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MCCQE Part 1 Thoughts


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8 minutes ago, monocle said:

Thank you!

As for your question, I wouldn't give up that easily - you were really close. What I would suggest is reading all the CPSO guidelines on their website (mandatory reporting, relationships with industry etc.) and read through high yield sections of the AFMC primer (the TNotes epidemiology section is based on this, just expand on your knowledge using the primer). Make sure you know those CPSO guidelines inside out. 

Secondly, it's essential that you get a new copy of TNotes. Several ethical things have changed since 2011, most notably medical assistance in dying (MAID). Considering your background as a qualified GP, medicine is the area you'd want to pay the least attention to. Focus on Psych, O&G, Paeds and selective surgery. Try to build a super strong base of the common stuff (Asthma, depression/bipolar, COPD, MIs, common infections, heart failure etc. - the big stuff) and chase unicorns later (i.e. specific glomerular diseases). 

Ditch CanadaQBank, it's garbage in my opinion. Use USMLEWorld and the practice tests on the MCC website. When you don't know the answer, look it up (esp. ethics). 

 

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Thanks for all that great advice monocle. 

I will look to use all those tools and start again when the dust settles a bit. 

You are right- I’ll need to invest in a new Toronto notes and hone in on all those guidelines. 

Guess I’ll ditch Canada Q bank and use USMLE world like you say and the MCC questions. The weekend before I sat the exam -16th April - I debated about whether to spend the $500 on the MCC questions- I wish I had now of course! 

Thanks for your advice. All the best!

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1 minute ago, LJT78 said:

Thanks for all that great advice monocle. 

I will look to use all those tools and start again when the dust settles a bit. 

You are right- I’ll need to invest in a new Toronto notes and hone in on all those guidelines. 

Guess I’ll ditch Canada Q bank and use USMLE world like you say and the MCC questions. The weekend before I sat the exam -16th April - I debated about whether to spend the $500 on the MCC questions- I wish I had now of course! 

Thanks for your advice. All the best!

I would definitely consider spending the $500 on the practice exam this time around. As the MCCQE1 is now a limited attempt exam, you want to just get it out of the way. 

Really dive into the questions on the practice test, read the explanations - esp. on terms of ethics. It will be the most high yield thing you can do. Explore how the CDM section works. I would recommend UWorld+TNotes+MTB Step 3, but if you want to be extra prepared you should also do the ethics/population etc. questions from CanadaQBank again to have that covered (I feel this is the area a lot of IMGs have trouble with). 

Good luck, and don't you dare lose hope or sleep over this.

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Thanks Monocle. 

Did my finals in the UK in 2002 then did my MRCGP after that so it’s been a long time since I’ve done exams. Thought I studied really hard for it. Used Canada Qbank. Didn’t study ethics and on reflection I should have. I have an old Toronto notes- from 2011 that someone gave me- is that too old? Should I buy a new one? 

Also, should I forget about LMCCs and consider USMLE? 

Congratulations on passing Monocle!

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3 minutes ago, monocle said:

I would definitely consider spending the $500 on the practice exam this time around. As the MCCQE1 is now a limited attempt exam, you want to just get it out of the way. 

Really dive into the questions on the practice test, read the explanations - esp. on terms of ethics. It will be the most high yield thing you can do. Explore how the CDM section works. I would recommend UWorld+TNotes+MTB Step 3, but if you want to be extra prepared you should also do the ethics/population etc. questions from CanadaQBank again to have that covered (I feel this is the area a lot of IMGs have trouble with). 

Good luck, and don't you dare lose hope or sleep over this.

Thank you. I really appreciate your advice and recommendations on what to study. 

Just found the actual day of the exam very hard. Very pushed for time on the first paper and really guessed most of them. Felt very deflated as I was going along thinking it wasn’t a reflection of my knowledge, felt I wasn’t doing very well and also thought I would never put myself through the exam again if I failed! 

I just don’t know if I can do it again. I’m older now and have 3 kids so it’s harder to carve out time and study. 

