The third wave of COVID-19 has led to more infections and has significantly impacted hospital and physician resources. In discussion with the Internal Medicine (IM) Examination Board and Specialty Committee, we have heard concerns that, due to patient care needs, the availability of examiners may be impacted for the spring applied exam period. Recognizing that examiners are essential for the delivery of this part of the examination, the Royal College has decided to cancel the IM applied exams for 2021 only.
As such, this email is to inform you that that the Spring 2021 Internal Medicine applied/oral exam has been cancelled and certification decisions will be based on the results of the written exam.
The Royal College continues to support the importance of the applied/oral examination for Internal Medicine certification and this component is planned to be part of the exam cycle in spring 2022.
How does this impact you?
No applied exams will be required for the 2021 Spring IM cohort.
All residents who pass the written exam will be immediately eligible for certification on completion of residency. If you did not pass the written exam, you will not be eligible for certification and you will need to register for the IM exam offered next year.
Fees for the applied exam will be refunded shortly. We recognize that the fees are substantial and that you are looking to be reimbursed as quickly as possible. We will expedite your refund of the $2,215 fee within the next 90 days to the card that was used for payment.
April 7 - RC spring exam with evolving provincial lockdowns
As you are all aware, the surges in various provinces have necessitated varying lockdowns to slow the viral spread. Almost all of these measure have been focused on reduction of “non-essential” services. We are aware the varying government announcements have added to the anxiety of trainees in the delivery of their Royal College certification examinations.
To provide clarity for your trainees and programs:
As of right now, hotel exam centres and the services to support our examinations at those centres are deemed “essential” and not affected by current proposed “stay at home” orders. All 17 Canadian hotel exam sites have implemented a cleanliness protocol and we are adhering to local Public Health guidelines. More information can be found on our website, under the tab “What to expect on exam day: FAQs.” We kindly ask that candidates not to congregate prior to registration and following the completion of their exam and to respect local health guidelines.
Royal College spring exams are proceeding as planned, with dates, times and locations previously communicated, and can be found on our website.
Our examinations, both written and applied, are planned for safe delivery to candidates, with each candidate assigned their own individual hotel room.
For applied/oral exams, candidates are interacting virtually through the exam interface. Candidates are not be in the same room as your examiners. More information on applied exams can be found on our website.
Any candidate ordered to an unexpected quarantine/isolation should notify the Royal College through exams2021@royalcollege.ca 48 hours in advance of their exam date for the necessary registration and hardware/software checks for conversion to a remote online exam delivery.
We will continue to monitor this evolving situation, and are committed to communicating promptly with any changes to the above.
Thank-you for your questions- really helped me in my meeting with CPSO.
Hopefully some of the major ones will be answered in this email.
Also CPSO has assured us that if there are specific scenarios that are not addressed- please call/email them and they will walk you through the various processes towards licensure.
If there is still something that you are wondering about and not addressed below- please let me know ( email me directly) and I will find out.
Current residents eligibility for the exemption:
Need to have been eligible for the any of the sittings as of May 2020 onwards (PGY2 or up) even if you did not register or were denied due to capacity- it is just eligibility.
The exemption rule will be applied to residents when you apply for an independent license:
All PGY2 Family medicine once you have taken the CFPC exams this spring.
All Royal College core IM and Pediatrics residents who are currently in their PGY3 or above (with not more than 24 months of training left prior to completion of training/ certification) – can apply for the exemption once you have passed the certification exams and completed training for primary certification – even if the MCCQE2 exam is offered in your last one to two years of training.
Those who are unsuccessful on their certification exam, will still be eligible for the exemption once you have passed the Royal College/CFPC exam, even if the QE2 exam is offered and available.
Residents who have been unsuccessful for the MCCQE2 exam must be reviewed at the registration committee- before the exemption will be applied (no way around that)- the Reg com will review your training, support by PD and you do need RC/CFPC certification.
USMLE exams do not automatically substitute for the MCCQE2 but you are encouraged to call CPSO to discuss your situation.
Lots of news from CPSO and PARO regarding the MCCQE2 exemption policy.
I have not reached out to you until now as honestly all of us have had difficulty knowing who this applies to within our current resident group. And I did not want to send out erroneous information based solely on my interpretation. Lots of back and forth with the PG deans and CPSO-
CPSO Q&A’s about the new exemption are posted on the CPSO website – link below. Please forward any questions you may have ( and I think there will be a few) to me directly- and will bring them forward to CPSO
Nov 13 - Registration deadlines for 2021 exams, FITER not needed
Dear colleagues,
This is to notify you that the Royal College is implementing the following changes:
Change in registration dates
The deadline to register for a spring 2021 Royal College examination is December 4, 2020. The deadline to register for a fall 2021 examination is May 15, 2021. Candidates will not be able to register until we have received their confirmation of completion of training (CCT), followed by the issuance of ruling letters conferring exam eligibility. (If you have not submitted candidates’ CCT for spring 2021 exams, please do so as soon as possible.)
Please ensure that all exam accommodation requests are submitted by the registration deadline.
FITER no longer required
The Final In-Training Evaluation Report (FITER) is no longer required by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to confirm exam eligibility. Previously, the summary attestation portion of the FITER was collected by the Royal College’s Credentials Unit a few months before the administration of exams. As of 2021, this will no longer occur.
A confirmation of completion of training (CCT) and ruling letter will still be required to be eligible to sit Royal College examinations.
