Medical Terminology study guide
Medical Terminology · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Medical Terminology is a foundational knowledge assessment for people who need to read, write, and speak the language of healthcare accurately - medical assistants, coders and billers, patient care and phlebotomy technicians, administrative staff, and students in allied health programs. The exam is delivered in multiple-choice format and is organized around five equally weighted content areas: word building and word elements; prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms; body structure and directional terminology; terminology of body systems; and abbreviations, acronyms, and plural forms. The Medical Terminology study guide has 5 sections and about 1,559 words.
01Word Building and Word Elements
Every constructed term contains up to four elements: a word root (the core meaning, usually a body part), a combining vowel (nearly always o , occasionally i or e ), a prefix (position, number, time, negation, degree), and a suffix (procedure, condition, or grammatical class). A root plus its vowel is a combining form , written with a slash: gastr/o , cardi/o , neur/o .
313 words, about 2 min02Prefixes, Suffixes, and Combining Forms
Prefixes modify meaning rather than name a structure. Learn them in families: position and direction ( ab- away, ad- toward, ante- before, post- after, inter- between, intra- within, sub- below, supra- above, retro- behind, peri- around); negation ( a- , an- , anti- , contra- , in- , im- ); number ( mono- , uni- , bi- , tri- , hemi- , multi- , poly- ); size and degree ( macro- , micro- , oligo- , pan- , hyper- , hypo- ); and rate ( brady- , tachy- ).
324 words, about 2 min03Body Structure and Directional Terminology
The reference frame is the anatomical position : standing, face forward, palms forward, feet flat. Planes are described relative to it.
309 words, about 2 min04Terminology of Body Systems
Each system has a core set of roots, and questions test whether you can choose the right synonym. Cardiovascular: cardi/o , angi/o and vas/o (vessel), phleb/o (vein), arteri/o , ather/o (plaque).
275 words, about 1 min05Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Plural Forms
Abbreviations work as symbols, so learn the convention along with the letters: vital signs (BP, HR, RR, T), laboratory tests (CBC, WBC, RBC, Hgb, Hct, BUN, Na, K), imaging (MRI, CT, US), routes (PO by mouth, PR by rectum, IM, IV, SQ), frequencies (BID, TID, QID, q.d., q.h.s., PRN, STAT), timing (AC before meals, PC after meals), and charting shorthand (H&P, ROS, Dx, Tx, Hx, s/p). Some are acronyms pronounced as words (AIDS, HIPAA); others are initialisms read letter by letter (CBC).
338 words, about 2 min