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MCCQE Part 2

MCCQE Examination

The MCCQE (Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination) evaluates doctors trained outside of Canada that would like to practice in the country. The MCC (Medical Council of Canada) uses this exam to check their level of clinical competence, knowledge, and judgment in actual clinical scenarios. It also checks how they apply this knowledge in patient-centered care.

MCCQE is divided into two parts – MCCQE part 1 and MCCQE part 2. However, in this article, we’ll focus on MCCQE part 2, which, unlike MCCQE part 1, isn’t computer-based. It usually is taken after you pass the MCCQE 1. The last step to becoming a licensed practitioner is the MCCQE 2.

In MCCQE 2, you will be assessed by the examiner based on your actions in simulated clinical situations. They will check your knowledge, composure, and clinical judgment in the various relevant fields.

Scheduling and Application Process

MCCQE Part 2 exam occurs twice a year, in May and October. To write this exam, you must fulfill the following requirements:

  • You must have passed the MCCQE Part I
  • For foreigners, your medical degree must have been verified by the Canadian authorities.
  • For Canadian graduates, your confirmation of graduation will be received directly from the Canadian faculties of medicine.
  • You must have finished 12 months of postgraduate clinical medical training (PGT) or osteopathic postgraduate training. This should have been completed –
    • On or before June 30 for the May exam of the same calendar year
    • On or before December 31 for the October exam of the same calendar year

The requirements above imply that you must have finished your residential training before taking the exam, unlike MCCQE 1, which is done before the training.

Applying for MCCQE Part 2

If you meet all the requirements above, the next thing to do is start applying. Add your name to a pre-application list through your physiciansapply.ca account.

After this, you are invited to write the exam. The email sent to you tells you to choose three test centers. This is done in order of preference. The MCC will try as much as possible to assign you to your preferred test center. Hence, choose the most convenient centers for you.

Before the examination day, you will get an Entrance card,  Candidate Confidentiality Agreement, and Code of Conduct form through an Exam Package in your physicansapply.ca account. Print the entrance card, complete the forms, and take them. Submit the forms in the exam hall.

You will be provided with two things when you get to the exam hall.

  • Candidate Notebook
  • Candidate Identifications Number

The notebook is used to jot all the important information about the station, like the patient, the problem presented, and perhaps your evaluation or thoughts on the situation. The Candidate ID will be used for identification and must be worn at all times during the exam.

What is the Exam Format?

The exam has an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) format in each station. The examiner evaluates the following:

  • how you take the history.
  • How much do you know about the physical examination?
  • How do you use previous knowledge to manage a patient?
  • How do you counsel a patient or family?
  • How do you answer oral questions?
  • Your interaction with physicians, and
  • your knowledge of charts and test results.

Your composure and confidence will also be evaluated. When you are done with the station, you are expected to wait till you are instructed to leave.

The ID badge given to you at the beginning will indicate your first station. If your first station is #6, continue tostations#7, #8, #9, etc.

OSCE Stations

You will be presented with up to 10 clinical scenarios in the stations. You will have to complete 12 stations. However, 2 of these are wait stations that do not contribute to your final score.

There are two categories of stations in the MCCQE Part 2

  • 14-minute stations
  • 6-minute paired stations.

14- minute station

There are eight 14-minute stations. Seven of which will count towards your final score. The 8th station is a wait station. These stations will consist of encounters with “standardized participants” such as physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. You will be evaluated and scored in almost all stations based on your interaction with the standardized participants.

Before you enter 7 of the stations, you will be allowed to read the instructions for 2 minutes. After two minutes, a signal will be given, and you enter the room. You will have 14 minutes inside the room—a warning signal at the 13-minute mark. After the final signal, you must leave the room and go to the next station based on your ID number.

6-minute paired stations

There are four stations under this, one of which is a wait station that will not count towards your final score. The first component of this part is the encounter component. In this, you will meet standardized participants and be scored based on your interaction with them. The examiner will be a physician or a highly trained non-physician.

