I just took the MCCQE Part 1. After taking the MCCEE, USMLE steps 1 and 2, COMLEX steps 1 and 2, I got to say that was the hardest test I've ever taken in my life!
Anybody else take it?

Just curious, in what way was it more difficult?
Were you pressed for time? Are questions ambiguous? Were multiple choices all correct but one more correct than the others? were the questions very tricky, eg using double negative phrase - Which of the following is not false? Did they ask about many obscure, rare disease?

I remember seeing a sample test with questions that had around 20 possible choices as answers. Was this common?

The afternoon session (4 hours) has these cases where you have to choose up to (blank) correct answers. And they give you a list of 10-40 choices. If they say they want up to 5 answers, they may only want 3 or 4. Very difficult. Especially when they ask you "pick 5 of the following questions you should ask the patient" and then proceed to give you a list of 20 questions you would ask! Difficult exam.
The morning session is straight multiple choice that has very easy questions on it and very hard ones. I had questions like: "what is the correct dose of intranasal desmopressin you give for nocturnal enuresis"?
I would say it was alot harder than the USMLE. Being 3 weeks away from graduation doesn't really help the studying either. Just hope I passed.

LMCC part I was harder than the USMLE step 3 (hell, it was harder than my peds boards in-service exam). I'm not looking forward to LMCC part II.

LMCC II shouldn't be that bad... just a half day of OSCE stations right? I've gotta take it this fall. LMCC I was horrible. LoL.

S

SAME HERE, I PASSED THE USMLE PART ONE PART TWO AND MCCEE BUT I FAILED TWO TIMES MCCQE PART ONE.
I READ TORONTO NOTES 5 TIMES BUT I DIDN'T DO ANY QUESTIONS.

I just took the MCCQE Part 1. After taking the MCCEE, USMLE steps 1 and 2, COMLEX steps 1 and 2, I got to say that was the hardest test I've ever taken in my life!
Anybody else take it?

i just wanted to add that MCCQE I was really the hardest test i've ever taken so far in my life! i mean, i never sat for a multiple choice exam where i couldn't even eliminate any of the 5 answers.
but my guess is that we aren't well prepared for that test. the questions are too random, whereas the USMLE has many prep books available to help us grasp the subject better. what do you guys think?

I'm also a third-year medical student - born in Canada but raised in the states, and ignorant about the whole "returning to Canada" thing. I'm still a little clueless about all the different exams. When do you take the MCCEE, and then the MCCQE? What other tests do I need to take and when? Not too many folks have sounded very confident or prepared for the Canadian exams, so I was wondering what books you'd recommend or what practise questions you'd recommend (Kaplan Q book?) to prepare for all these crazy Canadian exams....? So many questions....anyway thanks for any help!

hey mkmgal,

you know... unlike the usmle, there really isn't any good prep book for this exam. i find that very unfortunate. the closest thing that you can buy in order to prepare yourself a little better for the exam is the toronto notes. it's a 500 pages that students and doc from u of T have assembled. it's a pretty good review book but i don't think it helped me much on the exam.
you take the MCCQE part 1 at the end of your medical school. the second part you can take it anytime during residency. so those are the two tests you need plus the boards of your specific specialty. then you should be all set.

the MCCQE sounds hard but let most people pass.
hope that helps.

Thanks for all the advice. One of these days I'll be less ignorant. Anyway, is the MCCQE step 1 similar to the USMLE Step 2? Would I need to review any USMLE Step 1 information (like 1st Aid for Step 1, biochem, anatomy, micro,etc.), or would I be fine reviewing mostly USMLE Step 2 books? Thanks again!

I wrote the MCCQE part 1 a few years ago now, but unless the test hasn't changed the questions are computerized and get more difficult if you're doing well and easier if you're doing poorly such that by the end of the exam everyone has gotten the same number correct. You cannot judge how you did at all (unless your questions at the end are ridiculously easy in which case you probably failed). If you were seeing really challenging questions then you probably did fine.

As for Part II that exam is a joke. The only way i think you could fail is if you didn't speak the english language. When i wrote it the pass mark was 60% yet i didn't meet anyone who scored below 85. The exam is a total money-grab by the MCC and a waste of everyone's time.

