Case Management Exam 2017 Tips

I just passed the Case Management Examination (CCM) this morning 4/15/17 and immediately wanted to pass along some encouragement and study tips for the exam (obviously, there is no guarantee you will pass, but this study style worked for me and I didn't spend a crazy amount of money or endless hours studying and I don't consider myself a great test-taker).

EXAM: There were 180 exam questions and you are allowed 3 hours. The questions and answers were very straight forward. There were no "select all that apply", "all of the above" or "none of the above" answers to choose from (basically, none of the trickery-style questions we had on NCLEX). haha.

There were no long-convoluted questions. There were no maternity, surgical, medication, nutrition, or disease specific questions.

EXAM CONTENT: Most, if not all of the questions were related to the definition and scope of case management.

*remember: a patient needs to be able to participate in 3 hours (not 2 1/2) of rehab five - seven days a week to be eligible for admission to an acute rehab facility.

TERMS: Definitely be familiar with all of the terms and content above. a glossary of these terms are available free on the CCMC website. (you don't need to memorize them, just have a general knowledge and familiarize yourself with the differences and what they are specific to).

If I wasn't sure of an answer, I chose the 'simplest' answer, even if the answer did not sound like a professional one.

STUDY: I studied off and on for about 3 weeks, I found that practice questions worked for me the best. I purchased retired questions from the CCMC website and found them to be a big waste of money, they were so easy, it was a joke. I learned a lot from free online practice questions.

The website I studied most helpful was casemanagerexam.com

On the casemanagerexam.com website, there is a free practice exam and you can also purchase additional test bank questions, I purchased the test bank for 7 days and did the practice questions on my iPad every night while in bed (it was hard to take these exams seriously at first because with every correct answer, there was an automated "awesome", "you rock", "Yahoo" pop-up response. But it was an excellent prep for the exam.

I also purchased the book CCM Certification Exam Made Easy: Your guide to passing the Certified Case Management Exam (2nd edition) by Deanna Cooper Gillingham. I bought this from Amazon because it was only $60 and received excellent reviews. If you choose to purchase this book, make sure you get the 2nd edition because its updated to reflect the changes to the exam. ISBN-13: 978-1943889020 - this was extremely easy read with all of the concepts broken down with glossary of terms at the end of the book (but don't forget, the glossary if free on the CCMC website). I didn't read the book entirely, but skimmed and reviewed the content and glossary on my lunch hour every now and then.

I wish you the best of luck on the exam! I am sorry my post was so long-winded, I didn't want to leave anything out. I really hope this helps!

Michelle