Hey Guys, I managed to pass the CCS exam. I thought I would share a few things about that. First off, if you have not had a Pearson Vue experience, you need to be prepared. It will feel like you are trying to exit North Korea. Your shoes will be checked, your arms and legs will be checked, your pockets will be emptied, all your jewelry except wedding rings will be need to be left in the locker, as will your cell phone, wallet, keys etc. They do not touch you, but will ask that you show them. You take nothing into the exam room except what they give you and your drivers license, your second form of ID will need to be left in the locker. Mentally prepare yourself for this. If your brain is still reeling from that experience when you sit down in front of the computer you will have a hard time getting started. Pearson Vue offers a free little exam thing you can download, the exam has nothing to do with coding, but it does allow you to see exactly what your screen will look like, where your timer will be, where the flag button is, it will just feel a little more familiar, take the time to download that and run through it.
I can't speak for how well they checked my books, the receptionist checked to make sure they were on the accepted list, then she took the books to a guy out of my sight and when I arrived at his station he had already taken my books into the exam room and put them on my table, so I have no idea if they even opened them to check for notes. I did have notes, nothing really extensive and as Andrews recommends, I kept them small and neat. They will give you a dry wipe pad and a pen to scribble on.
I did, at the last minute buy a medical dictionary to take with me. I probably should have been using one all along, there were a few questions that the medical dictionary helped me be absolutely sure I had the right answer. Defined a few terms that I was not 100% sure of etc. If you are not feeling super confident, that might make the difference between missing the passing grade by a point or two.
You need to learn about DRG's that is the only thing I was uncomfortable with after graduation and one reason I opted to take the Codemasters exam prep. You need to know discharge statuses, you need to know about APC and the status markers of various APC's (there is almost an entire alphabet of those). Understand how to use the CC and MCC designations in your CM book.
My main focus was finishing the exam, so I worked fairly quickly, if I didn't know it, I didn't know it, mark something and move on. I finished with a little over an hour on the clock. At that point I decided to not only review the flagged questions, but review my entire exam, and take the time to look up in the guidelines anything that I was not 100% sure off. I changed 4 answers from doing that to what I then knew were absolutely correct. Remember the test format is mark the BEST answer, there will be a few that you will think more than one answer could technically be correct, choose the best of those two. Do not allow the medical scenario portion of the test of the stress you out, if you did decently well on the Chisen exercises, you can handle the scenarios presented. That is really all I can think of that I wished I had known going in. If anyone has any specific questions feel free to ask them, I will answer what I can. Good luck to you guys, keep moving forward.
Judy
Thank you so much for posting this, Judy!
Hi Judy,
I will repost my question from Module IV to this location and maybe you can answer it since you just took your CCS.
Does anyone know if we need the coding version of ICD-10-CM that lists MCCs and CCs in it for the CCS exam?
Thank you.
Wendy
p.s. In Pietro Ingrande's DRG 3-hour session, he mentions this is important, but is it important enough to go out and buy another ICD-CM coding book when the updates will take effect October 1, 2017, and my book is 2017 but not the version with the MCC and CC in it...I don't want to take the CCS exam with a book that won't have what I need.
By the way, Pietro's 3-hour DRG class is HIGHLY recommended if that is the only thing you need to study for your CCS and don't need his whole 6-week prep.
Yes, you absolutely need the version that shows the CC and MCC, sometimes it is listed as a hospital version. Look around and see if you can borrow one for the CCS exam if you don't have one. I am in Oklahoma, if you happen to be in the state, I would let you borrow mine. Your state AHIMA group might accidentally have one you could borrow. You will have questions like, patient comes with whatever disease, which of the 4 choices will change the DRG the most. The only way to answer that is to have the designations of the CC and MCC.
Thanks for the information, Judy! Wendy
Thanks, Judy! Very helpful information and congrats!!! Can i ask you which medical dictionary you used? There are so many to choose from.
thank you!
Angie
I used a Steadman's Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing, that is the one my local bookstore had, and I had head of Steadman's so I went with it.
Judy
Thank you so much for posting this very thoughtful message. I think you just helped a lot of future CCS takers. It would be a bit unsettling to go through that screening process. It wasn't that invasive when I went from Palestinian territory into Israel, and I thought that was scary. You really do need to be emotionally prepared for that part of the test-taking experience. Then again, I'm glad they're serious about it. You are EARNING these credentials and we sure don't want someone getting them by cheating. Thanks again!
I would have thought it was silly to check your arms and legs, but teaching a Bible Study class with some 10-year-old boys a few years ago, I was shocked when I was bragging about how great one boy did and another volunteer said, "He has it written on his hand." YIKES! I always used to think I would make a great criminal, but now I'm pretty sure I wouldn't. If they would only put all that energy and effort into learning the material...
Congratulations Judy on passing the CCS exam and sharing these tips with us. Very helpful!
Best of luck to you,
Teri
Congratulations on passing the CCS exam! Thanks for sharing these tips :)
Ha... I was thinking about the time I went through Checkpoint Charlie from West to East Berlin! They deliberately tried to be intimidating. Talk about unnerving...
Hi Judy, congratulations on passing your exam! Thank you so much for posting this. I haven't scheduled my CCS Exam yet, so this is just gold of information. I'm taking a mini mental break before I schedule it and was planning on taking the prep courses. Best wishes to you!
-Minjee