Failed the LMCC - Need advice from all who passed!

[ManitobaGrad17]

please help! I failed the LMCC1 by a few points and am devastated. i wrote the test ill and couldn't focus during the test- spent a lot of time during the MCQ with bloating and stomach pains. i didn't want to waste 1000$ so I sat the test anyways hoping I'd pass. 

the thing is, I got my summary of my results today and i don't think I can attribute my failure purely to my illness. although I was ill during the test and only failed by a few points, I was VERY deficient in the PHELO and Surgery section and i think that is due to my own academic deficiencies in this area and not chalked up to being sick.

so I would like to ask anyone on this forum who did very well on the PHELO and Surgery section of the LMCC for advice on how to prep. which resources did you use exactly? I read TNotes for PHELO but it didn't help much obviously, and Surgery seemed to be so broad I also didn't know where to study off of. all advice pertaining to how to do well on these particular sections is appreciated. 

i am rewriting in the fall and want to finally pass this thing! during medical school, i passed average-above average on most of my exams, never had any academic issues, matched at my top choice location (so my kids thankfully didn't have to move schools) with no issue.  so this failure was definitely from left field, but i will hopefully learn to persevere and get through this. thank you all.

 

[bearded frog]

I passed, doing better than average passers on phelo and worse than average passers on surgery. My study strategy was using the Essentials for the Canadian Medical Licensing Exam textbook (which can be found in pdf form online if you know where to look) and some Uworld. I think its worthwhile to read through the phelo section on the essentials text, and maybe the surgery section too if you struggled with it. I found it much better than toronto notes, as it is much more concise. Uworld questions have harder content, than the MCCQE but I think it was helpful to practice using the question format.

[ameltingbanana]

I'd personally endorse Toronto Notes for PHELO. Made above avg in that section, found it pretty easy to read. Didn't really use Essentials though. 

 

 There also a few UWorld graphics in the tutor mode section that are absolutely money for PHELO/biostats/clin epi. Highly recommend snapping pix with your phone (since you can't screen cap) and saving for later. Good luck on your rewrite, I'm sure you'll kill it. 

[FrenchToast]

I'm so sorry to hear that.

For PHELO, I used the AFMC Population Health Primer, available at https://afmc.ca/medical-education/public-health.

For surgery, I didn't study too much due to the volume of information. I did look over the PowerPoint presentations of some of the more high yield topics from lectures.

I scored slightly above average on both of those sections. I've attached the image if it helps.

[hs1]

I scored well above average for surgery and below average for PHELO (which I attribute to not reading this section in TO notes very well lol). for surgery I watched a lecture series for the step2CK ( http://som.uthscsa.edu/StudentAffairs/thirdyear.asp ) - this resource was super helpful in general. I also skimmed pestanas and did some questions from the step2CK Qbank - this was good because I covered a variety of surgical topics and the answers served as review. hope this helps! 

[LittleDaisy]

Hey if I were in your case, I would ask for a revision of your test results. It might bump your results up, since you only miss a few points. It's definitely worth the shot: http://mcc.ca/examinations/mccqe-part-i/result/

It is mentioned on their page: 

Requesting a reconsideration or appeal

If you consider your exam day performance to have been affected by:

• procedural irregularities
• emergent circumstances
• illness

I would go for rescoring or reconsideration. It seems like you were sick that day, and your performance had been affected to some extent.

I was deficient in Surgery & PHELO as well, sorry couldn`t help much. I was very surprised that I got very high scores in internal and pediatrics, despite not studying much and cramming in 2 weeks. Sometimes, it was a matter of luck. Best of luck!!

 

[mavrik13]

Surgery - I only read Pestana's notes (great little book for med school).

PHLEO - only Toronto Notes (twice)

[shikimate]

UWorld Step 3 has a very nice biostat review, it's bit hardcore for LMCC1 but may be useful. First Aid for Step 3 also has good biostat review.

