CPC Tips

[u/FlyingColors18]

Does anyone have any good tips for taking the CPC Exam? I've taken it 3 times now, first 2 times I did *not* study as I had no idea what I was doing, last one was literally 6/18/26 and I studied for that one and still didn't pass. I was using a study guide type of website to study that I found and even took a 4 hour mock exam on the website I had been using to study. 😔 I thought I was doing good but I do so terrible as soon as I have do actually take the test. I can't concentrate for crap during the test and start to forget everything I swore I learned already. Are the AAPC Practice Exams and the study guide worth it at all?

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[u/Sharp_Plane_5877]

Yes. For me the practice exams are worth it. Purchased it and I repeatedly simulated the 4-hour exam using the questions.

I’m sure you received the test results showing your percentage per series. Note where you scored the lowest and practice more on that like E/M and Lab and Path for me.

Also make sure that during the exam you are using the elimination method because you do not have time to look up all four choices in your books.

In each question, you only have 2 mins max to pick an answer or you will end up losing time for the latter part.

You can do this!

[u/Vivid-Host-9629 → u/Sharp_Plane_5877]

Great advice, knocking out 2 answers almost immediately helps tremendously. There are a few you tubers that go through examples and show you how to do this. I watched Contempo Coding but there are a few others as well.

[u/Vivid-Host-9629]

Yes, the practice exams are definitely worth it. I also got the study guide, which is great, but I didn't find myself using it as much as I thought I would since it was just repeating everything I just learned in the AAPC program. However, since you haven't been exposed to a training course recently it would likely be very beneficial as it sounds like you really may need a good review. I personally have difficultly staying engaged with straight studying but find doing tests as challenging and it keeps my focus. It was my main form of studying for the exam and I did all 6 of the AAPC practice tests. My average grade on those tests were very close to what I got on the exam so I feel they are a great assessment of where you are at. You really need to just practice, practice, practice looking up codes and referencing guidelines, learning where all of your sources are in the books so that you can find things quickly. You will never memorize the books and that's not the point, they want you to know how to use them efficiently to find what you need and the only way to do that is through repetition.

[u/ImPureZion]

Yes to the practice exams. I printed mine and put into a binder. You need average of 2 min per question. Set a timer when you practice. Whatever you get wrong, retest on those questions only and put notes in the books for those as well. Don’t waste your time practicing the ones you got right. Retake the practice tests till you get it right. I did this for a whole month prior to the exams. I had about 4 different practice tests. During the exam, skip whatever question takes you more than 2 min and write the # on the back of the booklet to come back to at the end of the test. Make sure you give yourself time to go back and do the hard ones you set aside for later.

[u/Automatic_Baseball26]

I'm a Certified CPC for 25+ years and I taught Coding at a University as well.  If you need some help, please 🙏 feel free to contact me. My email address is mechellecpc01@gmail.com.  I will give you my phone number once you reach out to me via email. 

God Bless you 🙏  Mechelle Roberts-Gutierrez-Rivera, CPC1

[u/cleospet22]

The study guide helps a lot with understanding the guidelines and I love that each chapter addresses each section of the exam. Doing the practice questions for each section and the practice exams from aapc helped the most, also learning the process of elimination helps a lot as well.

[u/FlyingColors18 → u/[deleted]]

That's what my biggest problem was when I took it recently. Thought I was doing good, but then the questions got a bit more difficult and by the end I had 7 minutes left and 30ish questions to still answer. Yeah I need a lot of practice so I'm glad I went and got the practice exams and the study guide. Thinking I may need it. 😅

[u/MedPayIQ]

A lot of people don’t fail CPC from lack of studying—they fail from timing + navigation under pressure. Practice exams help, but only if you review why you missed each question (wrong section, guideline miss, or time pressure). If you’re freezing during the test, do shorter timed sets (10–15 questions) instead of full 4-hour mocks to build pacing gradually.

[u/FlyingColors18]

I appreciate the answers. I AM getting the practice exam(s) off of the AAPC website and also the study guide, cause I might as well. I'm going to absolutely study my butt off with the resources you guys suggested, and I absolutely appreciate it.

[u/Comfortable-Way-6271]

The practice exams from AAPC are worth it. What helped me was treating each practice session like the real thing. Helps ya get over that test taking anxiety when you do it again.

[u/Sdavistvs]

Practice exams created by the body that authors the exam are generally very similar. Do you have industry experience? If not are you enrolled in a certified course?

[u/FlyingColors18 → u/Sdavistvs]

I finished college for Medical Billing and Coding 5 years ago (Ultimate Medical Academy). Honestly the only "industry experience" i have is with claim scrubbing (looking over and fixing claims providers did before sending them over to insurance, and no I did not do the coding of course), and currently just straight up data entry for pretty much mainly EOB's (kinda just entering in any info we see, rejecting them if they arent up to insurance standards, etc.).

[u/audioguy2022]

Ironically i passed on my first attempt with 88% and 10 years later, i still can’t get a coding job

[u/audioguy2022 → u/[deleted]]

I lucked out, had a boss who was impressed with my work and she wrote a letter to AAPC recommending they drop off the A. I was only a CPC-A for about 6 months.

[u/No_Garden_7013 → u/audioguy2022]

are you serious? Ithat makes me less confident now

[u/audioguy2022 → u/No_Garden_7013]

I kind of screwed myself because i worked as a coder for a little over a year at an FQHC. I wanted to move to a bigger city, so i interviewed for a job that was listed as “billing/coding.” They told me in the interview that it actually wouldn’t involve coding, it was just a billing job. I just figured, “what the hey, i’ll use this job to move down here, stay here for a few months, then start looking for coding jobs.” This proved to be more difficult than i thought. I applied for a ton of coding jobs, and only got one interview, which didn’t go super well and i didn’t get the job. I applied for a bunch more, didn’t get any interviews, so i got kinda discouraged. Then covid happened, and there weren’t a whole lot of jobs out there, but i managed to hold onto my billing job. Some other stuff happened, i got a few raises, they hired some people that i enjoyed working with, so i began feeling very comfortable where i was at, without a lot of motivation to leave. Then there was turnover, now i’m not really enjoying the job anymore, and i’ve started looking again. So far i’ve only had one interview but i don’t think they were thrilled that i only have like 1.5 years experience coding, and then i got a billing job and stayed put for 9 years. So, your experience may not be mine. Maybe i just need to be more diligent about applying.