STEP 4: MCCQE1 Exam

 

This should really be Step 3a as you will likely write your MCCQE1 exam while some of your source verification is going through. You can sign up for the MCCQE1 exam after you have had your photo ID and medical diploma source verified. In order to sign up for the exam, you will need to apply which you can do through the physiciansapply portal. You can then select an examination date through their proctoring site prometric (all instructions on how to register for an exam will be provided to you once your application is accepted- by memory the application was accepted the same day I submitted it). The cost to write the MCCQE1 was $1,330CAD.


I didn't want to get into too much detail about the MCCQE1 because so many people have written about it, but I'll briefly touch on my experience. I had written and successfully passed the AKT and KFP in Feb 2021. By the time I was applying for the MCCQE1, it was November 2021, and I wrote the exam in Feb 2022. I found that the FRACGP examinations prepared me well for the MCCQE1 examinations and I did not feel the need to subscribe to any courses to help me. I did however, subscribed to a couple question banks and used the MCC practice questions and exams which you can pay for separately.

The MCCQE1 comprises 210 multiple choice questions and 38 Clinical Decision Making (CDM) cases. Most people apparently struggle with the CDM section which provides you with a scenario and there are followup questions to that case. It was very much like the KFP and if you were successful with the KFP you likely will be just fine with the CDM.

I ultimately used two exam banks, the CanadaQbank (EXCLUSIVELY FOR ETHICS), and aceQbank. From what I read online, most people just choose one, and it's usually uworld (i.e not the ones I chose).

I found the content in the CanadaQbank pretty useless except for the ethics stuff and their representation of the CDM exam was different compared to the actual exam in my opinion. I found the content here was either way too specific (i.e. chemo induction regimens for certain cancers i've never heard of) or way too easy. Their content for ethical stuff was quite solid and useful. Subscribing to CanadaQBank for 3 months set me back $205 CAD

I chose Aceqbank because when I did the trial for uworld (which was recommended by most people), the units weren't in metric and I couldn't be bothered trying to convert the units. I'm not entirely sure if they offer metric units (someone can correct me here). The interface for aceqbank was a bit annoying; when you did a practice exam you couldn't skip questions and come back to them. The content was fairly okay and decently representative of what was on the exam. This cost me $289 CAD

I did end up forking up a good deal of money for the MCC practice questions (1x CDM question bank, 3x MCQ question bank, 2x practice exams). I would recommend buying the practice MCQ and practice exams. I personally bought one CDM practice exam and while they offer 18 "cases" it was more like 18 questions which I finished in 30 minutes (wasn't worth it for me). As stated previously, I had recently completed my FRACGP exam the year prior and found the CDM to be similar to the KFP. Total amount paid for practice questions $1,325 CAD.

Total cost for this step $3,149 CAD


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