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Hello and welcome back to Mana’s series of blogposts on how to do well in parts of medical school with the least work possible. I’m Mana, and today we will be learning how to pass Communicology with literally 400% activity and literally 1% effort. Communicology provides a Handy How to Fail guide, so I guess I had to rectify the situation.

Last year, I found a loophole in the Communicology system which to date has not been fixed. Naturally, I used it. The loophole is that Activity and Time are related to time spent logged in, not time spent actually typing or listening to Lucy and Max explaining things. Basically, the more time you spend logged in, the higher your time will be under the myActivity tab up the top. So, naturally, I logged in and left it logged in. Then I went to uni, came back, had dinner, took a bit of a nap, and then went back on my computer and logged out. Result: under “Time” - 400%. Automatically turns the icon green meaning (according to the description given by them) “You almost certainly have engaged well with this module. Now, if that page i had left it logged in on was the “Notes” page, guess what? Activity was also 400%. Regardless of the fact that for several hours I had not even been at my computer. Simply do this for each module and your activity and time spent will skyrocket. Hence, 400% activity, 1% effort.

Sadly, this does precious little for the notes and for “completing” activities in Communicology. No biggie. I’ve been asked by a few people already how to actually answer the things in communicology. As I like to teach by example, I will do some questions out of various modules of communicology. The “Notes words” number under the myActivity tab is based on the number of words you have in the boxes. Aim for exactly the limit of words they set. The first one, Safety, seems pretty straightforward:

1. Where might a health-care worker be at risk from patients or clients?… (Limit: 100 words)
Sample answer (Note there are lots of words but I actually say precious little):

A health care worker is always at risk from patients or clients, especially those they interact with on a regular basis. Whether in the hospital or at home out of work hours the health care worker could potentially be harmed.
(Good, two sentences that don’t say anything = 40 words.)
Whether through infection either through infectious patients or through poor hygiene practice by other staff members or the ever present threat of bodily harm from psychotic, emotionally stressed, or otherwise unsatisfied patients, it is important that the health care worker is fully aware of this threat at all times and takes measures to ensure the wellbeing of his or herself.
(Good, another one sentence that says very little = the other 60 words.)

Take note that nowhere in this sample answer do I impinge on what I might say in a following question. In fact, I could compress that entire thing into:
Everywhere, from infection, psychosis, emotions and unsatisfied patients. (= 8 words.)

Okay. So, how about the questions that follow an activity? Lets go to the Seven Seconds module for such an example question:

2. Observations - what events I noticed in the animation… (100 words)

Before answering this question, I think I might point out that this is the dominant question type in Communicology. A statement. No biggie, just imagine it’s the title for a nice long paragraph you are about to write about nothing.
Sample answer:
I observed at the beginning of the animation a character, possibly male and of low socioeconomic background, sitting on a structure, possibly a bench from a park. This character is holding what appears to be a bottle which one could infer contained a drink of sorts, and there are things identifiable as flies or other winged insects in the air nearby to this character. This character then consumes the brown fluid from the bottle such that it is empty. The character is then seen on the structure once again, clutching an apparently full bottle. The character’s lips then ripple inaudibly. (100 words)

Okay. So now what i’ve basically said using 100 words, is what i could have said in 8 (again) words:
I saw a bum on a bench drinking alcohol.

Learn how to do this. Once you can, repeat for every single activity or notes module in communicology, and you should be well on your way to getting that 400% activity, time and notes in your myActivity section. Which is all that matters in communicology anyway. I mean, the myDiary isn’t even required. I had a grand total of zero words in my myDiary last year and passed.

Join me next time when I write about how to pass resource without printing any handouts. Ever.