Sincerely,
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
As of June 23, 1,879 candidates were scheduled to take the Medical Council of Canada (MCCQE) Part I (321 in test centres, 1,558 using remote proctoring), and 1,746 completed the exam. To date, approximately 526 candidates have raised concerns ranging from difficulty starting their exam on their home laptop, to inability to complete due to technical failures. We are working to resolve these issues as they are raised and assist these candidates individually.
We continue to monitor the MCCQE Part I session closely. We are continually improving the exam experience by actively working with Prometric, specifically, in the following areas:
Proctor compliance and ongoing training
Proctor responsiveness – adding more proctors and implementing system changes to improve the test taker and proctor applications
Technical support responsiveness
System stability – infrastructure changes to improve reliability. There have been no major issues since June 12.
Candidate disconnections – adjusting parameters to provide better application/connectivity resilience and reduce candidate disconnections
Prometric has reported that 84% of candidates to date have required one restart or less. We continue to seek further improvement in this area.
As of June 20, an additional 200 seats were made available in Prometric centres across the country for the remainder of June (June 22 to June 30), 273 seats for July, 127 seats for August and 200 seats for September. As public health restrictions are loosened, we are hopeful that they will be able to offer even more test centre seats, creating additional capacity for appointments for the ongoing session and the next exam session.
Questions have been raised regarding the possibility of adding other facilities known as “burst sites” to build test centre capacity for this exam session. Prometric has used this option in the past, typically during the April exam administration to accommodate the higher volume of candidates at that time. Set up of burst sites is complex, and would require Prometric staff to travel from the US, which is currently highly restricted, as well as the use of locations that have been closed since March due to public health restrictions. These factors contributed significantly to the decision to implement remote proctoring as an option for candidates to be able to take the MCCQE Part I prior to starting residency on July 1. As noted above, every effort is being made to expand test centre capacity.
We have received several candidate requests for refunds of MCCQE Part I application fees. Following the current session of the MCCQE Part I, the MCC Examination team will conduct a full review of all challenging candidate experiences and present those to our Finance Committee in the fall. Refund requests will be considered at that time and the resulting decisions will be communicated to candidates on a case-by-case basis.
Please continue to encourage your candidates to report exam concerns and incidents to the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) through their physiciansapply.ca accounts with the subject line ‘MCCQE Part I – exam issues’. Rest assured that we carefully review every email that is sent through their physicansapply.ca account and their concerns are actioned and escalated as required.
A reminder that candidates are able to make changes to their exam appointment up to 48 hours prior to the date of their exam at no cost, subject to availability. They are also able to switch exam modalities, subject to centre and remote-proctoring availability and to book for the next session of the MCCQE Part I scheduled to take place from October 26 to November 8, 2020. We are hopeful that providing this free service will offer choices to candidates that have escalated stress levels due to the uncertainty of using remote proctoring.
June 19, 2020 – Update on the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Part I
So far, 7,339 candidates have registered to take the MCCQE Part I until February 2021. For the June 1 to Sept 20 session, there are over 5,100 candidates scheduled and 2,800 of those are scheduled in remote proctoring appointments.
As of June 17, over 1,400 candidates have completed the exam with over 80 per cent of them doing so using remote proctoring. A further 700 candidates are scheduled to do so between now and the end of the month leading up to start of residency on July 1. To date, 1,417 candidates have completed their exams and approximately 300 candidates have raised concerns ranging from difficulty starting their exam on their home laptop, to inability to complete due to system failures. We are working to assist these candidates individually.
We recognize that these concerns continue to cause significant stress and anxiety for candidates and are deeply grateful to those of you supporting students and helping them navigate these challenges. The Medical Council of Canada (MCC) commits to reviewing every case where significant irregularities have occurred. Individual cases will be reviewed by our Exam Committee as required and may be considered for a ‘no standing’ if circumstances warrant. Candidates who are unable to complete their exam due to technical issues are able to rewrite the exam at no charge. The MCC also commits to continued support to candidates through this process.
MCC continues to work with Prometric to explore how to expand on site testing which currently has very limited capacity due to pandemic precautions. As of Sunday, June 21, an additional 200 seats will be made available across the country for the remainder of June (June 22 to June 30), almost 300 additional seats for July; over 100 additional seats for August; and approximately 200 additional seats for September. As public health restrictions are loosened, we are hopeful that Prometric will be able to open even more test centre seats, creating additional capacity for appointments for the ongoing session and the next session.
In our June 19 communications to candidates, we will encourage them to carefully weigh their options and choose the modality that is most appropriate for their individual circumstances in light of ongoing issues with remote proctoring.
Please continue to encourage your candidates to report exam concerns and incidents to the MCC through their physiciansapply.ca accounts with the subject line ‘MCCQE Part I – exam issues.’ Rest assured that we carefully review every email that is sent through their physicansapply.ca account and their concerns are actioned and escalated, as required.
A reminder that candidates are able to make changes to their exam appointment up to 48 hours prior to the date of their exam at no cost, subject to availability. They are also able to switch exam modalities, subject to centre and remote proctoring availability and to book for the next session of the MCCQE Part I scheduled to take place from October 26 to November 8, 2020.
We are hopeful that providing this free service will offer choices to candidates that have escalated stress levels due to the uncertainty of using remote proctoring.
Please also find attached for your reference responses from the MCC and Prometric we received today.
Thank you for your ongoing collaboration,
Maureen Topps, MB ChB, FCFP, MBA, FRCPC (Hon)
Executive Director and CEO