[smthg]

Sorry to hear it didn't go well

I passed above average for both PHELO and Surgery (actually entering the Public Health residency program, so I had better perform well on that one). I ONLY used our school's powerpoints for PHELO/epidemiology and remembered factoids from my community medicine core rotation. Those powerpoints are only in French though as I graduated from Université de Montréal, but if you read French, there were around 1500 slides in there I could send you! Residents at my school credit that class for passing the PHELO portion year after year and it's admittedly pretty good.

For Surgery, I read the complete Gen Surg portion of TNotes, as well as read the keys in all the surgical sections once. We had also some review lectures - PM me if you want them.

[Intrepid86]

Agree with others above who recommended Pestana's Surgery Notes. It's fairly concise and high yield.

Also, it may be helpful to keep in mind that surgery questions should generally be approached from a medicine point of view.

[icmh]

Sorry to hop onto this post, but I am also a CMG who failed the MCCQE1 - unfortunately not scoring well across the board. I read Toronto Notes and did CanadaQBank prior to the exam. Our school did not offer much LMCC prep and I am just wondering if anyone as any advice/resources they can suggest before I re-write. Much appreciated!

[alexa]

I too failed the QE1, twice! I am an IMG, passed my EE and NAC OSCE but did not score well across the board on the QE1 despite studying the CanadaQBank and USMLE CK book. How did Canadian schools help you prep for this exam? Would appreciate any help or support. 

[bearded frog]

Our school had a bunch of presentations of important topics of high yield, like obstetrics and pediatrics etc. Also they tried to demonstrate sample questions from the clinical decision making section. From my own experience and those of my classmates, a lot of what was useful we learned in clerkship, so if you don't have those assets I would go back to the basics. Toronto notes or the essentials textbook are good assets.

[icmh]

Would you guys be willing to PM me to share the lectures from your school? And anyone recommend the Step2 CK UWorld Bank?

[alexa]

On 2017-07-06 at 8:25 PM, bearded frog said:

Our school had a bunch of presentations of important topics of high yield, like obstetrics and pediatrics etc. Also they tried to demonstrate sample questions from the clinical decision making section. From my own experience and those of my classmates, a lot of what was useful we learned in clerkship, so if you don't have those assets I would go back to the basics. Toronto notes or the essentials textbook are good assets.

Would you mind sharing some of these documents from your school? Thanks a mil!

[bearded frog]

They specifically don't post the presentations with the clinical decision making stuff. Annoyed us a lot at the time.

[MD2015:)]

For surgery I read pestana's notes and T notes for some of the gen surg chapter.

For PHELO I read Tnotes and also did the Canada Q bank questions (or whatever that popular Q bank was - I forget).

For psych, peds, OBGYN I read the Tnotes chapters and some clerkship handouts. For IM I basically didn't study it at all because it was too broad - maybe I spent a few hours looking at some high yield topics that I didn't understand.

Overall, PHELO, psych, peds, and OBGYN have much less material to study compared to IM and surgery so I just focused on those first 4 sections and hardly studied IM & surgery and did well this way. My only exam problem is that I went too slow because I was humming and hawwing over some answers and ended up not answering the last 8-10 questions at all! I didn't even get to put B-B-B-B or whatever whoops. Practicing MCQ style questions and timing would be another study strategy if you have any trouble with test taking.

I attached an image of performance by section like Frenchtoast

 

 

 

lmcc pic.tiff

[ManitobaGrad17]

I checked my mark today and I passed! I scored 552, way higher than my first score. 

To all those who fail the LMCC this upcoming year: know that you're not alone and that it is NOT a big deal if you fail. No one finds out you failed. My PD and preceptors had no clue. I didn't even tell my wife and kids. I was able to practice with no issues as a resident rotating through GenSurg, CTU, and ObGyn with no practice restrictions. I rewrote the damn thing and passed it with no issue. It was just a bad test day and a failure does not mean that you are a bad doctor. I remember being extremely stressed after failing and searched through these forums high and low for advice from people who failed and it seemed like every one passed the bloody thing.  Please know that you are not alone and everything will be fine. You will rewrite it and do well. Yes, it sucked studying again for an exam everyone and their dog in medical school seemed to have passed, but you will get through it and it will be okay.

