CPC Exam

The CPC exam is offered by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) and awards examinees the Certified Professional Coder (CPC) credential upon passing.

The CPC credential is the most recognized and sought after medical coding certification in the professional coding community.

The exam is five hours and forty minutes long, is offered in almost every state year round, and provides multiple career options.

Learn More About the CPC Exam Below:

• Application and Membership
• Exam Details
• Examination Tools
• Examination Rules
• Exam Results
• Examination Tips
• Exam Anxiety

CPC Exam Details

The time given to complete the CPC examination gives examinees a little over two minutes per question if no breaks are taken.

Examinees are permitted to take break time, however, this is deducted from the total exam time.

The CPC Exam is Divided into Three Main Sections:

• Medical Concepts
• Surgery and Modifiers
• Remaining CPT codes

Medical Concepts:

This portion of the exam is sub-divided into smaller, more specific classifications.

The following sub-divisions are each assigned 5-10 category specific questions:

• Guidelines
• Payment management
• Medical terminology
• Anatomy
• ICD-10-CM codes
• HCPCS codes

Surgery and Modifiers:

This section is mainly sub-divided to reflect the surgery section of the CPT book.

The following sub-divisions are each assigned 5-10 category specific questions:

• Integumentary
• Musculoskeletal
• Respiratory
• Cardiology
• Hemic/Lymphatic systems
• Mediastinum/Diaphragham
• Digestive
• Urinary
• Male and Female reproductive organs
• Maternity/ Endocrine system
• Nervous system
• Eyes/Ears

This portion of the exam focuses on the remaining CPT codes.

Each of the following sub-divisions are assigned 5-10 category specific questions:

• Evaluation and Management
• Anesthesia
• Radiology
• Pathology
• Medicine

There are also several versions of each CPC exam. This is done to ensure that if an individual does not pass on their first attempt that they will not be given the identical examination on their second attempt.

This also helps to discourage cheating.

**For examples of questions similar to those found on the CPC exam click here.**

CPC Examination Tools

When sitting for the CPC exam individuals are instructed to bring the following:

• Current photo identification
• AAPC membership card
• Current years AMA published CPT book, professional or standard edition
• Currents years 10-CM, Volumes I and II
• Current years HCPCS, Medicare National Level II Codes
• Several #2 pencils
• At least one good eraser
• Calculator (not cell phone calculators)

The medical coding books are also allowed to have personal notations and highlights. Items may not be photo copied, stapled, taped, or glued into these book though.

Hand written notes, such a medical terms, anatomy notations, and highlighting of existing material are approved. Extensive notations that are considered an "advantage" over other examinees is not permitted and can disqualify an individual.

Notation approval is ultimately up to the proctor. If in doubt contact your proctor prior to the exam date.

Examinees are also allowed to place tabs in their coding books for easier referencing. Items such as sticky notes are not approved and will be removed.

CPC Exam Rules

~Date

~Time

~Rules

~Both proctors' contact information

Most proctors requested the examinees to arrive one half hour prior to the medical coding exam in order to inspect books, explain rules, and answer any questions.

Upon arrival individuals will be required to provide a photo ID and have your books checked for unauthorized notations.

Eating and drinking may or may not be permitted during the CPC exam depending on the location. If refreshments are permitted it is encouraged that "quiet" snacks be selected to minimize the disruption to others.

Breaks are also permitted but the time is deducted from the total exam time.

If requesting a break the examinee must raise their hand and be approved for exit by the proctor. The proctor will allow one individual to sign out at a time.

CPC Examination Tips

The three coding books, CPT, ICD-10-CM, and HCPCS are offered in three editions.

• Standard
• Professional
• Expert

The AAPC has approved the standard and professional edition for the CPT book, and all three editions for the ICD-10-CM and HCPCS.

The professional and expert editions are slightly more expensive, but are well worth the investment when preparing for the exam.

Guidelines and code descriptions are identical in each edition, but the professional and expert editions offer added reference material.

Added material may include pages with common medical terminology and abbreviations, anatomical illustrations, color coded tabs and tables, easy to read conventions, and more.

These two editions are easier to use and understand, particularly for beginners.

While many individuals have successfully passed the CPC exam with standard edition books, if it is within your means the professional or expert editions are strongly encouraged.

Tip #2 : Optimal Time Management

• Make sure you accurately code the bubble sheet to correspond with the exam.

• Start in the section you are most knowledgeable in, even if that means starting in the center of the exam.

• If a question is very long, skip it. It is worth the same amount of points as all the other questions. Leave these ones until then end of the exam.

• Know your modifiers! When looking at the four options, two may have a modifier and two may not. By knowing your modifiers you can automatically eliminate two of your four options.

• Skip the index, go straight to the tabular. Although every medical coding class teaches to NEVER do this, for the CPC exam you can. By providing four options for you to choose from this step has already been done. Flip straight to the tabular and select the answer that best fits.

• Don't watch the clock. Although you have an average of two minutes per question, some may take four minutes and others may take thirty seconds. If you are constantly watching the clock then you are loosing time.

• Make an educated guess. Eventually every one comes to a question where they just have to guess, so make it an educated one. Remembering which section you are in can be a key indicator.

Ex. If you are in the cardiovascular section of the exam and only two of your options have 30000 codes, chances are it's one of those two options since cardiovascular codes are 30000.

• Narrow down your options. Cross out codes that repeat in all four options, this will help you focus on the differences between them. By doing this you will have fewer codes to look up.

• Learn your books. Almost every question on the exam has the answer somewhere in one of the books. Commonly overlooked items include: Two pages of common medical terminology are located in the CPT book just before the E/M section; Common abbreviation are listed on the back cover of the CPT book; Modifiers with a short description are located on the front cover of the CPT book.

• Make sure you accurately code the bubble sheet to correspond with the exam booklet. More than one examinee has skipped a question and forgot to skip it on the bubble sheet which throws every other answer off. Usually the mistake is not caught until the end. Continually check that your questions coorespond correctly with your bubble sheet.

Tip #3:Learn Medical Terminology

Medical terminology is one of the only things that can completely transform the way you deal with medical coding.

Learning medical terminology gives individuals a clearer understanding of code descriptions, results in more accurate code selection, and teaches anatomy in the process.