This week has been pretty busy with many many chapters done. The volume of work, primarily for my medical terminology class is fairly high. Really glad I already had training on this as it would be a bear otherwise.
There's a meet up for study purposes on Saturday, organized in part by yours truly. With testing in both the MedTerm and Insurance classes scheduled for next week, it seemed reasonable. Also as we have a holiday on Monday, the review seems like a good idea.
More after the review
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Friday, February 18, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
2nd Week, look out! Testing ahead!
Halfway into our 2nd week, had a quiz on Monday and will have an actual test on Wednesday. Reviewed my flashcards and did all the exercises so hopefully I can ace this. Medical terminology will have 3 quizes and 3 tests. Not sure if that includes a final or not. Hmmm, have to ask the instructor about that.
Anywho, starting to know the folks who are in the class, it's a real mixed bag. Certainly there are several folks who are restarting their careers, but also there are quite a few immigrants in the class for a variety of reasons. One lady, from Thailand, is taking the class so she can pass her massage licensing. Another lady, is trying to improve her English with the class. It's all intersting and engaging and entertaining.
After all the weeks of job searching without any response, it's good to have actual interactions again. With real people. Who aren't serving me food, LOL.
Simple pleasures I keep telling myself.
The other factor which has been surprisingly pleasant is the help from Mom. She is helping me review the terms on my flashcards and it has gone very smoothly. A BIG help so far. She is usually able to help me connect a term I'm having difficulty with to something memorable. Now if I would just quit second guessing myself on answers, it would be good.
I will be back after the testing on Wednesday so check back later in the week for an update
-30-
Anywho, starting to know the folks who are in the class, it's a real mixed bag. Certainly there are several folks who are restarting their careers, but also there are quite a few immigrants in the class for a variety of reasons. One lady, from Thailand, is taking the class so she can pass her massage licensing. Another lady, is trying to improve her English with the class. It's all intersting and engaging and entertaining.
After all the weeks of job searching without any response, it's good to have actual interactions again. With real people. Who aren't serving me food, LOL.
Simple pleasures I keep telling myself.
The other factor which has been surprisingly pleasant is the help from Mom. She is helping me review the terms on my flashcards and it has gone very smoothly. A BIG help so far. She is usually able to help me connect a term I'm having difficulty with to something memorable. Now if I would just quit second guessing myself on answers, it would be good.
I will be back after the testing on Wednesday so check back later in the week for an update
-30-
Thursday, February 3, 2011
After a week of classes
Class started on Monday, January 31st. 8:30am I am at the campus, finding my way to the classroom. Had the room number so, duh, not too hard.
There was already a goodly number of folks in the room as I selected my desk. The chairs are the kind with an attached desk, which sounds good, until you realize it is just that much too small for my Plus Size body to be comfortable in. Sigh.
However, the desk part can be rotated out of the way and if another desk is turned around to face me I can use that for a desktop. Textbook, notebook and pens at the ready, along with a drink so hydration will occur.
There was already a goodly number of folks in the room as I selected my desk. The chairs are the kind with an attached desk, which sounds good, until you realize it is just that much too small for my Plus Size body to be comfortable in. Sigh.
However, the desk part can be rotated out of the way and if another desk is turned around to face me I can use that for a desktop. Textbook, notebook and pens at the ready, along with a drink so hydration will occur.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Be Prepared! Or, I was a brownie at least.
OK, I managed to get a grant to cover the cost of the classes so then looked into getting my books. Retail pricing is obscene, but we are allowed to use an older edition as long as it is no more than 2 editions back from the current, i.e. if Medical Terminology is 11th edition, 10th or 9th is ok.
That's what I did, after checking at Half Price books and online, the textbooks for the first 2 classes were located at a substantial reduction in cost from new books. In fact it only cost me $20 for both text books. It didn't occur to me that I would also need pens, highlighters, notebooks, etc until the weekend before classes started so some last minute scurrrying took place!
Surprisingly I found that Office Depot had the best prices for the basics, notebooks, pens, highlighters - see above for my list! So another $20+ bucks later I had everything I thought could possibly need. I sat down, got out a satchel and assembled my GoBag.
Did I mention that I have some back issues? Well when I loaded both textbooks, 2 notebooks, pens, highlighters, assorted pocket stuff as I decided I didn't want to carry my purse, an issue arose. Way Way too heavy. Who would have thought that 2 textbooks would be THAT bad, certainly not me.
