RDoC has been informed by our members that exam capacity has been reached for Canadian graduate first‐time takers of the fall 2015 Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Part II in English.
RDoC is committed to collaborating with the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) to mitigate the negative impacts on our members. We recently communicated our concerns regarding the introduction of capacity limits to the Postgraduate Deans and the MCC, and these discussions are ongoing as we work to support our members. We are grateful to our provincial housestaff organizations (PHOs) as they gather feedback from affected residents and also communicate our advocacy efforts to residents across Canada.
In moving forward, it is imperative that the MCCQE II process and administration issues not unduly disadvantage examination candidates. To safeguard both the validation of the examination and optimization of resident doctors’ training and educational experience, we strongly recommended the following principles:
- Resident examination preferences should be respected where possible.
- Residents should be able to take the examination during the examination period of their choosing, and prior to their specialty examination.
- Given that the delay of taking the MCCQE II to Spring 2016 may especially disadvantage whose specialty groups that have limited options to take the MCCQE II prior to their certification exam, such as Family Medicine, prioritization of candidates eligible for taking the examination should be considered. Those specialty groups so affected should be given priority to write the MCCQE II in the Fall sitting so they are not doing two exams in a short space of time, and have the opportunity to rewrite the exam in the Spring in the event of a failure.
- The MCCQE II Spring exam dates and the CFPC certification exam dates must not conflict.
- The MCC has set the caps proportionally, based on historical candidate volumes. These caps must be reviewed and adjusted accordingly after the Fall 2015 exam session.
- The MCCQE II eligibility criteria should be re‐evaluated, particularly the possibility of allowing candidates to challenge the examination earlier during their residency training. The requirement for one year of postgraduate training is arbitrary, and allowing residents to write the examination earlier than the fall of PGY2 may mitigate capacity issues.
We will continue to work with the MCC, the Postgraduate Deans, and our provincial counterparts to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. The MCC has informed us that candidates are able to request to be added to a pre‐registration list, and those on this list will be provided the option of registering for the Spring 2016 MCCQE Part II before general registration opens.
For candidate information please visit the MCC website.