Congratulatioons again, Gloria Da! It seems like almost yesterday that we were congratulating you for being a new graduate. Now you've passed your CCS exam. Woo-HOO! Time to celebrate.
I'm going to go over to our Facebook page and announce it there as well. Some of our graduates go there, but not here.
Thanks again Linda! Wow, I don't know if I have even processed it yet. Driving home, I felt like I was flying, not even paying attention to the traffic, still in disbelief.
It was definitely very hard for me. I honestly thought I failed. Going through the multiple choice questions, there were some that I just had no clue. I felt like I was in over my head, self-doubts, understanding why this test has such a high failure rate. I just had to guess and move on, flagging many of the questions for later review. I got done with the multiple choice in 2 hours, then moved to the cases. I kept repeating to myself "I know how to code" over and over to keep myself going, thinking I would make up for the ones I missed by doing the coding part of the test. The first few outpatient cases were okay, but I got stumped on the 3rd one, the CPT codes. CPT codes were always hard for me, so I was afraid of this. I spent too much time looking for the codes, finally finding them, but realized I used too much time. So after that, I just went as fast as I could, but by then I realized I would not have enough time to finish. You can see where this was heading. I could understand why some people just quit in the middle. But I am not a quitter, I was just going to keep going with the time I had and do as many as I could do, even if I failed, I wanted to give it my best shot. Well I didn't even make it to the last 2 cases and the few cases before that, I just coded the diagnosis lists and left the rest zeros. I truly believed I had failed and would have to come back again in 3 months. I just about fainted, doubled over when the lady came with the paper that said "pass." I just could not believe it. I got 336 and the passing score was 300.
My advice to anybody getting ready for this test is to just keep going and don't give up even if you think its pointless. I must have just passed with those last few codes. Time management is key. If I had it to do over again, I would haven not spent so much time looking up those CPT codes. I could have just put zeros and moved on to the other cases which were easier for me (the inpatient cases were for the most part just ICD codes, very few procedures). I did very well on the compliance, data quality, and HIT multiple choice questions, and I studied those chapters in Kuehn and Hazelwood. I did not do so well on the IPPS questions, DRG's, etc. I just had to guess. Maybe those questions were the ones not graded, maybe :)
Anyway, I passed so I guess that's all that matters. Good luck to you all, I hope my experience helps you.
That's fantastic Gloria. I'm so happy for you! Congratulations!
Congratulations Gloria Da!
Congratulations, Gloria! I bet you're glad it's over. Good luck with the job hunt.
Congratulations, Gloria!!!!!!!
I knew you would do a great job!
Let me join in the congratulations! That is a tough test, good going.
Also, thank you for sharing your experience of taking the test--this is very helpful to those of us planning to follow suit!
Great going, Gloria!
Thanks everybody for your well wishes!
Congratulations Gloria!
Awesome job, Gloria!!! I am proud for you! I cannot even imagine how it's going to be when I take it. Thank you so much for giving us your experience. :) Good luck on all of your endeavors!! :) :)