Ok, time to punt. Decided that I would just carry one textbook and have to swap out every other day. That at least made the still surprising weight more manageable. I know you are thinking, "What a wimp!", but honestly the 2 textbooks weigh around 20+ pounds. I guess when you are dealing with insurance documents they have to be dense - LOL.
Prepped to start, the alarm set, bed at an actual reasonable hour, ready to go.
That's what I did, after checking at Half Price books and online, the textbooks for the first 2 classes were located at a substantial reduction in cost from new books. In fact it only cost me $20 for both text books. It didn't occur to me that I would also need pens, highlighters, notebooks, etc until the weekend before classes started so some last minute scurrrying took place!
Surprisingly I found that Office Depot had the best prices for the basics, notebooks, pens, highlighters - see above for my list! So another $20+ bucks later I had everything I thought could possibly need. I sat down, got out a satchel and assembled my GoBag.
Did I mention that I have some back issues? Well when I loaded both textbooks, 2 notebooks, pens, highlighters, assorted pocket stuff as I decided I didn't want to carry my purse, an issue arose. Way Way too heavy. Who would have thought that 2 textbooks would be THAT bad, certainly not me.
Ok, time to punt. Decided that I would just carry one textbook and have to swap out every other day. That at least made the still surprising weight more manageable. I know you are thinking, "What a wimp!", but honestly the 2 textbooks weigh around 20+ pounds. I guess when you are dealing with insurance documents they have to be dense - LOL.
Prepped to start, the alarm set, bed at an actual reasonable hour, ready to go.
Before I begin, here is a little background. From January of 2007 to August of 2010 I was working for a up and coming telecommunication company, never mind which one. Due to the economy they reduced staff and I was one of the victims.
No prob, I thought to myself, I'll register for unemployment, send some resumes out, piece of cake. Yeah. Well, as you can imagine, it is with deep distress that I report that since August, I have received 3 responses to the hundreds or maybe thousands of resumes I have sent out.
Somewhere around November I conceded to myself that apparently no new job would be forthcoming in 2010. That realization made I started thinking about what to do. With over 25 plus years as a working adult and more than 15 in the insurance industry including 10 relating to health insurance I took another look at what options might be available.
Medical claims paying is a job I am familiar with, but now the openings are all requiring certification. "OK, I can do that, all those online universities are advertising for this kind of class all the time."
So I started calling around to get costs and options. Well some of those schools are mighty proud of what the are offering! One of them told me the cost for the certification would be, ready for this,
$24,000!!!!!!
Ok, that wasn't going to happen and then I realized I hadn't checked with my local community college. I called HCC, (Houston Community College) and asked if they had a certification program. Apparently that was the right question as I was routed to the Continuing Education depart and helped by a wonderful lady, Virginia Thomas, who got me signed up for orientation and gave me the costs for their program: $1850 for four classes. That was much more my speed!.
Well orientation went well and I had the class listings, the books I would need and info about a possible grant to cover the cost of the classes.
HCC suggests that you take the classes 2 at a time, mainly so you can get the basics (medical terminology) down before you get to the billing and coding. So that is what I did and will expect to be completed in early June.
No prob, I thought to myself, I'll register for unemployment, send some resumes out, piece of cake. Yeah. Well, as you can imagine, it is with deep distress that I report that since August, I have received 3 responses to the hundreds or maybe thousands of resumes I have sent out.
Somewhere around November I conceded to myself that apparently no new job would be forthcoming in 2010. That realization made I started thinking about what to do. With over 25 plus years as a working adult and more than 15 in the insurance industry including 10 relating to health insurance I took another look at what options might be available.
Medical claims paying is a job I am familiar with, but now the openings are all requiring certification. "OK, I can do that, all those online universities are advertising for this kind of class all the time."
So I started calling around to get costs and options. Well some of those schools are mighty proud of what the are offering! One of them told me the cost for the certification would be, ready for this,
$24,000!!!!!!
Ok, that wasn't going to happen and then I realized I hadn't checked with my local community college. I called HCC, (Houston Community College) and asked if they had a certification program. Apparently that was the right question as I was routed to the Continuing Education depart and helped by a wonderful lady, Virginia Thomas, who got me signed up for orientation and gave me the costs for their program: $1850 for four classes. That was much more my speed!.
Well orientation went well and I had the class listings, the books I would need and info about a possible grant to cover the cost of the classes.
HCC suggests that you take the classes 2 at a time, mainly so you can get the basics (medical terminology) down before you get to the billing and coding. So that is what I did and will expect to be completed in early June.
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