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Just a note for future MCCQE1 test-takers:

 

Contrary to the comments above, my compadres and I did not feel that this year's exam was a "POS" or a "money grab". I felt the questions were more relevant to practice and better formatted than my four years of medical school tests. Perhaps the exam was revamped since last year. To be sure, the exam was HARD but fair.

 

My mental response to most questions was "huh, this is a good question...but I don't know the answer".

 

I would agree with this. Most people I spoke to who wrote the exam this spring said something along the lines of "that was harder than people said it would be." Makes me wonder if, like you said, the test was revamped in some way in terms of how the content was tested/formatting of questions.

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i agree that the test seemed quite hard. I thought that was mostly because of it's adaptive format. If you're doing well, the questions get harder and you think it's tough and if you're doing poorly the questions may get a little easier, but you'll still find it tough. I don't know of a single person that left that exam feel like it had gone well. my impression of the overall questions were that they were a little vague. there were often questions where the one piece of information that i would need to be sure of my answer was missing. i guessed a lot. for the CDM part I wrote almost nothing. I figured the bare minimum was best. 

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That's interesting.  My impression walking out was the exact opposite.  I did very well, so obviously I had a knowledge base that I was using - but I walked away feeling like my knowledge base wasn't tested at all and the exam was full of things I'd never heard of.  It did not feel relevant to practice for me (with the caveat that obviously I am not IN practice, so who really knows).  Certainly didn't feel relevant to my day to day knowledge needs.

 

That said it was about what I expected.  I expected to walk out feeling terrible, and I did.  With the adaptive testing - how can you not?

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Something in bugging me about the stats here. 

 

The pass score it 427, the mean is 500 and the standard deviation is 100. 

 

How can this be any type of normal distribution if you know that 5.7% of test takers fall below 427? unless a huge percentage of people scored between 427 - 500.

 

Do these stats include IMGs?

 

What is considered a 'good' score?

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Something in bugging me about the stats here. 

 

The pass score it 427, the mean is 500 and the standard deviation is 100. 

 

How can this be any type of normal distribution if you know that 5.7% of test takers fall below 427? unless a huge percentage of people scored between 427 - 500.

 

Do these stats include IMGs?

 

What is considered a 'good' score?

 

Did they ever say it's a normal distribution? I know most of the time, when people see stats, they assume ND, but it doesn't have to be the case.

 

It's hard to say what a good score is, since it seems like there was quite a bit of change this year. I think it'll be more helpful when people eventually get their score breakdown.

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I just wanted to weigh in on this, but I haven't read the whole thread, so I apologize if that has been said.

 

I was told in a meeting by a well informed source that the MCCQE pass mark was increased by 50 points, reasons unknown, bumping the fail rate from 1.8% to 5%! Apparently, the dust hasn't quite settled on why this happened, but schools are pretty angry with the powers-that-be re: the MCCQE! 

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I mean, I imagine the reason that it happened was the result of a decision that the previous pass mark was not reflecting the knowledge/performance that should be expected of someone who is about to begin their residency.  Which is reasonable.  Based on their website, the decision was made with input from a panel of physicians who are involved in working with residents.  That seems, to me, like a reasonable way to set the pass score.  I don't totally understand the outrage.  5% is larger than usual but it's not gigantic.

 

The only thing that the LMCC really did wrong here in my opinion is failing to explicitly inform the schools.  Although it is odd to me that none of the schools seemed to know, when it was published clearly on the LMCC website and all of us were aware.

 

That being said, would it have made a difference?  I'd like to think that people who failed had a bad day, or a knowledge problem, or had some other circumstance.  Knowing in advance that the score would be higher wouldn't really change those things.  What it might have changed things for is anybody who blew off the exam and didn't study.  Which, frankly, at our level, is not really something that should be happening, and I'd hope that that wasn't the root of the failures.

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I don't mean to be an arse, but honestly, USMLE has pass rates of 95% among USMG. Why are ppl blowing a gasket that the LMCC rate is now 94.3% for CMG. I think most ppl on here agree that the exam is easy and the old pass threshold was a joke. The idea that people are threatening law suits against MCC for changing the pass mark without advance notice is laughable - the Facebook page for LMCC has some angry posts regarding this.