Going to go and lick my wounds now! You should be out celebrating!

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Found out I passed the exam today, though I felt like I may have failed walking out of it. Such a bizarre exam. I thought the MCQ portion was kind of okay, but there was just not enough time, and I was scrambling to finish it. HATED the CDM despite having ample time, as it felt like no amount of studying could have prepared me for it and that I basically had to guess what the examiner for thinking. 

To the poster asking for advice, here's what I used to study based on suggestions here, which I thought was adequate for me: latest TN for population health+ethics and OB/GYN, my clerkship notes/book for peds. Quickly read over Pastena's for surgery. Read through some of my clerkship notes for IM but this was lowest on my priority. UWorld for practice questions - they have the best explanations (which helps you to review important concepts), and I didn't want to shell over $$$ for the MCC sample questions.

Other suggestions: sleep well and rest the night before and really manage your time well for MCQ. 

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1 hour ago, Heisencat said:

Found out I passed the exam today, though I felt like I may have failed walking out of it. Such a bizarre exam. I thought the MCQ portion was kind of okay, but there was just not enough time, and I was scrambling to finish it. HATED the CDM despite having ample time, as it felt like no amount of studying could have prepared me for it and that I basically had to guess what the examiner for thinking. 

To the poster asking for advice, here's what I used to study based on suggestions here, which I thought was adequate for me: latest TN for population health+ethics and OB/GYN, my clerkship notes/book for peds. Quickly read over Pastena's for surgery. Read through some of my clerkship notes for IM but this was lowest on my priority. UWorld for practice questions - they have the best explanations (which helps you to review important concepts), and I didn't want to shell over $$$ for the MCC sample questions.

Other suggestions: sleep well and rest the night before and really manage your time well for MCQ. 

Congratulations Heisencat!!

I felt the same way you did coming out of that exam. I thought it was bizarre too. 

Thank you for the advice re study tools. I’m not familiar with UWorld but looked it up. Which bank of questions did you study from? The USMLE? Which step? All so unfamiliar with me, being from the UK. 

Thank you!

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1 minute ago, LJT78 said:

Congratulations Heisencat!!

I felt the same way you did coming out of that exam. I thought it was bizarre too. 

Thank you for the advice re study tools. I’m not familiar with UWorld but looked it up. Which bank of questions did you study from? The USMLE? Which step? All so unfamiliar with me, being from the UK. 

Thank you!

The UWorld Step 2 CK was the question bank I used and I would highly recommend for brushing up on your knowledge. I used it to practice questions in psych, public health and ethics, peds, and OB+GYN. It is designed for USMLE step 2. 

Ah and I forgot to mention that I didn't study for psych (just did UWorld practice questions) as that's the specialty I applied to and did electives in. 

Studied for around 1 month in total, which included 3 weeks full-time studying at home after finishing my selectives. 

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I wrote the exam end of April and just got my mark today and passed a couple SDs above the mean. I am a pretty avg CMG. To other CMGs reading this... I didn't find it overly difficult. I mean there's a lot where you're not 100% sure but most of the questions are geared towards a family medicine level of knowledge about things. I wasn't tight on time for the MC (had 30 min left at the end to review) like others have said but I'm usually in the top 5-10% of my class in terms of exam writing speed so I expected not to run out of time. The written portion has a ridiculous amount of time alotted like I finished with an extra 2 hours or 1.5 hrs. Some of the questions were weird and read my mind.
 

For the IMGs... I could see there being a lot of tricky questions that would be gimmes to a CMG. I had a stupid amount of questions on ethics specific to Canadian laws, Canadian organizations (ie. If you had an ethical question who would you ask for definitive advice... Your local college of physicians and surgeons, your program director, the CMPA, the CMA, etc). Like those are tough to study for its things you just pick up along the way really. Maybe Toronto notes sections on organization, ethics, legal, etc would be helpful.