I am planning on getting LMCC, so I want to prep for the MCCQE 1&2.
Can anyone provide recommendations on where to start and what to read?
At least for the 1st part..
Thanks:)

When is the best time to write the MCCQ1, summer of third year or the 4th year after graduation?

Hi everyone,

I just took the MCCQE 1 today, and I wanted to share my experience. There's relatively little information online available on the MCCQE in contrast to the USMLEs, so I'd like to add a little for posterity.

I am an IMG with Canadian citizenship, not a Canadian medical student, so my perspective is a little different. I've also taken and passed the USMLE step 1, 2ck and 2cs, and failed step 3 once. I also took the MCCEE last fall. The MCCEE is relatively easy (sorry though if you failed it), so I won't comment much on that here.

In my opinion, MCCQE1 is most similar to the USMLE Step 2CK. The morning session is composed of 196 questions arranged in 7 blocks of 28 questions each. The testing is adaptive, meaning that if you score high in one block, the next block of questions will be slightly harder. If you score poorly, the next block will become slightly easier. If you feel like the exam is getting harder and harder, then that's a good sign. You'll probably get an exceptionally high score. If the exam is getting easier and easier, then, well I feel for you cuz I think thats what I got. I think a good strategy would be to take more time in the first few blocks to try to answer more questions correctly, since the earlier blocks factor more in determining the direction of your score.

The MCCQE has a lot of community health questions, pediatrics, obgyn, family medicine questions. The USMLEs tended to emphasize internal medicine and its subspecialties. It is absolutely essential to obtain a copy of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Canada, by Chandrakant P. Shah. It is a blue paperback available on Amazon, and in most Canadian medical libraries. This is the defacto bible for the community health questions on the MCCQE. Read this cover to cover multiple times as you're preparing for this test. Study the tables of Canadian statistics. Read about aboriginals and seniors in Canada. Occupational health, federal, provincial, municipal regulations. Everything in this book is fair game. I'm serious. 10-20% of the questions on this test will come directly from this book. Toronto Notes summarizes this book, but you still need to read the whole book for the details.

I recommend USMLEworld step2 for the multiple choice questions to review for the MCCQE. The Kaplan video lectures also help. Premier Review is probably a little too specific for the American market, but some of the points there do apply also. Beware those websites trying to sell you MCCQE questions. I think most of them are fake or available online already if you look hard enough for them.

The MCCQE is not a "deep" exam, like Step 1 or Step 2. It doesn't do cross-disciplinary questions like iin step 1 where a single question may draw knowledge from anatomy, biochemistry, patho, and a little of pedia. Rather, each question on the MCCQE comes purely from a single discipline, like pedia, ob, community health, internal med, surgery. This makes it much easier to study for.

Orthopedics and pediatric ortho are important. There's always a couple questions from derma and a couple from optha. There are relatively few illustrations, ecg, or x-rays. The ones that I did get were pretty easy to figure out. The ones in the USMLEs were much more challenging. I had no EKGs or MRI's or CT's on my test. One fetal heart tracing (late decels), a skin lesion, etc. If you've studied for the step 2, you should be prepared for the pictorials in mccqe. I think toronto notes also has some pictorials.

The mccqe test makers try to synthesize uniquely canadian questions whenever possible. This is kind of irritating since IMGs cannot easily obtain canadian clinical experience. But the canadian medical students definitely have an advantage on this test. Just by having been through all their rotations and seen how medicine is practiced here makes it much easier for them to take this test. A lot of them finished an hour before the test was up. About half my test room was empty already by 4:00pm. sigh.

The mccqe had weird psychological questions about what you would do if you were assisting another attending surgeon if he suddenly became frustrated and did something angry or odd. I really didn't know which answer option was the best. The situation would really depend on the personality of the surgeon, the hospital staff, among other things. I wasn't sure what was the common sense answer or what a "Canadian" response would be. If anyone knows how to study for these kinds of questions, please let me know. I think I should have read "Doing Right" more thoroughly or chatted with canadian med students more often. i don't know, man.

The majority of the question stems are short, like two or three sentences at most. This is in sharp contrast to usmle step 1/2 question stems which can fill one to two screens. Unfortunately, short stems do not make the question easier. A lot of time, either you know it or you don't, and there isn't enough given to make an educated guess. In this way, the mccqe seems to reward rote memorization for some questions. If you memorized the toronto notes sections on psychiatry, pediatrics, obgyn, family medicine, orthopedic surgery, and the Shah book on community health (which really isn't that hard to do in a couple months); I believe you could pass the MCCQE based simply on that strength of that rote memorization.

