Medical Assistant Certification Test and Exams

Congratulations. You have completed your diploma, or your certificate, or your associate’s degree in medical assisting. You are ready to embark on your new career. But not so fast. There’s one more step that you should take to become a fully valued medical assistant—becoming certified.

Why Get Certified?

Professional certification is the gold standard of medical assisting. This certificate tells prospective employers that you have attained a professional level in your field—even before you get your first medical assisting job.

Certification also makes you more employable. More employers today are seeking certified medical assistants than they did in the past.

How Do I Become Certified?

The American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) administers the Certification/Recertification Examination throughout the year.

To be eligible to take the exam, you must be a graduate of an accredited medical assistant program. But not just any accreditation will do. Before you register for classes, make sure that your school has been accredited by either the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) or the Accreditation Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES).

Medical Assistant Certification Exams

Regardless of the type of degree program in medical assisting that you choose to pursue, your courses will be intense and your tests and exams will be hard. But you won’t take these exams without prior instruction on the material and a significant amount of preparation on your part.

Some of the courses that you will likely take in school, courses that will help you to prepare for your exams, include:

• Office practices
• Medical terminology
• Laboratory techniques
• Patient relations
• Clinical and diagnostic procedures
• First Aid
• Pharmacology

These courses will not only help you to pass your exams in medical assistant school, but will also help you pass your certification exam. But not without some extra studying.

What Subjects Should I Study for the Certification Exam?

The Certification/Recertification Exam covers a wide range of topics such as anatomy, medical terminology, lab procedures, physiology, basic psychology, and office procedures. It is an intensive—and extensive—exam that requires you to put in a lot of study hours to prepare for it.

But there are study aids that can help you to prepare for the exam. Some of these study aids include:

• Medical assisting publications
• Certification/Recertification review courses
• Take practice exams’
• Study content outlines

Contact the AAMA for information about these, and other, study aids.

Studying for the Certification Exam

Studying for your certification exam takes stamina, proper scheduling of study periods, and organizational skills. Here are some tips that may help you to study for the exam:

• Break down your study periods into digestible chunks. You do not want to cram all of the material on physiology, for example, into your brain at one sitting. Instead, extend this subject out over many study periods.
• Give yourself plenty of breaks during your study periods.
• Add some variety to your study aids. Don’t just read dry definitions out of medical textbooks, for instance. Go to the library and borrow an animated instructional tape that will give you the same information, but in an entertaining manner.

When you feel thoroughly prepared to take the test, contact the AAMA for application information.