r/MCCQE

Hi everyone! I’m planning to take the FMProC soon and was wondering how people prepared for it.

For those who have written it, how much time did you spend studying, and what resources did you find most helpful? Is there anything specific you wish you had focused on more before the exam?

I’ve heard it’s not really an exam you can “study” for in the traditional sense, so I’d especially appreciate advice on how to approach the situational judgement/professionalism-style questions and what kind of practice is actually worthwhile.

Any tips or resources would be really appreciated — thank you!

Je suis un médecin étranger qui vient d’arriver
Je vue beaucoup de resources et beaucoup de banques de Qcm et vraiment je suis perturbé et j’ai deja fixe une date la moi de février
Quelqu’un peut m’aider svp
Je veux votre expérience

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to take the MCCQE1 on in Jan-Feb window, and I’d really appreciate some feedback on my current study plan, especially from people who have taken the exam recently

My background is IMG, and I’ve already completed USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, so I have a decent clinical foundation. My main concern is adapting to the Canadian style of questioning, especially ethics, public health, screening, and the areas that differ from US guidelines.

My current plan is:

- Use Ace QBank as my main QBank

- Aim for around 60–80 questions/day, usually in two blocks

- Study system by system initially, then switch to mixed blocks later

- Review incorrect questions carefully rather than just trying to finish the bank

- Focus especially on the high-l yield internal medicine topics, but also make sure I cover psychiatry, pediatrics, OB/GYN, surgery, etc.

- Use the MCC Objectives to make sure I’m not missing major topics

- For ethics/professionalism, use Ace + CMPA, and review the CMA Code of Ethics/MCC objectives

- For screening/preventive medicine, prioritize Canadian recommendations, particularly CTFPHC where relevant

- Do the official MCC practice exams/products closer to the exam date

I’m currently trying not to overload myself with resources. I’ve seen people mention CanadaQBank, Toronto Notes, AMBOSS, UWorld, Essentials for the Canadian Medical Licensing Exam, etc., but I don’t want to spend months jumping between resources if Ace + targeted references are enough.

A few things I’d specifically love feedback on:

1. Is Ace QBank enough as the main QBank, assuming I review it properly?

2. Is CanadaQBank worth adding, or would it mostly be redundant?

3. Is there any particularly good resource for public health/epidemiology/Canadian healthcare system questions?

4. For ethics, is Ace + CMPA + MCC/CMA material sufficient?

5. How early would you recommend starting the official MCC practice exams?

6. Are there any topics that were disproportionately important on your actual MCCQE1 that you wish you had studied more?

7. For people who had previously done USMLEs, what was the biggest adjustment you had to make for the MCCQE1?

I’m trying to keep the preparation efficient rather than collecting 15 resources and eventually learning the table of contents of all of them.

Any advice from recent test takers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

How I passed the MCCQE Part 1 (score: 460)
So many of you have been asking how I did it, so here's my honest breakdown.
Timeline: I started studying on June 3 and wrote the exam on August 27. That's about 12 weeks, while working full-time.
Study hours: About 5 hours on most days, and up to 8 hours as the exam got closer.
Main resource: CanadaQBank was my backbone. I didn't just do questions and move on. After each block, I noted the topics I felt shaky on and went back to study those for context. That loop of questions, weak spots, then reading, is what moved my score.
Extra practice: I bought additional MCC question banks and uploaded them to Claude, which helped me build more quiz-style questions around the same concepts. That gave me extra practice on tricky, discriminator-style vignettes without repeating the same questions.
The exam itself: The first part felt tougher. After the break, Part 2 felt much easier, so don't panic if you walk out of the first half feeling rattled.
My score: 460. Not a "topper" score, but a good, solid pass, and that's all you need.
My advice:
Pick one main question bank and finish it
Study what you got wrong, not just what you got right
Be consistent: 5 focused hours beats a random 10
Review ethics, public health and biostats. They're easy marks
Rest in the last few days
You can do this too. 💛

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share how I studied for the exam. Hope it helps!

Study timeline - I studied on and off for a year. I had a dedicated period for 2 months but was unable to give the exam in February due to technical issues. After that I took a 4 month break from studying. Another dedicated for 3 months then finally gave the exam in September.

Resources -

Uworld x 2 - 1st time avg was low. 2nd time was higher but didn’t finish ~60% complete

Ace q bank x2 - avg was higher than uworld. Didn’t finish the second pass either ~50% ish complete

MCC tests x 3

1st time - 60-70%
Repeat - 80+
1$ test - 76%

Inner circle notes amended acc to Canadian guidelines.

Strategy - uworld first pass was reading mode. 2nd pass timed mode. For ace q bank I only did timed.

1.5 months leading to the exam I did 115 Q timed on ALTERNATE days. On test days I reviewed incorrect.
Between test days - I would review high yield topics I got wrong from the previous day. And focus on studying weak points (high yield only, not obscure crap)

If I was having trouble with topics / questions that didn’t seem high yield I would let it go. E.g I still don’t know types of RTA. I only got like 1-2 cardio q on the entire exam so I’m glad I didn’t waste time on it.

+ I would just try to familiarise myself with MCC style of questions.

They want you to know the best next step, the safest step. When to go straight to empiric management, when to prefer diagnostic tests. Mostly what you would do as a safe Canadian family physician.

What made a difference?
I genuinely think it’s 60% how you study and 40% your state of mind on test day + intuition figuring out what option MCC would like best. Might even be the opposite ratio actually.

Last 3 days of the exam - reduced studying to 3 hours a day and just tried to relax. Decided to review only - derma, obgyn, psych, ethics, stats equations.

Got my QE1 result yesterday and scored a 483. I found Reddit pretty helpful when I was preparing, especially because it was hard to figure out what resources were actually worth using, so I thought I’d do a quick write-up.

