Mccqe 1

[distressedpremed]

Agree with above, passed. Only small amount of preparation is useful, otherwise it becomes exponentially low yield. 

Follow tips above, get rid of exam ASAP. Spend more time travelling or packing for move.

get ACLS out of the way asap as well

[ralk]

Yup, agreed with everyone so far. Study the basics of OBGYN, Peds and Psych through Toronto Notes or whatever else, take a day to remind yourself how the Canadian medical system is arranged, skim over basic Epi notes from school. All other studying was pretty useless, and more studying doesn't seem like it would have helped at all.

Had no idea how I did on the exam day, besides knowing I wouldn't get an exceptional score. Sure enough, passed with a comfortable but by no means stellar mark. When all that matters is a pass, I'll take that any day.

[hs1]

I spent about 2.5 to 3 weeks using the LMCC objective list as a guide. I used Toronto Notes for OBGYN, psych and CHELO, a review package from my peds rotation, and Pestana's for Ortho/gen surg/trauma review. I completely skipped actual IM studying as I had done many internal med rotations (if you haven't i would review bread and butter stuff - hyponatremia, DKA, etc - I still would make this the last thing you study)  

In terms of practice questions, I found the USMLECK2 question bank the most useful resource! Doing questions is one of the best ways to prepare for this exam. I would do 20-40Q at a time (keeping track to make sure i stay under 1 min/question) and then reviewing the answer provided. It gave an excellent overview of the topic in the question. I tried canadaQbank but didn't find it really helpful. 

I also purchased a few of the practice tests from the LMCC website and found that was a good place to see where you stand and what you should focus your review on. I took one pretty close to the test date and found it really predicted my final score. 

You definitely need a game plan before the test about how you're going to pace yourself, otherwise time can get the better of you. some ppl on my test day had to rush through 2 sections in the last 5 minutes because they didn't pace themselves well.The actual test was pretty vague and you leave not really knowing how you did. I had the sense that I passed and was pleasantly surprised when scores were released. 

Hope this is helpful! 

[FrenchToast]

For what it's worth...

(I feel like I spent longer studying than most on here, at least chronologically speaking.)

Autumn: I tried to start studying PHELO in, like, September. Gave up quickly.

Winter: I resumed LMCC studying again in mid-February or so - after interviews. I was studying very casually.. just reading through Toronto Notes for OB.

Late-winter - spring (from the time electives finished on March 10 until I wrote the exam late April): Studied full-time, but was distracted a lot/"fake studying". Finally finished Toronto Notes for OB/gyne. Read Toronto Notes for peds. Felt like I was absorbing NOTHING. Gave up on Toronto Notes after a few weeks. Read through the PowerPoints for the "Back to Basics" LMCC prep block at my school, but did not actually attend any of the lectures. This was my only studying for internal/surgery. Read AFMC Primer for Population Health for PHELO. Didn't study psych. Did UWorld because it was fun and nice and challenging. My percentile was low, but meh.. I didn't let it get to me.

LMCC day: I rushed like crazy because I was told there wasn't enough time - at least for the MCQ part. I finished MCQ 40 mins early and CDMQ 1.5 hours early. I felt like I probably rushed too much and compromised on quality. It felt weird and terrible and everything that everyone tells you it will.

-> Passed with a *very* comfortable margin. Very thankful. I'm not sure if the studying helped or not, especially because the only sections I really studied (peds and ob) were my worst sections, where I only did very slightly better than average. Maybe it means I really did have to study those sections so it's good I did? Or none of it really mattered? Who knows. My personal opinion is you should study in a way that will actually make studying relatively enjoyable and tolerable for you. Everyone's different that way because everyone is unique and speshal.