About the Crashcourse series

Read me file and user manual

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About HKU MBBS-16 Crashcourse series
 About HKU MBBS-16 Crashcourse series
Author: Chim Ming Yam Thomas (M16)
Background: All notes were made to facilitate studying clinical knowledge from HKU Year 3 to Year 5
Theres a stereotypic formatting as they were originally designed for use by myself only
Disclaimer: All notes are made for non-commercial purpose
Use at your own discretion
Validity of content cannot be guaranteed 100% correct,
as things may change over time and there may be occasionally spelling mistakes
Although the notes were intended to be all-in-one notes for everything of MBBS level,
inevitably some content may be left out. Using other references is still advised
The author does not hold responsibility for any consequences from using the notes
Some content may be quoted from certain doctors/professors,
but they do not hold responsibility for the information recorded down in the notes
Composition and Reference:
75% content are quoted from official learning materials of HKU M16 Year 3-5 curriculum,
including almost all notes from whatever sessions which have PPT files shown
25% are quoted from non-official learning materials, including:
Learning topics in PBL/tutorials
Information from certain doctors/professors
(Names may be quoted; Validity may be unconfirmed)
Pastpaper materials (Year, paper and sometimes question number will quoted)
God disk materials
Hospital protocols
Textbooks
Online references, esp Uptodate, Medscape, etc
Others
Relevance: Crashcourse series are designed to be as comprehensive as possible for Year 5 MBBS level
Sometimes certain content may seem out of syllabus but are included because:
Either they are topics which I got drawn books on by certain doctors/professors
Or they are real cases which I encountered in hospitals/tutorials
Or they somehow appeared in exams although not taught (esp final mb written/OSCE)
Or they help understand a certain topic which is common/important
Or they are just interesting :P
Or they are actually within syllabus and appeared in certain lectures, teaching clinics, etc,
but you just forgot them because:
Either they are too long time ago (eg. Year 3 stuff)
Or the doctors/professors didnt provide the soft copies for you to revise
Modifications done:
Combination: Similar topics and info were combined,
as certain info about the same topic might be taught by different doctors separately
Sometimes some topics may be taught by different specialties (eg. IBD by medicine & surgery)

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About HKU MBBS-16 Crashcourse series
 In such case, the info are combined into a single topic,
and placed in either medicine or surgery crashcourse (eg. IBD is in Medicine note)
(This arrangement facilitates learning more than individual exam preparation)
(If you cant find an important topic in a Crashcourse note, it may be placed elsewhere)
Simplification: Most sentence structures were simplified to minimize number of words
(Sometimes grammar may be ignored to shorten the length of a sentence)
Abbreviations are often used to shorten length of words
Standardization:
All lecture notes and materials are re-organized into a standardized stereotypic format:
Point forms
Abbreviations
Spelling (eg. Anemia is preferred than Anaemia as its shorter)
First alphabets of technical/meaningful words in a sentence are capitalized
(The Purpose was just to facilitate Quick Reading of Main points for myself)
Hierarchy: Content are grouped into specialties first and placed in respective Crashcourse notes
Within each Crashcourse note, content may be subclassified according to subspecialties
NB: Classification & Categorization of information are intensively used,
to facilitate knowledge memorization, and handling book-drawing by doctors/professors
Alignment: Within each passage, content are usually aligned by Tab rather than Spacebar
Whenever a sentence starts from a successive Tab after the previous sentence, it may mean:
1. Its following the above sentence (esp if there is a , at the end of above sentence)
Eg. The current sentence I am putting in this line is too long to fit the line,
so I have to cut the sentence in half and the 2nd part is put to the next Tab
2. Its a category of above item (esp if there is a : at the end of above sentence)
Eg. Causes of failing an exam:
The student did not study well
The exam was too hard
3. Its a related info about the above sentence/item
Eg. You can see that all the examples I used for explanation are put into next Tab
The first 4 Tab from left to right are always for hierarchical arrangement
Thus information regarding a subtitle will start after at least 4 Tab,
unless its a sub-subtitle (which will start after 1 Tab)
If the hierarchy is too complicated with many levels, numerical denotations or - may be used
Navigation: All headings and major subheadings of a topic can be jumped to quickly by:
1. Clicking from Table of Content page
(Only if you are using .pdf versions; For .docx version, press crtl + click)
2. Clicking from Navigation pane (for .docx; Can be brought up by pressing crtl+F),
or Bookmarks (for .pdf), on the left hand side of the documents
NB: .docx version is good for searching a specific content in the whole document (quicker than .pdf)
.pdf version is good for use in portable devices like smartphones
Abbreviations:

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About HKU MBBS-16 Crashcourse series
 Disease abbreviations:
Common abbreviations used for certain diseases
Certain abbreviations may be applicable to multiple disease; Take context into considerations
Eg. AS (Aortic Stenosis vs Ankylosing Spondylitis)
Certain diseases may have multiple abbreviations; They are standardized in the notes
Eg. CAD (Coronary artery diseases) is preferentially used over:
IHD (Ischemic heart diseases)
CHD (Coronary heart diseases) (Such abbreviation is reserved for Congenital Heart)
Functional abbreviations:
Common abbreviations used for certain denotations
Eg. Sx (Symptoms), Cx (Complications), S/S (Symptoms/Signs), M&M (Mortality & Morbidity),
NB (Nota bene), yo (years old), asso (associated), ST (short term), LT (long term)
Symbols: *: When placed in front of a word,
it means Most common or More common among the things enlisted
Eg. Causes of insomnia in MBBS student: Drugs, Pain, *Studying for summative/final mb
#: Fractures
@: At
: Increase
: Decrease
>: If it sticks to the word/number after it, it means More than
Eg. Prevalence of Depression is >10%
If it doesnt (esp if its at the beginning of a line, or it sticks to the word before),
it just represents an arrow sign (-->), which may mean causing, leading to, etc
Eg. I want to pass my exam> I bok chun> I dont have enough sleep> Poor energy
(): Brackets may be used in any of following situations:
To provide additional information which may be relevant
To provide additional information which is not yet validated
(Sometimes a question mark is added too)
To provide reference/quotations for a certain piece of info
(eg. from a doctor/professor, from a pastpaper, from a textbook)
To signify that the topic is optional to know/memorize
Miscellaneous & Extras:
At the end of each Crashcourse note, there is often a heading of Misc and/or Extra
Misc: It includes information obtained from teachings by doctors/professors,
which are either not yet validated,
or not yet incorporated into the formal topics ,
or they cant be incorporated into any of the formal topics
Extra: It includes certain diseases which are rare and probably out-of-syllabus

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About HKU MBBS-16 Crashcourse series