The other component of these stations is the non-encounter component.  It consists of a reading task or responding to one or more extended match questions. You may be asked to answer comprehensive match questions. Read the questions carefully before you answer. Do not fill in more than required in the question and wait until the official start signal before writing on the sheet. If you fail to do all these, the examiners will assume that you do not follow regulations. This will affect your score.

You will be given two minutes to read the instructions posted by the door before the encounter and non-encounter components. After two minutes, the signal will sound for you to enter the room. You will have six minutes in the room. A warning signal will ring at the five-minute mark, and a final signal will sound at the end of the station. After the last signal, you must leave the room and go to the next station. You will have two minutes to get to the next station and read its instructions. Pay attention to the verbs in the task – these will indicate what kind of actions you will need to perform in that station.

How Is MCCQE 2 Scored?

The MCC forms a committee that sets the baseline for passing the MCCQE 2. When the committee decides, they send their recommendations to the Central Examination Committee, which reviews it, after which the pass mark is agreed upon.

MCC will not show you your score. You will get an email indicating that you passed or failed.

Preparing for Your MCCQE Part 2

CanadaQBank has excellent preparatory material with some of the very best, classic, simulated MCCQE Part 2 cases. It also has 6-minute paired station prep cases and 14-minute encounter station prep cases. All answers contain a detailed explanation of all questions. There is 24/7 availability, and this package had a bonus USMLE Step 2 CS cases included.

Our plan also covers Medicine, Paediatrics, OBGYN, Surgery, Psychiatry, and Preventive Medicine.

Let CanadaQBank help you on your journey to becoming a certified doctor in Canada! To take advantage of our services, click here.

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MCCQE 1 Exam – 5 Tips for Preparation

The MCCQE (Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination) is an exam that assesses doctors trained outside of Canada but would like to practice in the country.

The MCC (Medical Council of Canada) uses this exam to check their level of clinical competence, knowledge, and judgment in actual clinical scenarios. The MCCQE has two parts- MCCQE 1 and MCCQE 2. However, we will only focus on MCCQE 1 in this article.

The MCCQE 1 has two sections: the MCQ and the CDM sections. The MCQ section has 210 questions and takes about 4 hours, after which there is a scheduled break for 45 minutes before the CDM section starts.

The CDM section is short for Clinical Decision Making.  It takes three and a half hours and comprises 38 cases with 1-4 questions each and specific instructions for each case. The passing score for the MCCQE 1 is 226.

Now that we have a general overview of the exam, what are the best tips and practices for MCCQE 1?

The MCCQE 1 is more than a test of factual knowledge. You must understand the intricacies of the test itself and be equipped with the right evidence-based clinical practices to ace this exam. Here are five tips to help you prepare for the exam very well.

1. Use proper resources

Using the right resources to prepare for the exams could potentially be what could push you over the finish line. Thus, to prepare for the MCCQE 1 exam make sure you use a board review book that works for you. These board review books help summarize the key concepts and objectives of the MCC to provide an efficient and easy way to digest all that you are required to know to pass your exam. You could then augment these board review books with textbooks to get more information. Remember to avoid using only textbooks as this could cause an overload of information making you lose what you need.

Furthermore, in choosing board review books always make sure to use one that works well for you. It would be foolhardy to use a book just because it is the best-reviewed on the internet. Thus, it is important to check the teaching style of each one, and you can do this by asking people who wrote the exams which ones they used.

2. Focus on those MCC objectives that you are not familiar with.

The MCCQE1 exam is based on the MCC guidelines. These guidelines are divided into different objectives, and some objectives may be harder to understand than others. So, it would be best to focus more on those objectives that are harder for you. This is to make sure you are not lacking in any area.

One of the ways to do this is to make sure you study them as often as you can because repetition enhances your memory. To ace this exam, you have to be as diligent and consistent as possible, so everything you need to know is just there, right at your fingertips.

3. Know the critical thresholds for the MCCQE 1

Many of the questions you will come across will be based on choosing the best possible answer for a treatment based on a given critical threshold value, e.g., ‘Mr. X has an apparent limb length discrepancy of Y cm; what could be the possible cause based on the history taken?’. To answer such questions, you will have to have the critical threshold value at your fingertips to choose the best possible action.

