For Those who have recently written MCCQE1

[MrKhiladi]

For those who have recently written mccqe1 exam, would you mind please sharing your experience about the exam.What study materials you used and what was helpful.

thanx

[NLengr]

T. Notes, T. Notes prep questions and a few only MCCQE1 exams. It was as good as anything. Some of the questions are random recall (i.e. inheritance patterns in very rare genetic diseases) so I don't think anything would help you with those ones.

[colbert2011]

I just wrote it, so I have no clue as to my actual performance.

 

Nonetheless, I relied on usmleworld qbank and thought that adequately prepared me for the material (not necessarily type of questions) that were tested.

 

I also tried out canadaqbank which I thought had a decent CDM section but felt that the mcq purchase was a waste.

 

I would also like to use this opportunity to re-affirm the views of other posters who have stated that this exam is quite poorly designed

[NLengr]

I just wrote it, so I have no clue as to my actual performance.

 

Nonetheless, I relied on usmleworld qbank and thought that adequately prepared me for the material (not necessarily type of questions) that were tested.

 

I also tried out canadaqbank which I thought had a decent CDM section but felt that the mcq purchase was a waste.

 

I would also like to use this opportunity to re-affirm the views of other posters who have stated that this exam is quite poorly designed

 

For a test that they claim is not supposed to be about random recall, it certainly had a whole lot of random recall.

[ubcredfox]

I wrote this over a year ago now.

 

I second the usmleworld qbank set. It is very good for the random stuff that the NBME boards ask, and is somewhat helpful, at least in exposing you to the material for the MCCQE.

 

I really like the MKSAP series of books that test basic medicine.

 

I reread my psychiatry text (First Aid for Psychiatry) and re-read my notes for Obs (based on the most excellent journal series from Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine).

 

For general medicine, I studied from Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine which is very likely the best general medicine textbook that I've ever read.

 

I didn't by any means do all of this in the last two weeks before the exam. I think I spaced it out over several months and did a little bit each evening. My overall objective was getting myself to a point where I was safe starting internship.

 

The exam wasn't really a worry....again, I would be MUCH MUCH more concerned about being on-call at night, alone, and not knowing what the hell I was doing.

[colbert2011]

For a test that they claim is not supposed to be about random recall, it certainly had a whole lot of random recall.

 

Agree.

 

What disappointed me the most was the pointlessness of many questions and unclear phrasing that was employed. In the end, I don't feel that the exam really addresses any of the clinical/practical aspects of the medical field as encountered by residents.

[silverjelly]

Agree.

 

What disappointed me the most was the pointlessness of many questions and unclear phrasing that was employed. In the end, I don't feel that the exam really addresses any of the clinical/practical aspects of the medical field as encountered by residents.

 

Agreed completely. Lack of information in the clinical vignettes, "what am I thinking?" type questions, very vague questions that could be interpreted a thousand ways. It was a horrible exam.

[peachy]

For those who have recently written mccqe1 exam, would you mind please sharing your experience about the exam.What study materials you used and what was helpful.

thanx

I found old questions (from my school's data bank and the various online sources) as well as the various PreTest books helpful. I bought a whole bunch of the PreTest books for the iphone, which are handy because you don't have to carry around heavy books and they have detailed answers. Those along with the Toronto Notes and Google made up almost all of my studying.

[tomato7]

for those of you who used uworld to prepare, did you use uworld qbank for step2 or step3? If you have done both which one did you think was more relevant to mccqe I?

[ubcredfox]

I used Step 2 CK. I think that was pretty relevant. Didn't do any Step 3 q's though.

[tomato7]

how much of the mccqe I focuses on management and how much on diagnosis?

[MrKhiladi]

is step 2ck qbank really useful.i used it for my usmles, but from the info i can gather about the qe1 exam, it seems totaly different.Plus all the values for uworld are designed for american labs values.I would assume a canadian qbank would be more indicative.Is that not the case?

 

 

 

I used Step 2 CK. I think that was pretty relevant. Didn't do any Step 3 q's though.

[wildcard]

Hi all,

 

How important is the score on this exam for a Cdn IMG? Do programs actually look at the score to see how well you've done, or do they just check to see if you've passed?

 

Thanks!

[Smurfette]

For a CMG, if you went thrugh pre-clerkship/clerkship okay and you study a little bit in Toronto Notes and past exams, then you're going to pass which is all you need. i probably studied a total of 3-4 days solidly for this. Most people I know just wanted to take the earliest exam date they could get so they could move on to vacation, lol. I agree with the above poster re: it's much more scary on the wards not knowing what you are doing than writing an exam!

 

For IMGs, it might matter more...sorry, can't help much except to say that i studied off toronto notes and some past exams.

[rogerroger]

Continuing this thread from last year... There is not much written about this exam so here is my two cents...

I have to say this is the a poorly designed exam. There is a lot of very vague stems with lots of "read my mind" type questions. There is a lot of random pure memorization recall too. You either know this random stuff or you don't. Unless you have pure luck and come across the right trivia you won't study these factoids. We are talking about statical recall of obscure epidemiology statistics and third most common pathogens for random infections etc. However, not every question is random.

With this said, I think most people share similar feelings about this exam.  Luckily something like 98% of CMGs pass and that is reassuring.

I studied with:

Toronto Notes: Peads, Psych, Obs, Gyne, Ethics and Legal, Public Health
First Aid USMLE Step 2 CK: Internal medicine sub speciality chapters
USMLERx and USMLE World online question banks and one MCC practice exam (you pay $$$ to the MCC and can only write it once online... Nice...)


Toronto Notes is dry, but it is good review, the gold standard. The first aid books were pretty good for FAST review of internal medicine. The USMLE online question banks were pretty low yield I think. Worth going through if you got the time. But I would not use this as my only resource nor think it is a must have. I studied casually over 2 weeks. I know a lot of people who did less and a few who did more.

The question style is very different on the MCCQE compared to the USMLE Qbanks. Much shorter stems on the Canadian test. There really aren't good MCCQE specific practice material out there. The whole exam is really just frustrating because the stems are so vague. You spend a lot of time trying to guess what the test writer was trying to convey. Very frustrating. You are probably better off not trying to simulate this "feature" of the exam and just sticking to your core review of clerkship material.

The CDM section of the exam was a bit more flexible and better written in my opinion. I would just follow the rules. Don't go over the limit provided, and if the limit is non-specified keep your choices to under 1/3 the total.

Anyways, I'm glad that exam is done with. Now onto vacation!

[thebouque]

I think the stems are very vague in order to reflect the feeling of uncertainty of clinical medicine. However, in clinical medicine, you have a differential diagnosis whereas in the multiple choices portion of the mccqe they ask for only 1 diagnosis.