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William, no doubt exhaustion due to the highly stressful job contributed to this. I hope things calm down for you now, and thanks for sharing. I can almost guarantee you'll never make that kind of mistake again.

Thank you William for posting this.  I, too, have my share of really stupid mistakes on my exams.  The same thing, those "typos" are really killing my grades.  Your post made me feel a little "less stupid".  I also work a stressful job and find myself rushing to make the deadline, but there is nothing I can do about that.  I cannot afford to stop working.  I wish I could.  My plan for my next Module is to develop a "second opinion" technique.  In transferring my answers to the online test, I plan to have my roommate double check that my answers are in fact the same answers I have on my printed out practice sheet.  

Again, thanks for your post.  It was very helpful to me.  And, good luck to you.

William, I feel for you. On my last test I was sure I had 100%... but alas, I also messed up transfering my answers and missed one because I put the wrong letter... I was just moving along on all those "D" answers and failed to switch to "M"... Sigh.. Its sad to work so hard to figure out the right answer and miss it because of a stupid mistake...

I feel your pain... I unfortunately did the same thing... I do my tests offline and write down all my answers... while transferring them I mistyped a few answers... including putting M12 instead of M21... I felt so stupid! But that is how we learn... from our mistakes! 

It actually does make me feel better! lol!

This is such a great thread that I hate to break in and interrupt it.  But I will.  :)

I would much rather see all of you make your errors here than on the job later.

Have you ever wondered why some of the people you see on forums say that they went to XYZ school and can't find a job? Those courses just touch the surface of medical coding. The students don't even have TIME to make these easy-to-make but critical mistakes. So they make them on credential exams and employment tests.  This is much better.  Not that I want all of you to make sloppy mistakes, but if you have to make them once to get them out of your system, lol, this is the place to do it.  But then there's that GRADE to think about.  Bummer!   :D

Thanks for your post, William. It sounds like you're doing very well considering all you're up against. On my last exam I managed my time poorly and ended up having to rush at the end. I got it done but was so mentally and emotionally exhausted I ended up just submitting the exam without going through a thorough review/check. Result--lots of easily correctable careless mistakes!!  Setting aside the poor time management issue, what I usually do and have found very helpful is to carefully type in the answers and then--from the final copy that I'll submit---look up each code in the code book. If the code description you find based on direction from your final copy isn't exactly right, you'll know you made a mistake. Hope this helps!

                You know, Linda, I have often wondered how those places can get away with saying you’ll be a coder in so many months working part time at it.  There is one school, I won’t name names but I went to high school there when it was a different name, and it has courses in everything from automotive repair to computer programming to gun smithing,  and they  say you can do their program in like six months.  What?  Seriously?  How could you even learn the terminology in six months?  I mean you might pass an open book test on it, but be really acquainted with it?  What about the biology and stuff?  I came to Andrews so I really could learn enough to sit for my CCS.  I know a woman who went to that school and then had to go through a prep program to sit for CPC-A and to this day she has never held a job as a coder.  She is the social media “cheerleader” for the prep program and she never has sat for the CCS.

                There is another school that says you can do their program in nine months and after that if you pass the CPC-A  you are almost guaranteed a job with this company they have a special relationship with.  If you are hired (which to their credit most are) you go through a three month training program.  Here’s the kicker though—I have spoke to a lot of people who have done this.  The training program is really just “working” and at the end of the ninety days they let you go.  They get almost free works since you’re an intern and then cut you lose.  Wow, what a great   “opportunity.”  Don’t get me wrong, free internships and externships are good things, but all these people qualify for are CPC-A and CCA.  They’re locked into low paying jobs for a long time.  The shocking thing is that this school isn’t much cheaper than Andrews and you don’t get any books.  Your vocabulary books are eBooks and you don’t use code books because they only teach on the 3M encoder.  Sorry, that’s no value at all. 

                Sorry to go off topic.  The schools that are out there that take advantage of people by not telling them the truth just burns me up.  When you stop to think a lot of these people they aren’t honest with are kids fresh out of high school, a lot of moms who are struggling to make a life for their kids, and military or their spouses who have one shot at using their education benefits they earned by risking their lives for it is just a crying shame.  I am a small government person but I really believe something should be done about it and we can start by enforcing the laws we already have about truth in advertising. 

I totally agree with you, William. Those schools and practices have bothered me too no end for a long time. Thank goodness Andrews School gives us some truly good preparation to get a job. I am very thankful that I happened upon the Andrews School website one day last year. Now in Module III and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for sharing this William. I also just had this happen to me on my last exam. I have a newborn and was trying to get through the end of the exam when he woke up and I started rushing and put the wrong letter :( I was so upset because I felt so confident about my answers and thought I was getting an " A " for sure. Anyway, thanks again it's nice to know I'm not alone.

Hi,

I'm new and only in Module II but am so glad to have read this thread that I just had to post my first reply.  About 80% of my errors have been from mixing up the letter "I" with the number "1" and letter "O" with zero. Seriously felt like I was the only one who EVER made such silly mistakes in the HISTORY of Andrews School (but of course did not say this to my instructor lol).  So, although I'm not happy others are making errors, I AM glad that I'm not the only one.  The good thing about this type of error is that we are learning about them now and not on the final or once working as coders, just like Linda said.

Love this school and all of the positive reinforcement from students and staff!

This is a great thread! I definitely have been learning time management and have been trying to manage my time better. I have a good few times been rushed at the end and some areas I felt I didn't learn as well as I would have liked too, but I'm only in module II and I will still get lots of practice before the end. Trying to take things just one day at a time and understanding that I won't be able to learn everything all at once. I do enjoy it though! :)

Well, time to share my "stupid" mistake. I am normally very good about details. Not this time, it seems! I must've glanced at the syllabus awhile back and saw "Chapter 4." I was only supposed to read the first section of Chapter 4 and do the first exercises. I read ALL of Chapter 4 and was doing all the exercises! About 100 pages beyond what I needed to do! I could have been way less stressed and onto the next Section of Module II by now :( I know this isn't the worst mistake, but it cost me valuable time.