My only advice is to take the test seriously. It's a poorly written, broad exam but if you study for it seriously you will do fine. My dumb medical student self listened to the grapevine that the test was a joke and I didn't prepare for it seriously. That and being sick on test day ended up biting me in the ass at the end.

[goleafsgochris]

9 hours ago, ManitobaGrad17 said:

I checked my mark today and I passed! I scored 552, way higher than my first score. 

To all those who fail the LMCC this upcoming year: know that you're not alone and that it is NOT a big deal if you fail. No one finds out you failed. My PD and preceptors had no clue. I didn't even tell my wife and kids. I was able to practice with no issues as a resident rotating through GenSurg, CTU, and ObGyn with no practice restrictions. I rewrote the damn thing and passed it with no issue. It was just a bad test day and a failure does not mean that you are a bad doctor. I remember being extremely stressed after failing and searched through these forums high and low for advice from people who failed and it seemed like every one passed the bloody thing.  Please know that you are not alone and everything will be fine. You will rewrite it and do well. Yes, it sucked studying again for an exam everyone and their dog in medical school seemed to have passed, but you will get through it and it will be okay.

My only advice is to take the test seriously. It's a poorly written, broad exam but if you study for it seriously you will do fine. My dumb medical student self listened to the grapevine that the test was a joke and I didn't prepare for it seriously. That and being sick on test day ended up biting me in the ass at the end.

I definitely suspect that this is the reason people fail when they do.  I know a couple people that failed, and the one that stands out is a guy who already matched and didn't give a shit, and figured he had passed everything in med school and would be fine.  Literally studied zero and I mean zero, was out drinking the night before etc.  Failed by 10 points and had to study for real in October of his PGY1 year which no one wants to do.  

This may have changed now that the exam is harder, maybe med students try more now?  EIther way I really would recommend at least moderate (maybe a week minimum?) studying.

Not that this applies to you at all ^^^^, I'm just talking about your last paragraph.

[Edict]

On 12/8/2017 at 10:01 PM, ManitobaGrad17 said:

I checked my mark today and I passed! I scored 552, way higher than my first score. 

To all those who fail the LMCC this upcoming year: know that you're not alone and that it is NOT a big deal if you fail. No one finds out you failed. My PD and preceptors had no clue. I didn't even tell my wife and kids. I was able to practice with no issues as a resident rotating through GenSurg, CTU, and ObGyn with no practice restrictions. I rewrote the damn thing and passed it with no issue. It was just a bad test day and a failure does not mean that you are a bad doctor. I remember being extremely stressed after failing and searched through these forums high and low for advice from people who failed and it seemed like every one passed the bloody thing.  Please know that you are not alone and everything will be fine. You will rewrite it and do well. Yes, it sucked studying again for an exam everyone and their dog in medical school seemed to have passed, but you will get through it and it will be okay.

My only advice is to take the test seriously. It's a poorly written, broad exam but if you study for it seriously you will do fine. My dumb medical student self listened to the grapevine that the test was a joke and I didn't prepare for it seriously. That and being sick on test day ended up biting me in the ass at the end.

Everytime I listen to people when they say a test is a joke and you don't need to study, I get screwed over. The cynical side of me thinks its an easy way to take out the competition. My only advice to anyone who reads this is, do not listen to these people. I'll bet you half of them are studying their butt off just the same. When it comes down to tests, they can all be studied for, even CASPer. 

[Drophthal]

On 7/6/2017 at 4:25 PM, bearded frog said:

Our school had a bunch of presentations of important topics of high yield, like obstetrics and pediatrics etc. Also they tried to demonstrate sample questions from the clinical decision making section. From my own experience and those of my classmates, a lot of what was useful we learned in clerkship, so if you don't have those assets I would go back to the basics. Toronto notes or the essentials textbook are good assets.

Hi - Thanks for sharing the info. I am working on Toronto Notes, but is it possible you can share some CDM from your clerkship so I can have some sample CDMs to help me prepare.