 

To the question about writing at the end of 3rd year... Most of what I drew upon was previous clinical experience from third year. If you have finished all your core rotations I would seriously consider it. Some people feel more comfortable having "sit down" time to study and review, though. There's no wrong answer.

 

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1 hour ago, Heisencat said:

The UWorld Step 2 CK was the question bank I used and I would highly recommend for brushing up on your knowledge. I used it to practice questions in psych, public health and ethics, peds, and OB+GYN. It is designed for USMLE step 2. 

Ah and I forgot to mention that I didn't study for psych (just did UWorld practice questions) as that's the specialty I applied to and did electives in. 

Studied for around 1 month in total, which included 3 weeks full-time studying at home after finishing my selectives. 

Thank you so much for sharing. I’ll be sure to sign up for that. 

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41 minutes ago, PolkaDoots said:

I wrote the exam end of April and just got my mark today and passed a couple SDs above the mean. I am a pretty avg CMG. To other CMGs reading this... I didn't find it overly difficult. I mean there's a lot where you're not 100% sure but most of the questions are geared towards a family medicine level of knowledge about things. I wasn't tight on time for the MC (had 30 min left at the end to review) like others have said but I'm usually in the top 5-10% of my class in terms of exam writing speed so I expected not to run out of time. The written portion has a ridiculous amount of time alotted like I finished with an extra 2 hours or 1.5 hrs. Some of the questions were weird and read my mind.
 

For the IMGs... I could see there being a lot of tricky questions that would be gimmes to a CMG. I had a stupid amount of questions on ethics specific to Canadian laws, Canadian organizations (ie. If you had an ethical question who would you ask for definitive advice... Your local college of physicians and surgeons, your program director, the CMPA, the CMA, etc). Like those are tough to study for its things you just pick up along the way really. Maybe Toronto notes sections on organization, ethics, legal, etc would be helpful.

 

To the question about writing at the end of 3rd year... Most of what I drew upon was previous clinical experience from third year. If you have finished all your core rotations I would seriously consider it. Some people feel more comfortable having "sit down" time to study and review, though. There's no wrong answer.

 

Congratulations on passing! 

For me as an IMG I think the ethics questions were difficult but I’m hearing all the advice re Toronto notes. Thank you. 

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  • 1 month later...

Many thanks for the useful comments nad suggestions by LJT78, monocle and Heisencat. I am an IMG and now a PGY3 in Canada.

 

I am using TN, uworld 2CK Q bank, Uworld practice tests and recently did the MCC MCCQe1 test(100MCQ @100$).

 

Some questions:

- Apparently the MCC prep exams reflect the difficulty and time taken to answer the MCQ in the real exam. But the scores are useless as a benchmark to figure out where you are. I got 69/70. What does it mean? Management is the area that I scored  the least, 

- Should I take the CDM practice exam or the PE at 500$. Or Uworld step2 nad step 3 exams

- @LJT78 high yield sections of the AFMC primer, can you please specify topics; Are all these very high yield ? http://www.cpso.on.ca/Physicians/Policies-Guidance/Policies

 

I have made Uworld flash cards, shortlisted high yield topics in TN and going thorugh all uworld questions I had answered incorrectly.

 

 

Any other suggestions? 

 

Thanks a lot.

 

An IMG who did med school in 1997!! but who loves his subspecialty and retraining in residency after 2 decades and multiple fellowships!

 

 

 

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  • 5 months later...

Hello everyone! Not sure if anyone is still in this convo but just trying to learn more about the MCCQE1. I'm in 3rd year international and trying understand more about the MCCQE1. Initially just wondering about the scoring. I get how it is pass fail and you get specific scores, but do the schools get the individual score or just P/F? As in how would this impact residency applications I guess is what I'm wondering. 

Thanks for any responses!  

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On 1/15/2020 at 7:25 PM, InterestedIMG said:

Hello everyone! Not sure if anyone is still in this convo but just trying to learn more about the MCCQE1. I'm in 3rd year international and trying understand more about the MCCQE1. Initially just wondering about the scoring. I get how it is pass fail and you get specific scores, but do the schools get the individual score or just P/F? As in how would this impact residency applications I guess is what I'm wondering. 