In many scenarios, you will be asked to choose the best patient management practices or routines based on the critical threshold values. If you have a good grasp of all these values, these questions will be a breeze.

These critical threshold values can sometimes slip your mind, so you should review them repeatedly to get familiar with them.

CanadaQBank can help you prepare with our simulated MCQ that mimics the exam situation.

4. Make Summary Notes

It is not just enough to read and understand. You should also make your study sessions as active as you can. You can do this by making summary notes of important points as you study to engage your mind. You do this to keep remembering the key points and digest information in such a way that you understand. The important thing is to make the information your own and not just read it repeatedly. When you do this, you attach a memory or an emotion to the information you process.

5. Use images to learn

Medicine is a visual and practical science, so media such as diagrams and graphics cannot be overemphasized. During the exam, you will see several clinical images and radiographs and will have to answer questions based on them. The MCC understands how central the use of visuals is for diagnosis and patient-centered management.

On CanadaQBank, there are many images to bring these clinical scenarios to life and help you prepare for the MCQ and CDM questions. We will also give you enough detailed information on these images so that when you are writing the exam, you will be able to answer any question with diagrams easily.

So, let’s run through all our tips

  • Use proper resources
  • Emphasize objectives you are not familiar with
  • Have the critical thresholds values on your fingertips
  • Make summaries of notes
  • Use images to learn

Do you need help with your preparation? Visit our website on CanadaQBank for more information and tips on accessing our question bank.

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What’s Included in CanadaQBank’s MCCQE Part 2 Question Bank?

With so many study tools available to students who are planning to take the MCCQE Part 2 exam, it can be difficult to choose the right software. CanadaQBank provides a complete online question bank that makes it easy for you to study in a true-to-life environment, wherever you may be. Here’s what you’ll get when you subscribe.

Numerous Cases

The MCCQE Part 2 is based on unique cases in which you’ll provide diagnoses, treatments, and medical advice for simulated illnesses and injuries. CanadaQBank provides 153 of the best MCCQE Part 2 cases, 74 Couplet Station cases, and 79 10-minute cases, all of which make up the second part of the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination. This diverse selection of cases provides a very broad range of simulations, which allows you to put your knowledge to the test. Studying the cases frequently can improve your performance and knowledge retention when your test day arrives.

True-to-Life Preparation

Aside from simply providing cases which simulate those frequently found in the MCCQE Part 2, you’ll also receive lists and helpful tips. For example, the five-minute clinical encounters and 10-minute station cases come with lists of questions that you’ll need to ask while you’re taking a medical history, and they also list the things you should check during your examination. You’ll also have access to the questions your examiner is likely to ask during each case, which can help you prepare for these questions and others. All of this is presented to you in a true-to-life simulation, which can help you feel more at ease when your testing date arrives.

Constant Updates

Unlike many other software providers that may update their cases and questions only once per year, CanadaQBank is quite vigilant in ensuring that their cases and questions are kept up-to-date. For this reason, CanadaQBank’s software updates frequently; you’ll never be without a piece of information that may be crucial to passing your examination. Everything is revised frequently, too, which means you’ll be able to view expert feedback from the most recent MCCQE Part 2 examinations.

Pricing to Fit Your Budget

CanadaQBank allows students to choose subscription lengths that best fit their unique budgets. There are options for one, two, three, six, nine, and 12-month subscriptions, and a year-long subscription to CanadaQBank costs less than a single new medical textbook, making it a great value. Students who purchase an MMCQE Part 2 subscription will also receive 41 bonus USMLE Step 2 CS cases, and CanadaQBank is so confident that you’ll pass your examination the first time you take it, they’ll give you a free three-month subscription if you don’t.

Thousands of doctors in Canada have used CanadaQBank to study and prepare for the most challenging and rigorous examinations of their lives. The company is constantly reviewing and expanding its software to provide students with the most true-to-life and helpful scenarios, cases, and encounters possible. These things will allow you to arrive for your examination feeling confident in your knowledge, which is one of the biggest factors in passing.