It is crucial to be as prepared as possible. Prepping your book for ease of use will assist you with both studying and exam time management. There are many ways to set up your book. Among the most efficient are tabbing, highlighting and noting important information where it is needed.
Before going into organizing tips, i would like to say that time spent setting up your book is time spent learning it. It can take a long time to set up the ICD-10, but this is an important studying opportunity. By the time you tab, highlight, cross-reference and append related guidelines to a code family you really know it!
Let's start with tabbing. You can tab anything in your books and use as many tabs as you want. You can tab across the top, side, and/or bottom of your book. Note: You cannot use tabs that must be stapled in. So you could tab the chapters and alphabetical index letters across the top, certain code areas across the side, and frequently referred to guidelines, images, and tables on the bottom (tabs along the bottom are best short). When tabbing, you can also use colors and shapes as visual clues. For example, use red tabs for chapters and blue tabs for important sections. Or square ones for sections and rectangular ones for chapters. There are many ways you can organize your tabs. Consider your needs when setting up your tabs.
Next is the pages. Now, i'm going to list all the options i know for doing this, but you can use as many or as few as you like. These ideas are all mix and match :).
At the front of the chapter I like to put the page numbers of the sections. I do do this on every page with division listings. At the top of each page you can list the sections, the first and last code, important codes. At the bottom you can write guidelines, information relevant to that page. By the codes you can write the index page, guideline page, etc. You can also do that for any SEE ALSO etc codes on that page. These bits of info will save you time by either providing direct information where you need it or by getting you to the information quickly. It is also a good idea to put the code page number next to the index entry. Yes, this can be a lot, but it is valuable studying as well as testing time. Imagine looking up a term in the index, picking a code and seeing the page number right next to it - time saver!
Highlighting is another great idea. You can highlight the top of a code tree in one color, all it's subs in another and their subs in yet another - you get the idea. I also use a color for location and one for laterality. I stick with yellow for exceptions, add-on and see also's. You can simply highlight or you can use shapes. For example - highlight the top code, circle sub codes, box next sub. This is what I do. Again, may different ways. The best system is the one that works.
It is also helpful to add some things to the table of contents. Some don't have page numbers for each area they list. Adding page numbers of the relevant guidelines, the index locations, etc. are all helpful.
By prepping your book you can go to the relevant chapter, find the page of the section, flip to the code, use visual cues to pick out say location of fracture, type of fracture and laterality in a fraction of the time!
It is best to set up each chapter as you are studying it. This ensures that you get information were it needs to be, re-enforces learning and keeps the setting up manageable.
You might want to use erasable pen when setting up you book. Not only is it easy to fix errors, but you might need to update information later.
The images below are examples of prepped HIV entries. The first one is from the 2024 Bucks' IDC-10 and the second is the 2023 version from AAPC. The information noted in both is the same, written in erasable ink ( and in my messy handwriting).
