break it down that only gives you 2 minutes per question. Ouch.
I have to get at least a 70% in all 3 sections in order to pass and get certified. If I don't pass, I get one more try before I have to pay the $300 fee again. Wish me luck!

No comments:

Post a Comment