The afternoon of the MCCQE is the CDM or clinical decision making part. Do yourself a favor, surf over to www.mcc.ca (http://www.mcc.ca), and click on the mccqe1/resources/demo. Then click on both the mcq and cdm demo sections multiple times. You will get several questions in an accurate demo presentation of the test.

The CDM portion is not easy, however it is weighted at only 25% of the exam, although it takes four hours to complete (this is where the canadian medical graduates tended to finish in 2.5 to 3 hours. argh.) I believe the strategy for this part is to try to think like a Canadian doctor, not an American one. Only order tests that are necessary for diagnosis. Do not order excessively. Do not order exotic, expensive tests. (e.g. there are few opportunities on the MCCQE to order an MRI, whereas I remember ordering and evaluating them frequently on the USMLEs).

Supposedly, if you have too many unnecessary entries on the CDM, you may get a score of zero for that question, but if you have too few entries, you may still get partial points. So be stingy and be smart. Read the question carefully and try to read between the lines. The case scenarios are relatively short, but the answer options are many. Most of the options can be intelligently eliminated and you can just guess which of the remaining options are most likely to score you partial credit. I think aiming for full credit is difficult for IMGs because we don't generally have canadian clinical experience and these questions are borne out of the canadian experience of medicine. I think the canadian test makers are really proud of this section of the exam because it is so distinctive from the USMLEs and nearly every other computerized medical board exam on the planet.

btw, an odd insight: some of the questions seemed to me as if they were written first in French and then translated into English. Something about the sentence construction and the wording just made it seem slightly awkward in English. Given the imposing presence of french-speaking doctors on the medical council of Canada, this is not unexpected. But I sort of felt from the questions like that they had a different view of medicine than what we get from studying English medical books. I'm not sure how medical education is accomplished in the french speaking world, but I imagine that they probably look down with disdain at the American-centric medical tomes written in english and have their own far superior french texts for internal medicine and surgery which were probably written two centuries before the english versions ever came into existence. I never imagined that I would have to resort to studying french medical books for the canadian medical licensing exam, but it seems like it might offer a slight advantage.

The time management portion of the mccqe is significantly different from usmle. Basically you get 3.5 hours in the morning for the 196 questions. You can split it anyway you like. Its best to follow the recommendations and allot about 1 minute per question and 30minutes per section. Bathroom breaks are counted within the 3.5 hours. There is no "break screen" like on the usmles, you kinda just raise your hand and leave your computer with all your questions and answers available for everyone to see. A proctor goes to the bathroom with you. Its kind of weird. The USMLE system is much more formal and professional.

I liked the mccqe computer exam system better though. All 28 questions are presented on one screen and you just scroll down. It felt more like a paper exam, and more efficient to write. It also has a "time management" button on the side that tells you if you're doing the questions too slowly or at the right speed or too quickly. Pretty cute.

ok, thats a heckuva lot more info about the exam than I ever got. Hope it helps somebody out there.

good luck!

VictorAU THANK YOU SO MUCH! that was VERY helpful!

I am doing it on Wednesday and although I have a great residency lined up in the US, I wanted to do my Canadian boards just incase I am ever going to come back here whenever... yeah I prefer the USMLE type of questions... I just did the MCCQE demo and the case questions are tough!

What score do u need to pass the exam?

thanks again!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to add some insight as I just finished the exam. There are two parts, first part very similar to the USMLE II CK (but question stems are shorter), there are 7 blocks with roughly 28-30 Q's each, you don't get a break once you start. I was able to finish the first block in about 3 hours (I think you get 3.5 hrs total...). The second part is more tricky, you get a case and have to check off which tests you would order. I am not sure how it is scored, but am hoping that if u get a something wrong, what you have right will make up for it.... and you won't get a complete zero for a partially correct answer... that beign said, i was very prudent in my choices and often chose only the tests that I knew I would definetly order and left out the ones I was unsure about.... first part is worth 75% second 25%....

