I am about to study for my first HFMA Certification (CHFP) and my colleagues have provided me with the following list of study tips. I'll admit that it's been a long time since I've taken an exam....
For those of you that have taken our certifications, what other helpful tips can you add to this list? Please use the comments below to share your advice, I appreciate it!
- Download and print the Key Concepts Guide. You can use this to take notes while taking the course. These notes cannot be used during the assessment. Not every certification has a key concepts guide (only Business of Health Care, Operational Excellence and CRCR).
- Since 75% of our exam questions are based on the learning objectives, make sure you understand the learning objectives that are presented at the beginning of each course module. At the end of each course module, look and those objectives again and make sure you can achieve them (Recognize, Identify, etc.).
- There are checkpoints to check your understanding in each course module. Be sure to answer those and if you get them wrong, understand why it was wrong.
- Set aside time to study and review – uninterrupted, without distraction. If you’re multitasking while reviewing the course, you won’t retain the information.
- Set aside time for the assessment. You have 90 minutes to answer 75 multiple choice questions for most of our certifications. Operational Excellence has 56 questions with 3 hours to answer them.
- If possible, take the assessment on a computer with a wired connection. If your wifi is not strong, you’ll experience delays between questions.
- You have the opportunity to flag questions so make your best guess and then if you have time at the end, you can review them. You’ll find out right away if you passed. The passing score is 70%. (Operational Excellence passing score is 65%). If you didn’t pass, you can click on the Analysis tab to see your exam summary. It will tell you how you did on the questions from each unit. You can focus your studies while you wait for the 30 days until you’re eligible for another exam attempt.
