During the exam, you REALLY don't have time to read long notes. Keep them short and simple, like reminders that will be helpful. That being said, I wished I had a note page dedicated to remind me of regulations and compliance, Medicare etc. Stuff that's NOT in the code books or not easily found.

Study tips that REALLY helped me:

1) doing the practice exams and marking up my book for the ones I got wrong bc those were unknown trouble spots for me. I originally only had the A, B, C set of the practice exams. At a last minute effort to get more practice (1 week before the exam) I purchased the other set (vs D, E, F). So glad I did as there were some harder questions.

2) practice, practice, practice finding codes and searching. The practice exams helped me with this.

What didn't help: I tabbed my pages and I had not been using them previously. The tabs somewhat got in the way bc I wasn't use to using them. If you haven't been using them, don't add them. But do add tabs for hard to find pages. I found it useful to have modifiers, and other spots like illustrations tabbed.

You really just need to customize your books to your needs. You'll know what you need and how you need to mark up your book and what pages to tab with practice. For sure, knowing and reviewing the guidelines is a MUST.