 

The idea that ppl were studying to just pass makes no sense. No one knows percentage scores for passing on the previous or this year's exam. And the arbitrary scale scores being bumped up 50 points shouldn't change how we studied for this exam. If the exam format changed without notice, I'd understand the uproar.

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I don't mean to be an arse, but honestly, USMLE has pass rates of 95% among USMG. Why are ppl blowing a gasket that the LMCC rate is now 94.3% for CMG. I think most ppl on here agree that the exam is easy and the old pass threshold was a joke. The idea that people are threatening law suits against MCC for changing the pass mark without advance notice is laughable - the Facebook page for LMCC has some angry posts regarding this.

 

The idea that ppl were studying to just pass makes no sense. No one knows percentage scores for passing on the previous or this year's exam. And the arbitrary scale scores being bumped up 50 points shouldn't change how we studied for this exam. If the exam format changed without notice, I'd understand the uproar.

 

they really shouldn't change things post writing - not that studying to pass makes any sense. People should study hard for the test because it is just a time to cement your general medical knowledge rather than of course am to pass etc.

 

that said you really don't have much to work with - for one thing lawsuits are public. Do you really want to advertise to the entire country that you failed the exam? As a profession we don't want even the idea that low scoring doctors are even out there. Such a suit would appear on some from of broad media. Dr XYZ (a resident at Hospital ABC in DEF, a hospital/program that would like them to shut up right about now) is arguing that they should be allowed to pass despite their low score on the exam......that probably won't do wonders for your future career or immediate time at the residency program either.

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It is gigantic n the sense that the failure rate more than doubled! And in some schools, the students who failed were not granted their MD degrees despite the fact that they had already earned their degrees.

 

to this I would agree that the difference between schools is not logical. Either we all get together and say it doesn't matter or we all say it does. Tying the test to getting your degree is very dangerous - particular since there is no rewrite available prior to starting residency.

 

Worst case there should be a more rapid turn around in scoring (at least for the multiple course part), and another opportunity to rewrite.

 

schools are going to have to start taking this test more seriously as well in terms of preparation.

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Well, this bloody test has been used this year for sure to prevent degrees from being offered, students were told NOT to come for convocation. This is unfair and I believe,illegal! But is has been done. There is something rotten going on.

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I don't understand how that is illegal.  Or even particularly unfair. We were clearly informed that the pass score was being re-evaluated.  I personally assumed it would increase.  It seemed logical.

 

As far as I am aware, medical schools have the right to set the standards for graduation.  If that is the standard and you do not meet it, then you have not "earned" your degree.

 

It's really shitty, and personally I would not like to go to a school that hung my graduation on such an annoying exam.  And there are a lot of reasons someone might fail besides gross incompetence.  It sucks.  No two ways about it.  It sucks to be in limbo and it sucks to feel like you didn't know exactly what you were working with going into the exam.  It would have been much better for MCC to have handled this a different way.  But we were aware that there was the potential for this to happen.

 

The fault, if anything, is on QC medical schools for not thinking through how tying graduation to an external exam that is only offered once before July 1 without any chance of re-write or remediation within that time frame might theoretically mess things up for them and their students.

 

But frankly I think people need to look a little bit at this sense of entitlement that makes it seem like a licensing exam for us to start residency should have higher than a 95% pass rate and be a "freebie".  There is this strange idea sometimes that if you put in your time, you are somehow entitled to be a physician.  The exam is not pegged to a certain % of failures, it's pegged to a standard of competency as set by a large group of physicians who participate in PGME in Canada.  What exactly is wrong with that idea?

 

And if people failed because they pegged their studying to the lowest possible pass mark, that's something that shouldn't have happened to begin with, and the responsibility for that decision is on the individual as an adult learner.

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I don't understand how that is illegal.  Or even particularly unfair. We were clearly informed that the pass score was being re-evaluated.  I personally assumed it would increase.  It seemed logical.

 

As far as I am aware, medical schools have the right to set the standards for graduation.  If that is the standard and you do not meet it, then you have not "earned" your degree.

