CCFP SOO exam advice

[MGN]

Hey everyone,

I am looking for some advice on how to prepare for the SOO's. I know that the best way to prepare is to practice scenarios with a study partner. I have tried doing that, but it takes a lot of time to memorize a case in order to act it out to your study partner, so I find myself being inefficient. The other option is to try to apply the SOO rubric to patients I see in clinic, but I have also found this to be unrealistic as well as I can't find FIFE and take a proper social history in everyone I see in clinic due to time constraints. 

Any thoughts about the above, and any tips about preparing for the SOO's in general?

[MDwannabe02]

The best advice I got was to look at the soo scripts on the cfpc website. Once you read enough of those, you get the idea of the ridiculous aspects of “the patient experience” they want you to elicit. The soo is absolutely not about your medical knowledge, and if you approach it that way, you will be very frustrated. 
 

Hopefully your program gives you a few practice soos. Definitely do those. Between those and reading the soo scripts, that was more than enough for me. Check out: https://www.cfpc.ca/en/education-professional-development/examinations-and-certification/certification-examination-in-family-medicine/preparing-for-the-certification-examination-in-fam - then scroll down to “Soo scripts library”. There are 27 of them, but looking at 5 or so of them is more than enough. Most of your points come from the ludicrously long social histories, so just get the formula down

 

 

[shikimate]

I read some of these SOO scripts. As a non-FMD, the only word I have to describe them is "ludicrous". You have to be either a psychic, or Oprah Winfrey, to score "superior" on these lol.

I think the CFPC should reflect how the academic curriculum, including the CFPC examination, is turning graduates away from FM. 

If the CanMed roles for FMD include "babysitter", "psychic", "bbf", "cuddle buddy" and "wet nurse", then we will surely lose more than just a few generations of med school graduates to specialties other than FM.

[Supervenience]

On 3/15/2024 at 9:07 PM, shikimate said:

I read some of these SOO scripts. As a non-FMD, the only word I have to describe them is "ludicrous". You have to be either a psychic, or Oprah Winfrey, to score "superior" on these lol.

I think the CFPC should reflect how the academic curriculum, including the CFPC examination, is turning graduates away from FM. 

If the CanMed roles for FMD include "babysitter", "psychic", "bbf", "cuddle buddy" and "wet nurse", then we will surely lose more than just a few generations of med school graduates to specialties other than FM.

It is genuinely ludicrous. The CFPC expects candidates to essentially do two consults (very commonly, on the presenting patient plus their child or parent) whilst gathering an absolutely unbelievable amount of social history, all in the span of 12 minutes, and then hit their arbitrarily chosen management points in 3 minutes alongside a lengthy "context integration" statement. Despite the incredible length of these scripts, when you look at the marking scheme it all boils down to getting 2/4 single line pieces of information that they arbitrarily chose. They have also instructed examiners that explicit FIFEing is unacceptable. The entire format is just absurd, completely not representative of real clinical encounters, and seems designed to induce unease in the candidates.