I cannot believe it, I am GIDDY in the HEAD with relief, shock, and disbelief!! Seriously, I was a nervous wreck before, during, and after, and had NO idea how I'd done...
THANK YOU THANK YOU a 1000 times to everyone here -- the wonderful, wonderful Andrews instructors Debby and Sue, whose tough-love grounding in the basics puts us way ahead of other coding students, to Glenda who had helped keep me on track and organized from day one, to Linda who first gave me the encouragement to try this...OMG I sound like an Academy winner lol...TO ALL OF YOU fellow students who gave me pep talks and cheered me on in my darkest moments, thank you all so much!!
When I calm down I'll be happy to share my tips and what I did to prepare, for now I will say that if I had failed, my number one reason would have been time management. I got bogged down on tough questions that ate up precious time, and had to scramble at the end making a few educated "guesses." My top tip: go through the exam booklet, find the questions you'll have an easier time with (for me those were anatomy, terminology, practice management, ICD-9), answer those first, then the sections of CPT you feel you know best (in my case, Anesthesia and Integumentary), answer the questions with one code first, and move on before you get bogged down.
Ohhhhkay, well, I still have Module 4 assignments looming, so it's on to those and the CCS!
Way to go Carmel! Congratulations!!
Congratulations, Carmel! That's wonderful news! When you get those tips put together, be sure to share them over in the Coding Certification area so that they stick around for future students and are easy to find. Posts out here in the school-wide forums get cleaned out every so often and aren't as easy to search through in the meantime. :)
Way to go, and what a way to start the weekend!
-Glenda
I am so happy for you Carmel. I remember as a new student I read your post about reading your books by the lamplight huddled under your blanket and saying to your cat that it will all be worth it someday.... and look at you now....it was worth it. You inspired me.
I take my exam in May. I read your tips and will take them to heart. Thanks for them and for the ones coming...I will be looking for those.
CONGRATULATIONS! I want so bad to be where you are at.....cpc behind me module IV ahead of me. Some day...
Thanks to all of you!
Lana, your message really touched me! Trust me, if I can do it I know you can! I really struggled with Module 3, I had excellent grades in the first two Modules and then totally crashed and burned. I felt totally unready to take the CPC so believe me...I know you can do it.
Will post my tips in the certification forum tomorrow. Thanks and hang in there!
Congratulations, Carmel! I'll go over to the Andrews School Facebook page and gloat..I mean celebrate. :)
http://www.facebook.com/TheAndrewsSchool?sk=wall&filter=1
Congratulations!!
Congratulations, Carmel!!!!!!!
I knew you would do great! Now......onward to the CCS. :)
Congratulations! Thank you so much for sharing your great news. It really is reassuring to hear this every time someone passes these exams. It reminds us that we joined the best of the best and everything is laid out the way that it is for a reason. Just follow through and you will succeed as well. I definitely believe if you can make it through this course and the exams, the career is the easy part! :) Congrats again!
Congratulations, Carmel! All you ladies that have been on the path before me are such an encouragement! I should be taking my exam in May too!
Marie
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!!! Congrats Carmel. I know you are still walking on air!
Module IV is a real challenge. I am so glad I have the CPC behind me so that I can concentrate on IV now.
So happy for you Carmel! This is very encouraging to me after hearing your struggles. I'm off to read your tips. Congratulations!
Congratulations, Carmel!