Advice for Applicant

[ourlastnight 12]

Wondering if anyone can provide some advice for a Canadian IMG applicant who reached out to me. This individual is looking to apply to CaRMS, but unfortunately, has not been able to do so since they have failed the MCCQE Part 1 twice. Seems like they were under prepared when they wrote the exam the first time. For the second attempt, the individual studied for over four months using UWorld Step 2 CK questions, Toronto notes, and the MCC prep examinations online with good results. Despite this though, they still failed (by only several points). Since four attempts of the MCCQE Part 1 are allowed, this individual is very nervous about writing it again. I have recommended completing the USMLE's but I don't know what else to offer? Can an IMG apply to medical school in Canada? Does this pathway exist? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[JohnGrisham 1,700]

14 minutes ago, ourlastnight said:

Wondering if anyone can provide some advice for a Canadian IMG applicant who reached out to me. This individual is looking to apply to CaRMS, but unfortunately, has not been able to do so since they have failed the MCCQE Part 1 twice. Seems like they were under prepared when they wrote the exam the first time. For the second attempt, the individual studied for over four months using UWorld Step 2 CK questions, Toronto notes, and the MCC prep examinations online with good results. Despite this though, they still failed (by only several points). Since four attempts of the MCCQE Part 1 are allowed, this individual is very nervous about writing it again. I have recommended completing the USMLE's but I don't know what else to offer? Can an IMG apply to medical school in Canada? Does this pathway exist? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

They should take a pause from LMCC - why have they not already been taking the USMLES? i.e. where are they training as an IMG?      Completing the USMLE series and focusing on the US is going to be their best chance at a residency.  Not much information to go by for why they are doing poorly on LMCC...are they a canadian who went abroad, or a true foreign medical grad that just happens to have canadian citizenship?

Are they done med school now? still have time left?   

If they have a bachelors and good grades, they could try applying for Canadian med schools like anyone else can - but thats its own difficult process. If already near complete IMG medical school, probably better to focus on USMLES and try for a US residency.  

More info would help clarify.

[ourlastnight 12]

20 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

They should take a pause from LMCC - why have they not already been taking the USMLES? i.e. where are they training as an IMG?      Completing the USMLE series and focusing on the US is going to be their best chance at a residency.  Not much information to go by for why they are doing poorly on LMCC...are they a canadian who went abroad, or a true foreign medical grad that just happens to have canadian citizenship?

Are they done med school now? still have time left?   

If they have a bachelors and good grades, they could try applying for Canadian med schools like anyone else can - but thats its own difficult process. If already near complete IMG medical school, probably better to focus on USMLES and try for a US residency.  

More info would help clarify.

They are a Canadian Citizen who went abroad to medical school. Finished medical school roughly a year and a half ago. Currently not practicing in any clinical setting. Didn't want to take the USMLE's as hoping to try the CaRMS process first before ERAS/NRMP. Good grades in medical school, on practice NBME's, MCC practice tests. Pursuing masters thesis at the moment.... Overall, a good candidate with a competitive application but limited by the MCC exam. 

Do you have any suggestions/ideas to why candidates fail the MCCQE Part 1 in the first place? Trying to identify an area of weakness that maybe this individual has not recognized as of yet which is limiting their performance....

[indefatigable 684]

On 10/29/2020 at 2:39 AM, ourlastnight said:

They are a Canadian Citizen who went abroad to medical school. Finished medical school roughly a year and a half ago. Currently not practicing in any clinical setting. Didn't want to take the USMLE's as hoping to try the CaRMS process first before ERAS/NRMP. Good grades in medical school, on practice NBME's, MCC practice tests. Pursuing masters thesis at the moment.... Overall, a good candidate with a competitive application but limited by the MCC exam. 

Do you have any suggestions/ideas to why candidates fail the MCCQE Part 1 in the first place? Trying to identify an area of weakness that maybe this individual has not recognized as of yet which is limiting their performance....

The best performance predictor is based on NBME shelves (which most Canadian schools don't use) - the combined average seems to give the strongest overall prediction and is also correlated with Step 2 CK.  Conversely, failing a NBME shelf gives a higher risk of failing the MCCQE-1.  The two studies below had small sample sizes and were done for CMGs and not IMGs.    

I agree with JohnGrisham above that your friend should take a pause from the LMCC and focus on MLEs (Step 2 and Step 3) as the practice/review material is much better developed with higher chances of residency in the US.  

NB Pre-clinical grades, MCAT and GPA have less correlation with LMCC-1 performance.

https://icre2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/escudero.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830373/