Thanks for any responses!  

Schools will get specific scores, and these scores will be used to determine whether you get interviews or not. Back when the MCCEE was still used, CSAs/IMGs who matched in Ontario usually had nothing less than a 95th percentile score. I'm not sure what the standard is now for the QE1, but my guess is that it's similarly high.

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Hey, I just took QE1 for the 2nd time. I trained in the US and can compare - USMLEs were a piece of cake; MCCQE1 is a nightmare. Normally, I don't fail the tests and normally I can assess how I've done but that didn't apply to the QE1. I failed 1st time by12 points after 10 days of preparation. I've been practising in Canada for a number of years on a different kind of license so it's been awhile since I've done USMLEs. I feel that today I did even worse than the first time.

Numerous questions on ethics were not difficult, as I'm well antiquated with CMPA, CPSO regulations, and other medico-legal aspects, but actual clinical qns were very bizarre, especially on the MCC part. There were no "what's the best initial test" or "gold standard diagnostic method" but "what would you do next" and the choices were quite odd. Having done prep tests with QbankCanada, I discovered very quickly that what I normally "do next" doesn't apply to the test situations. For example, rapid sequence intubation requires a vascular access so my next step, from the given choices, I'd choose "establish I/V" but apparently this step could be skipped and off we go straight to RSI. The actual exam questions were not much better.

Anyway, I feel that I've done very poorly although most of today's questions were psych, ethics, and geriatrics. This time I prepared for 3 months but it didn't make any difference, it seems.

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On 1/15/2020 at 8:28 PM, guy30 said:

You get a score and for IMG's, this will impact your residency applications and ability to get interviews during CaRMS.

What about a number of attempts? Is this info available to the PDs? Multiple attempts on USMLEs were a death sentence. I'm not using CARMS but I'll still need to produce the exam records. 

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On 8/14/2019 at 10:09 AM, prashant said:

 

An IMG who did med school in 1997!! but who loves his subspecialty and retraining in residency after 2 decades and multiple fellowships!

Hey, that's my 3rd tour too lol. I'm an IMG with a postgrad training in the country of origin, then in the US, and now, after > 5 years of practice in Canada I'm switching specialties (for the last time!!)

On 8/14/2019 at 10:09 AM, prashant said:

 

 

 

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On 1/15/2020 at 8:28 PM, guy30 said:

You get a score and for IMG's, this will impact your residency applications and ability to get interviews during CaRMS.

CARMS sounds brutal. The Match in the US definitely was less complicated as everyone was in one stream and physicians in practice were allowed to participate. It is very very difficult to switch specialties in Canada once you've done a postgrad training. I wish I bothered with QE1 and 2 much sooner...

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 months later...
On 6/20/2019 at 2:02 PM, monocle said:

Hey buddy, I know this must be a really tough day for you but honestly, it's a roll of the dice. You just had a bad day. Do not be too hard on yourself.

It doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on how good a doctor you will be. You weren't that far off, just 11 points behind.

Just book it again (I think applications are open now) and go for it if you feel confident. Please note that they only allow 4 lifetime attempts of this exam, kill the ethics section next time and you'll be done.

If you need any specific help, feel free to ask!

 

On 6/20/2019 at 2:00 PM, LJT78 said:

Thanks. Starting work tomorrow on a provisional licence and feel completely incompetent now. ☹️

Hi, I am an IMG with 10 years post graduation experience as a family physician. I am hoping to practice in Canada. I read somewhere that you only need to pass the MCCQE part 1 to obtain provisional license to practice in Canada as long as you have proof of postgraduate training. Is this still valid information or you need to pass both the part 1 and 2 in order to obtain a license. Is it possible to secure a job with provisional license and if not what other conditions do you need to satisfy to be able to practice. I am currently preparing to sit the MCCQE part 1. Your advice will be appreciated

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