Medical Assistant

If you are reading this page, you are getting ready to take either the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) Certified Medical Assisting (CMA) Exam or the American Medical Technologists (AMT) Registered Medical Assisting (RMA) Exam. If you are a recent graduate of a medical assisting program, taking the exam as soon after graduation as possible is important. If you are a practicing CMA who is taking the exam, the likelihood is that you are taking the exam again because you did not keep up on your continuing education units. Why take the exam at all? There are several reasons:

• Passing a national certification exam demonstrates to patients, employers, and others that you have learned a standardized body of knowledge. Many physicians will only hire individuals who have passed one of the two exams.
• If you move, you do not have to apply for a separate certification—both the CMA and the RMA are recognized by employers throughout the United States.
• Larger medical group practices may be affiliated with local hospitals and may be required to meet Joint Commission standards. The credentials of all staff are inspected. Although the Joint Commission does not currently require that all medical assistants be certified, having certified staff is looked upon favorably.
• Because passing the certification exam(s) requires that you study and are up-to-date on current standards, you can take pride in your certification.

Medical Assistant 2023: Certification Exam Preparation

The CMA and RMA exams are multiple choice exams. Both exams are 200 questions. The questions consist of the stem and either four or five lettered response choices. Only one of these choices is correct; the other three or four are called distractors. Here are some suggestions:

• Read the question carefully. Remember that you are selecting the one best answer.
• Do not read into the question by assuming information that is not provided.
• Eliminate those answers you know to be wrong.
• If you are taking the computerized version of the exam, you can write out choices (A, B, C, D, E) on your scratch paper and then cross off the ones you know aren’t correct. You can repeat this technique for each question.
• If you do not see a “right” answer, choose the best answer available.
• If the possible answers cover a wide range of quantities and you don’t know the correct answer, choose the one in the middle of the range.
• Pay attention to those words that are underlined, in bold , CAPITALIZED, or italicized.
• Be careful with questions that have the word except as part of the question. The correct answer is the opposite of what is asked in the question.
• • If you really don’t know the answer at all:
  ° Choose the answer that uses the same language that appears in the stem.
  ° Choose the answer that appears to be the most complex.
  ° Choose from two answers that are possible—pick one and move on.
  ° For all questions for which you simply do not know the answer, pick the same letter every time.
• Every question should be answered. An unanswered question always is wrong, but you might guess correctly