Background:
CSA studying medicine in the UK. I had already written Step 1 and Step 2 before QE1, so I definitely had a pretty solid medicine base going into it.

Prep:
I mainly used ACE Qbank. I ended up doing all of the bank and was usually scoring somewhere in the high 70s to low 80s. I also did the MCC practice exams closer to the actual exam.

My MCC practice scores were around 81 to 85%.

Towards the end, I focused a lot more on the Canadian-specific stuff rather than trying to relearn medicine. Screening guidelines, ethics, public health, preventive care, consent/capacity, and the random Canadian guideline differences were probably the highest yield things to review.

I tried QbankMD briefly as well in the last two weeks and it was actually pretty helpful and got me some points on the exam, but ACE was definitely my main qbank.

Exam day:
Honestly walked out having no idea how I did. There were definitely some weird questions and quite a few where I was between two answers. I also remembered a bunch of questions afterwards that I knew I had gotten wrong, so I wouldn’t put too much weight on how you feel coming out of it.

Result: 483

Biggest advice:

If you already have a strong clinical knowledge base, I don’t think you need to go crazy with resources. Get used to the MCC style, know the Canadian screening/prevention guidelines, and spend time on ethics. The MCC practice material was probably the most useful thing for understanding how they actually ask questions.

Also, don’t panic if the real exam feels harder or weirder than the practice exams. I definitely did not walk out thinking I had scored anywhere near this.

Happy to answer any questions about the exam/prep!

Just want to say thanks to this community for sharing tips and tricks for the exam. I was sitting for the exam as part of qualifying for the PER pathway.

I just want to share this so that the very very old IMGs know that this is possible.

The challenge for me is that most things I know are outdated. There are new drugs, new management, new terms, and on top of that ethics are something else. Although I am a specialist back in my home country, I was a pathologist, and relearning all the stuff initially was overwhelming.

1. I only used Canada QBank and I used it well. I completed all questions for two rounds: first for learning things the first time, and second round for recognizing which topics I keep making the same mistakes. In retrospect I would have used AceQBank and MCC tests too but I did not have the time.

2. I took two months off my full time work to study — my previous job was so intense that I was too tired mentally to study at home. If you work as you study, I suggest studying regularly every day for one year.

3. I only studied Toronto Notes for ethics and public health. Otherwise I used it to refer to questions I got wrong for the QBank.

4. I used ChatGPT for making me questions for ethics and statistics.

All the best everyone!

Hello, got done with the beast today.

Prometric centre: I gave the exam in Buffalo. The centre staff was great, good experience. Get there atleast 15mins before your start time.

Exam feelings/tips - take it with a grain of salt since I havent passed yet lol

1. Study based on presentation - for example 3rd trimester bleed. Know all causes, n what makes them different. How to rule out each of them if minimum symptoms are given. Plus how to rule in the diagnosis if history clues (risk factors) etc are given.

This is my main takeaway from mcc sample tests + the exam. It will be vague unless you know each option well and rule them out. Practice doing this.

2. Read the qs carefully. Best next step, diagnostic step, appropriate, immediate - these are clues.

3. Read all ethics questions well. Re-read. Some of them are based on cmpa rules. But a lot of them can be understood just by reading n interpreting them correctly. Learn to work through them when you practice before clicking answer ask yourself what they might be testing.

4. Focus on the topics mcc sample test goes over. The same thing wont show up but its a pattern. For eg they love benign vs malignancy - for each cancer esp obgyn, skin, GI, GU know what points you to rule out malignancy n what clue reassures and doesnt need extra tests.

5. Practice doing 120qs in a go. Dont always wait to do qbanks with a fresh mind, practicing powering through when youre tired coz you will get tired.

I used ace and mcc n felt the qs were similar. Definitely trickier but the pattern was similar to both. Do ethics from canada q bank too.

Goodluck - need prayers to have passed with a great score x

I’m planning to prepare for the MCCQE1 and would appreciate some advice, especially from people who have taken the exam recently.
I’m an international medical graduate ( Canadian) who graduated in 2017. I haven’t studied medicine seriously in quite a long time, so I consider myself a beginner when it comes to preparing for this exam.
I currently have around 4 months without work, which would allow me to dedicate most of my time to studying. There is a possibility that a job opportunity might come up during this period, but nothing is confirmed, so I want to make the most of the time I have available.

I have a few questions:
-Is 4 months of dedicated study a reasonable amount of time to prepare for MCCQE1, considering that I’m an old graduate and haven’t studied in years?
-For study resources, I’m planning to use UWorld, ACE QBank, CanadaQBank, the MCC practice tests, and Toronto Notes. My intention is to focus mainly on practice questions and refer to Toronto Notes alongside them rather than reading the entire book from cover to cover. Would these resources be sufficient?
Since I’m starting almost from scratch, should I also use Boards and Beyond videos to rebuild my basic medical knowledge, or would that be unnecessary for MCCQE1 preparation?
For anyone who was in a similar situation—an old graduate who had been away from studying for several years—what study strategy worked for you?
I’d appreciate honest advice, particularly from people who prepared after a long gap from medical school. Thank you!

Anyone in vancouver area having hard copy of toronto notes 2025 and willing to sell ???

I would like to buy if price is right

I got pdfs but for me reading on ipad is difficult
And buying a whole new set is like 250 CAD

So worth giving a shot on this sub if someone is willing to sell

This is what Ontario FM programs say.

“Approximately 600-700 candidates with top scores in the NAC and MCCQE1 will be invited for interviews.”

What are considered top scores? Eg roughly 1 SD above pass in NAC and MCCQE okay?

Would appreciate some insight if anyone knows anything.

I am presently doing Uworld and will take the QE in January. What are the must do high yield topics to cover please ?