---
name: course-exam-review
description: Build exam-focused study notes and past-paper answers from course PDFs. Use when the user asks to read lecture slides, course materials, PDFs, past exams, review notes, exam answers, bilingual notes, or source-grounded course revision documents.
---

# Course Exam Review

## Purpose

Use this skill to turn a course folder of lecture PDFs plus one or more past exam papers into practical revision materials:

- A separate study-notes document.
- A separate past-exam answer document.
- Answers grounded first in the lecture PDFs.
- Clear lecture/page citations.
- Bilingual support when useful.

## Core Principles

1. Read the course materials before writing.
2. Prefer original slide wording or near-original slide wording.
3. Only write your own synthesis when the slides do not contain a direct answer.
4. Separate notes from answers.
5. Make answers targeted to each sub-question, not generic topic summaries.
6. Include the original exam question before each answer.
7. Add `Source: Lecture X pY` after each answer or note block.
8. If the user wants bilingual study, write one English sentence or bullet on its own line, then write its Chinese translation on the next line. Do not mix English and Chinese in the same sentence except for technical terms.

## Workflow

### 1. Inventory the Materials

Find:

- Lecture/course PDFs.
- Past exam PDFs.
- Existing generated notes or answer files.

If file discovery tools fail on non-English paths, use a read-only shell directory listing. Do not modify source PDFs.

### 2. Read the Exam First

Extract the past-paper structure:

- Question number.
- Sub-question text.
- Marks.
- Topic tested.

Use the exam to decide priority. High-mark repeated topics should drive the notes.

### 3. Read Lecture PDFs by Exam Topic

Map each exam topic to lecture pages. For each topic, collect:

- Exact slide wording.
- Definitions.
- Bullet lists.
- Process flows.
- Risks and mitigations.
- Examples and use cases.

Record sources as `Lecture X pY` or `Lecture X-PY pZ`, matching the course file naming.

### 4. Create Separate Files

Use separate markdown files:

- `[course]_课程复习笔记.md`
- `[course]_往年考题答案.md`

If a combined file already exists, convert it to a short index linking to the separated files.

### 5. Study Notes Format

Organize notes by exam-relevant themes, not only by lecture order.

Use this structure:

```markdown
# [Course] 课程复习笔记

## [Theme]

- [Original English slide sentence only]
译：[Chinese translation]

中文理解：[Short explanation of how to understand this.]

可能考法：[How this appears in exam questions.]

Source: Lecture X pY.
```

Recommended sections:

- Course positioning and learning outcomes.
- Core technical concepts.
- Data and training.
- Regulation and governance.
- Applications and staff augmentation.
- Risks, security and mitigations.
- Future trends or opinion topics.
- Final memorization checklist.

### 6. Answer File Format

For each sub-question:

```markdown
### Q1(a) [Short Topic]

**QUESTION:** [Original exam sub-question]
译：[Chinese translation]

[Targeted English answer sentence using original slide wording where possible]
译：[Chinese translation]

Source: Lecture X pY.
```

Rules:

- Answer every clause in the sub-question.
- If the sub-question asks for concepts, enhancement, advantages and limitations, include all four.
- If it asks for examples, include examples.
- If it asks for risks and mitigations, include both.
- Keep answers exam-writable unless the user asks for detail.
- For complex sub-questions, it is acceptable to exceed a strict word limit to avoid missing required parts.

### 7. Bilingual Translation

When the user asks for translation:

- Use a strict two-line bilingual format: English on one line, Chinese translation on the next line.
- Put `译：...` immediately after each English sentence or bullet.
- Do not write mixed bilingual sentences like `RAG 用来 solve knowledge cutoff`; instead write the English sentence first, then a full Chinese translation on the next line.
- Keep technical terms in English when useful, e.g. `RAG`, `RLHF`, `prompt injection`, `agentic AI`.
- Do not translate `Source` lines unless requested.

### 8. Quality Check

Before finishing:

- Verify notes and answers are separate files.
- Verify every answer has a `QUESTION` line.
- Verify every answer has a `Source` line.
- Verify answers directly address each sub-question.
- Verify important English lines have Chinese translations if requested.
- Verify bilingual content follows the two-line format and does not mix English explanation with Chinese explanation in one line.
- Read the beginning, middle and end of generated files to catch encoding or formatting issues.
- Run lint/check tools if available for markdown.

## Common Answer Patterns

### Concept Question

Use:

- Definition from slides.
- One sentence explaining mechanism.
- Source.

### Application Question

Use:

- Use case.
- Manual pain point.
- GenAI benefit.
- Risk.
- Mitigation.
- Source.

### Regulation Question

Use:

- Objective of regulation.
- Who regulates whom.
- Required action or principle.
- Source.

### Opinion Question

Use:

- Slide-supported facts first.
- Clearly mark personal reasoning.
- Keep the conclusion balanced.
- Source for slide-supported part.