I have written all four exams, I think MCCEE is not going to be administered anymore, so it will be Mccqe 1, Nac Osce and Mccqe2. There have been so many questions, confusion in newly immigrated IMGs about preparation, books, resources, experience that I feel like I should write about my experience and give you an honest insight into the process. A little bit of background on my clinical experience is that I am a much sought after doctor in Pakistan for NICU and Paediatrics, now IM.
For all of you who are thinking of moving to Canada and leaving clinical practice think again, you might want to prepare for exams and write them over there while keeping your currency of practice. If you loose that you loose it all. My friends have become professors and I could have been head of the department by now with research papers published, when I immigrated I was at the prime of my career. I do not have any regrets though, it is beautiful over here, family life is good with resources available.
So lets get into my experience of exam preparation and actual exams.
This exam is not only about your knowledge but it is also about how fast thinker you are, once you go down this road, it will change you and your life. Being a doctor myself I knew that I have to integrate physical fitness and healthy diet to be able to actually work for a longer period of time.
PREPARATION: It might be better to write all the Usmles first but if you cannot then at least study from Kaplan step 2 ck, step 3, Step 3 CS, make a time table, be highly organized and self motivated, go to library if you have to, have a skype study friend or in person is better, I was living in a small city so it was a challenge to come to Toronto for a month or less for Dr. Basel’s Nac Osce course, I had to live with teenagers in a girl’s hostel, lol couldn’t take it after 3 days moved to another place. Anyhow the point here is that it will require a lot of sacrifices, persistency, family support, finances and huge self motivation. Usmle world mcqs, Canada q bank. I would rank Usmle world higher. There are short videos from Canada q bank on youtube that you can watch on common topics. What Kaplan gave to me was thought process and mental sharpness. I was able to time my mcqs in 60 sec as i remember, it is a very important part of mccqe 1. By the way CDM is a big one, it pulls your percentage down. Watch out for negative marking there? unsure but maybe it is there. For CDM find some Canadian resources, Toronto notes is your bible but please do not read unnecessary topics. Also very important factor is understanding the scoring, if you get this right you get them all right. read carefully the five components, you should allocate equal time to all like Paediatrics, Obstetrics, Internal Medicine, Ethics, Psychiatry, and they have a new component now, i think there is more concentration on health promotion and preventive care now. Keep yourself up-to date by doing regular CMEs. Write Nac Osce first then MCCQE 1 and 2. As Dr. Conrad Fischer once said that if it is not hurting then you are not preparing well, and you are not here to just pass you are here to …rest all Dr. Conrad Fisher’s fans know lol…try to get a score of 80 plus in Nac Osce and if you are not getting 80-90 percent on Usmle world then you don’t write the exam until you do. The key here is to master it, pass with flying colours, you are a hero or zero in this exam there is no place for in between or average…
I feel like you never know if there is some authority person who could be reading this post so I would like to take this opportunity to request genuinely on behalf of all well qualified IMGs to get a clinical practice experience in Canada as an attachment not elective not Observer-ship, and also kindly rethink about CDM portion on Mccqe 1, or publish something on it. We Imgs are highly skilled and intellectual professionals and we can be a great task force in health promotion, one should be able to work as a Resident Medical Officer in Canada after passing these exams like in Uk, Ireland, UAE, Australia and Newzealand. That’s all from me today freinds