Its not an easy test, but I thought it was definetly fair.... that being said... hope I passed...

oh for studying I used Step II CK USMLE First AID and USMLE world questions.. helps for first part of test.... I'm not sure how to study for the second part... or the ethics questions...

good luck...
Ocean11

I just took the MCCQE1 recently too. Overall it was a rather difficult test. The multiple choice were kinda similar to USMLE 2 ck, the canadian specific questions were really wierd, alot seemed to have 2 answers. I took a bit of time and read the blue puplic health book by Shah, it may have helped on a few questions. The second part was really hard. They gave really vague scenarious and asked what interventions/tests should be ordered. I tried to be really conservative, and not get any zeros for going over. Im doing residency in canada, but Im really not sure of the consequences of failing. Lets hope I dont find out!

There are no consequences of failing the test for residency.

noncestvrai

Yeah, for Canadian Students, we can still graduate and start residency. But you need to pass mccqe parts 1 and 2 to be certified and put into the Royal College's registry.

I wrote the test last week and here's my 2 cents.
I'd agree that its no joke, but certainly doable. USMLEworld and Kaplan qbook questions were good practice.
I skipped the Public Health book (Shah) and SO SHOULD YOU!...its a pretty brutal read. I would suggest to read Toronto Notes ethics and public health sections. Check out the statistics canada website and see what the top causes for mortality are for each age group in Canada. For ethics, find out what to do with psyc patients...most of the ethics questions i wasnt sure about had to do with schizophrenic patients taking their meds (are they competent or not). Other ethical questions I found to be quite straightforward.

I really can't stress enough that if you have toronto notes, read through as many sections as you can. I found the Family Med section extremely high yield for my exam. Oh, and find out what criteria there are for organ donation (how do they prep the body for the harvesting)...those seemed to be all over my exam. Apparently the CMAJ website has some ethics stuff. Or you can go check out the booking Doing right by Hebert...it might help and its supposedly a quick read.

The questions of freewebs.com (10,000 questions +) I found were NOT representative of the exam. I wasted a lot of time trying to remember McArdles syndrome and all this other crazy stuff...turned out none of that stuff was on the exam at all!

The multiple choice section is worth 75%, so study for that...by doing usmleworld! Remember that this test is divided equally into 6 sections, so dont blow all your study time on internal!

Best of luck!:)

you can't compared QE part 1 to USMLE step 1. There is no basic science on QE part 1.

agree that the passages are really short. It is really rote memorization. You either know it or you don't.

Buy Toronto Notes. Read very carefully on internal medicine, family medicine, peds, psych and TRAUMA! (skip most of the subspecialities if you don't have time. common diseases are commonly tested on this exam. use your common sense to guide your studying).

Definitely do the practice cases on MCC website. Be discipline. Go back and try to choose different choices until you get full credits. Sometimes when you order too many unnecessary tests, you get half or even no credits! Every time that you are done, you are logged out. So it is really annoying to log back in just to test out different COMBINATIONS of choices on that website. But do it. you need to know the examiner's mentality. The correct anwser might be "no test is necessary."

Go over some potential cases in your mind. For example, common emergencies such as treating acute MI, P.E., acute renal failure, asthma attacks, etc. have high probabilities of showing up. Read Toronto Notes and understand how to do dx and manage those situations. For the sake of your sanity, don't go over zebra's too much.

Yeah, the free questions on http://www.freewebs.com/mccqe/ don't really conform to the real exam. However, I was going to Banff the two days before I took the test (not by choice, I was bumped off my first choice testing center and was forced to take it in Edmonton) and those questions were easy for my girlfriend to test me while I was driving.

I thought that I failed the afternoon cases. They were so difficult. I ended up passing it. Don't worry. They pass most of the people taking it. Just because it seems difficult doesn't mean that they have high cut-off passing scores. Otherwise, there would be no doctors in Canada :laugh:

By the way, I really hate MCC. They are rude and obnoxious. Any little mistake you make in the registering process, they will hit you with $60 "administrative fee" and several hundreds of dollars if you even dare to postpone or sign up past deadline. And once you sign up for QE part 2 online, they make you mail in the printed form WITHIN ten days (in other words, they recommend all of us to do overnight/guarantee delivery). Whoever does that?

Does anyone know how to interpret the score you receive? Mean, SD, percentiles?