Hey guys, my name is Dr. Jeff Sugandi and this video is for those of you who are preparing
for the Canadian MCCQE Step 1. I m going to talk to you about 5 tips on how to prepare
for the test.
Tip number 1: Timeline. How early, or how soon should you start studying for this test?
For myself I studied about 4 weeks in advance before the test and I spent about 4 hours/day
of uninterrupted study time just focused on this test and that amounts to about 120-150
hours total to study. Obviously if you need to get a higher score, or if you have other
activities like work and residencies, make sure that you plan ahead and make sure you
have plenty of time to study. I ll reveal my score at the end of the video in order
for you to gauge whether or not you need to study more than I did. But hopefully this
will give you a reference of some sort.
Number 2: Resources. Now there are so many resources out there. There are 3 resources
that I used. I used Toronto Notes. I used USMLEWorld Qbank for Step 2 CK, as well as
Canada QBank. I ll put the link down in my description. And here is a little bit about
these resources. Remember I had about 4 weeks to prepare and I studied about 3-4 hours per
day so I really didn t have a luxury per se for extra resources. I just focused on those
three. Toronto Notes, I would say is a good resource but not great. Its not like USMLE
Step 1 where you just need to know the info in there and you just expand. Here there is
a lot of information, and it s kinda dry. You might not want to read the whole thing.
So, the focus that I would suggest for everybody to use is the USMLE World Qbank for Step 2
CK. And that is the resource that I primarily used. I just studied the topic in tutor mode
and for every question then I d do the reading from Toronto Notes or from a website or from
UpToDate. So I just studied and tried to get as many questions as possible. I finished
the whole Qbank in that 4 weeks.
Third tip is about the CDM. Clinical Decision Making. As you may know there are about 210
questions of multiple choice and 38 cases of clinical decision making. And its broken
down into about 2 questions each so its roughly about 70 questions for CDM. This is where
the Canada Qbank is going to help. Because I used that to prepare for the CDM. It has
really similar feel to it. It gives you a case and then it gives you the options. So
for example it gives you a case about someone with chest pain, and then it asks what are
the possible 5 diagnosis. So you select 5. The next question probably something like
what what are the tests you d like to order. So you just answer three tests.
Tip number 4: how to familiar yourself with population as well as public health aspect
of the exam. Granted as a US graduate I m not familiar with those. Probably if you are
an IMG you are not familiar either. I d suggest for you to read the public health and ethics
aspect on Toronto Notes as well as these resources online. Actually its one resource online,
my apologies, it s the Association of the Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) Primer
on Population Health. As well as a textbook that you can get on Amazon. It s called The
Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Canada by CP Shah. So I ll put the links of those
two down below.
And last but not least: tip number 5. I would recommend as the last thing to tie it all
together. You need to get the practice test that is sold from the MCC Website. There are
several options out there. I m a little cheap, so I didn t elect to do the full preparatory
length test material which consists of 210 multiple choice and 38 of CDM questions. So
that s exactly like the real test. I picked the lite options. Compared to the full length
that is $500 this is like $200. I selected that so that I have a sense of the way the
test is set up. I did that about a week before and I think that I really helped. It made
me realized of what topics I needed to focus more. On the day of the test I walked in and
I walked out without no sense of surprises because I had done a test that is pretty similar
in feel.
Alright now its time for the reveal for the score that I got. I obviously passed. I got
267 for my raw score, that is out of 400 of maximum score I believe. And the passing score
is 226. So in summary tying it all together. Four
months, I m sorry four weeks of 4 hours, roughly 3-4 hours. So roughly 120-150 hours of studying
equal to 267. Using three resources I m happy with what I got and I did everything I could
in that short time period. So my recommendation if you need to aim for higher score, either
do more questions or spend more time probably 2 months, 3 months ahead from the exam.
I hope this topic is useful and make sure you hit the like button and subscribe my channel.
As well as write in the comment below so I know what kind of video to make. Thank you!
Bye bye !