 

It's really shitty, and personally I would not like to go to a school that hung my graduation on such an annoying exam.  And there are a lot of reasons someone might fail besides gross incompetence.  It sucks.  No two ways about it.  It sucks to be in limbo and it sucks to feel like you didn't know exactly what you were working with.

 

The fault, if anything, is on QC medical schools for not thinking through how tying graduation to an external exam that is only offered once before July 1 might theoretically mess things up for them.

 

But frankly I think people need to look a little bit at this sense of entitlement that makes it seem like a licensing exam for us to start residency should have higher than a 95% pass rate.  And if people failed because they pegged their studying to the lowest possible pass mark, that's something that shouldn't have happened to begin with.

 

the right to set reasonable standards - that is where there is probably going to be debate. Any case related to that would probably compare standards at other schools, and other similar professions etc to see if it is reasonable. I am sure you can imagine there would be debate there from a legal point of view (but I agree a 5% failure rate isn't in of itself a bad thing :) ). In the past this test was considered a joke - next year people are going to take it seriously (or at least much more seriously) and the overall performance will rise.

 

people could have also failed for a lot of reasons - sick, distracted, and yes unprepared etc, etc. Personally due to traffic conditions that were extreme I was 2 hours late for my test. I was able to start late, and zip through the thing, missed lunch completely etc and get a reasonable score most thankfully, but I can imagine that others may not (the stress alone of starting late would be disruptive to many - ha, as you can imagine the car ride that took 3.5 hours from Guelph to just outside of Toronto was not exactly fun - usually takes 45 mins). That experience as made me rather nervous about any form of single point failure. Silly things happen - if you cannot write at that time or fail, is it good policy that you have to sit around for an entire year plus lose your residency spot?

 

I have less of a problem with people failing it as instead not having short term recourse to deal with it. These people passed medical school (if that is the issue the problem should have been dealt with ages before the exam) - should be able to pass this test. Have a early rewrite so they can start residency on time.

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I get it.  It's not a good policy and I'm not saying that people who failed shouldn't earn their degrees, or shouldn't start residency, or aren't competent.  There are lots and lots of reasons why someone might fail any given assessment, which is why we have remediation and other ways for people to stay on track - which are not available in this case because of the time frame.  I absolutely agree that that part is crappy.

 

That is a different issue from the MCC raising the pass score though.  That is an issue of QC medical schools making a (short sighted) decision to set a standard that has the vulnerabilities/weaknesses that you listed above.  They backed themselves and their students into a corner.

 

I do not think, however, that it was unfair of the MCC specifically to raise the bar for passing.  What the QC schools have done is not to do with the MCC.

 

My problem is with this underlying atmosphere I sometimes sense that you should somehow get a sticker just for showing up.

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But frankly I think people need to look a little bit at this sense of entitlement that makes it seem like a licensing exam for us to start residency should have higher than a 95% pass rate and be a "freebie".  There is this strange idea sometimes that if you put in your time, you are somehow entitled to be a physician.  The exam is not pegged to a certain % of failures, it's pegged to a standard of competency as set by a large group of physicians who participate in PGME in Canada.  What exactly is wrong with that idea?

 

I think that's key, and it's important to remember when considering that the % failure increased this year. Why is it that some schools had such a drastic % increase in failures, whereas other schools continued to maintain their 100% pass rate? Some of it is likey due to people hearing that the test is easy and not studying as hard. However, as you mentioned, people knew the pass grade was changing and the general belief was that it was increasing. Instead of being angry as the MCC, schools should reflect on themselves and their procedures as well.

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I failed and it's so painful. My score was 380 and I am trying to understand how many questions were correct. I appreciate any help.

 

MCC website mentions that 3/4 of the total score comes from MCQ, then, it says each question counts 1 point. I'm wondering how do they change 196 points to 712.5?

 

I am waiting for the feedback to understand about my performance, but I think understanding the above mentioned issue will help me to have better result in coming session. Please let me know if there is any opinion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

the best part is that they give you an 'anticipated date of release' then, on that day, you get that email. i was thinking that they were very efficient until i saw the new 'anticipated date of release' as July 3. got the email again and was like 'wow, they really deliver when they say they will'. On July 20, the next 'anticipated date of release' I don't think I'll even bother to check. 

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