IM Royal College Exam

[mskfb]

Hi all,

Canadian IM PGY-3 here, with the Royal College Exam upcoming. I've heard this thing is a monster. I'm wondering if I could pick someone's brain who has been through this before. I know there are "recommended study resources" (hint hint, nudge nudge) that have been surreptitiously passed on from generation to generation of IM residents, and that these are the generally assumed way of studying for the exam. My question is: has anyone here done it using just the Toronto IM Review Course slides, *without* those "recommended study resources"? Or know anyone who has? Are they enough?

 

I guess I'm having pangs of conscience - I am imagining trying to teach my future children about the value of integrity etc etc while having passed the biggest exam of my life by cheating. Laugh if you'd like: but this stuff matters to me and I'm just curious if anyone else has taken this road.

 

Cheers.

mskfb

[Bobthebuilder]

You do you but two difficulties ahead. First, my gf did the exam two years ago and not a single soul wasn't using those ''recommended study ressources''. So chances of finding someone who did not use them are slim I believe. Second, most people prepare study groups of 3-4 individuals. What do groups do ? They review the ''recommended study ressources''. So If you are aiming to not use them but also be in a study group, that's gonna be a challenge. 

Props to you for showing this level of integrity but is it worth it ? Dunno, only you can say but from what i've witnessed this shit is STRESSFUL as F*ck.  

Good luck m8,

Bob

[robclem21]

There is a reason that the pass rates for royal college from Canadian vs. foreign-trained graduates is so vastly different. Aside from the excellent points made above re: study group (and not wanting to study in isolation), these exams don't test the high-yield, clinically relevant material you would expect them to. They examine on minutia, details from random charts, tables, studies, etc. that you would NEVER look at or study if you weren't closely guided through the study process by those who came through the system before you. Additional resources will NOT be enough to pass. Passing any RC exam without these resources is a near impossible feat. In my opinion, 100% not worth it. In addition to the 6-12 months of re-studying, you lose crazy fees to re-write the exam, a year of lost income and ability to practice independently, only to have the same low chance of passing the next time around as well.

You can't tell me that in all of undergrad and medical school, you have never relied on resources from old classmates to study. This is no different and is 100% not cheating. Everyone at RC knows these resources exist because they came through the same system. There is no heroics or pride in doing anything otherwise. Where is the integrity in the way they charge and examine residents.

[hero147]

3 hours ago, robclem21 said:

There is a reason that the pass rates for royal college from Canadian vs. foreign-trained graduates is so vastly different. Aside from the excellent points made above re: study group (and not wanting to study in isolation), these exams don't test the high-yield, clinically relevant material you would expect them to. They examine on minutia, details from random charts, tables, studies, etc. that you would NEVER look at or study if you weren't closely guided through the study process by those who came through the system before you. Additional resources will NOT be enough to pass. Passing any RC exam without these resources is a near impossible feat. In my opinion, 100% not worth it. In addition to the 6-12 months of re-studying, you lose crazy fees to re-write the exam, a year of lost income and ability to practice independently, only to have the same low chance of passing the next time around as well.

You can't tell me that in all of undergrad and medical school, you have never relied on resources from old classmates to study. This is no different and is 100% not cheating. Everyone at RC knows these resources exist because they came through the same system. There is no heroics or pride in doing anything otherwise. Where is the integrity in the way they charge and examine residents.

I think some of it also depends on the specialty. 

You can definitely pass without using the "study materials". But you will max out at like 70-80% correct on the exam. The last 20-30% of the exam are questions that you would have never expected even if you read your specialty's text cover to cover. 

If the passing grade is truly 70%, its pretty much a coin flip if you pass assuming all goes well. 

[robclem21]

12 hours ago, hero147 said:

If the passing grade is truly 70%, its pretty much a coin flip if you pass assuming all goes well. 

A very high-risk, expensive coin flip if you ask me... when by standard study methods you are virtually guaranteed to pass.

[mskfb]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Appreciate your time.

[ACHQ]

GIM staff here, wrote the exam in 2019. People fail the exam even with resources. Chances of failing without resources are exceedingly high. Wouldn't risk it.

[rmorelan]

This is one of those stupid issues in examinations. If such resources existed then everyone - the test takers, and the test givers and so on - would be fully aware that they did. The test makers could easily enough create an exam where the resources would be useless - it wouldn't be hard at all to do that (major exam format changes have from time to time for instance - for rads in the US the test changed in part to specifically eliminate the usefulness of any such materials) . If they didn't change things under those circumstances then they would logically not doing so for a reason (you don't have to agree with the reason, but nothing about these exams is in any way an accident). They also wouldn't have doing anything for generations and generations of test takers. 

I have heard of possible explanations there but one of the best I have heard was simply it is an amazing way to get people to learn a particular subset of things extremely well. You want to have a student learn 5000 core things? Tell them that 50-100 of them will be an super important exam that will dedicate their future. Then just sit back and watch. 

 

 

[ameltingbanana]

Wrote the exam in 2020. Do not attempt without aforementioned resources. the IMR slides and questions were great and quite representative, but there's a high rate of some questions being recycled and those end up being free marks.

[futureGP]

Do not attempt without them for sanity sake. Don’t be that one person who didn’t use the resources and failed and have to spend another subspecialty year to retake the exam.

The fact is every canadian resident will use the resources and review them to the detail in a group setting.

IMReview course I thought was alright but more for the social aspect of hanging out with some friends while ‘studying’ for an exam. It alone is def not enough

The speakers for the review course are also mostly PGY5s who passed but also studied using the ‘recommended resources’.

 

 

[Noname5671]

Can someone please DM me the "recommended resources"

[DreMed]

Hi ! Would love to have the recommended ressources too ! Dm please ☺️

[holiday1001]

you guys are best off asking the residents in the year above you.

and also be aware a recent batch of residents was punished because a disgruntled resident leaked a shared Dropbox resource which had many identifiable user names. so be very very careful.