The VA C&P Exam Playbook
A Plain-Language Guide to the Compensation and Pension Exam
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About this book
A C&P exam can be short, and the report it produces carries real weight in your rating decision. This guide explains what the examiner is measuring, the difference between VA staff and contract examiners, how to organize your evidence, how to describe your symptoms accurately and in functional terms, what range-of-motion and painful-motion testing look for, how mental health and TBI exams work, how to read your report afterward, and when you can ask for a new exam or submit an independent medical opinion.
Inside this book
- 1What the C&P Exam Actually Is
- 2Know Your Examiner: VA Staff vs. Contract Examiners (Loyal Source, Optum, QTC, VES)
- 3Your Medical Evidence Package: What to Bring and How to Organize It
- 4How to Describe Your Symptoms: Clear Language the Examiner Can Record
- 5The Physical Exam: Range of Motion, Painful Motion, and the DeLuca Principle
- 6Mental Health C&P Exams: PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety
- 7TBI and Neurological C&P Exams
- 8After the Exam: Reading Your C&P Report and Challenging Bad Exams
- 9Requesting Reexaminations and IMEs (Independent Medical Evaluations)
- 10Building Your C&P Exam Binder: The Complete Preparation System
The book points you to its free field guide, Preparing for Any C&P Exam (a free download, no signup).
Pairs with
Free guides and worksheets need no signup and no book. Books and workbooks are coming soon.
Workbook · Coming soonThe Master VA Claim Workbook
Free guidePreparing for Any C&P Exam
Free worksheetBuddy Statement Pack
Free worksheetFive Ten Twenty
Free worksheetFlare Log
Free worksheetThe Frozen Record
Free worksheetThe Reason Underneath
Free worksheetTwo Week Record
Free worksheetVA Math Worksheet
J. Erickson
Author, educator, former veteran service officer.
J. Erickson is a service-disabled Air Force veteran. He served as a military firefighter and as a veteran service officer, where he spent years walking veterans through the same claims process he writes about now. He holds an MBA and writes plain-language guides for veterans who want to understand the system without a translator.
Read more about the author