LMCC- how did it go?

[crush]

Anyone still lurking on the forums post-LMCC? (unlikely I know)... how did it go? What did you find were the best prep materials?

[Madz25]

it was brutal. worst exam i've written. everyone walks out of it feeling like sh*t....because of its adaptive style. i used toronto notes (as did the rest of my class) to study and did USMLE step 2 prep questions...but i found those to be easier than the LMCC.

only consolation is that MOST people pass...

[Lactic Folly]

Personally, I liked written exams better than OSCEs. I studied from the materials I used for clerkship exams. As during medical school, I used TO notes as a supplement.

[national]

meh. it was tough, but that was expected. studied with toronto notes, old biostats/clin epi lectures from first year, and tons and tons of practice tests.

USMLE 2 questions, as someone else mentioned, were similar though much easier. they get your mind focused on the commonly tested concepts/high yield areas.

[brooksbane]

Ooooh most of you sound like premeds coming out of the orgo final -" I may have gotten below a 90!!! OMG!!!!!!! I FAYL DIE ME NOW PLZ!"

The LMCC is a random, ridiculous, useless exam. There's no real way to tell if you did well or not walking out of it because there's no rhyme or reason to the questions. Some people get lucky and hit their strong point, others are tested on PEDS constantly(this guy right here doesn't really care about vaccine schedules)..ahem...

Anyway, if you pass you're in the 95% of people who do. If you fail, you had a bad day. There's no way a test can be statistically relevant if only 5% of people who write - 2.5% of whom are not fluent in English - fail it. It just means you had a bad day, or your computer screwed up, or something.

Either way, it won't make things too difficult in residency. You'll need to get orders cosigned. Big whoop. You are in residency now(unless of course you didn't get the residency you want....then you are gonna have fun times ahead with being unable to write orders). Just write it again and pass it - odds are you will.

You guys did fine. Trust me. If you fail it, let me know so I can apologize for being an a-hole about it(but I doubt I will ever have to apologize since you're all NOT GOING TO FAIL)

[FamilyGuy]

Actually there are no ramifications if you fail the LMCC, according to program directors. You can still sign your own orders and write prescriptions. The only thing you can't do is write the LMCC II until you pass the LMCC I.

[brooksbane]

Is that so? I never even knew!

That's great news. The LMCC is just a hurdle. Nothing more. Try not to worry.

[crush]

I wrote it today. It sucked. Not because it supposedly gets harder - but more because I couldn't tell if it was getting harder or not and kept getting paranoid that I kept on getting everything wrong.

I do agree that all the USMLE2 questions I did were way easier - it really paints a picture with the longer prompt, whereas with the LMCC it's 1-2 sentences and you're expected to know the answer based on that.

Nice to hear about the no ramifications - but pride is at stake of course. Really don't want to tell my program director, "gee thanks for thinking I'd be a great ____ doc and selecting me for your program. I'm actually in the bottom 5% and failed the LMCC. Wow, you just picked a winner. Hope you don't regret your decision!"

[JayP]

I wrote it a few days ago and it was completely random. I found alot of the MCQ, especially some of the population health stuff, to be utterly useless. Do I need to know insignificant things about provincial funding and what is covered under some obscure act? Probably not. I found most of the MCQ and CDM stem questions involved some sort of peds/obgyn scenario.

Some of the CDMs were quite difficult as well. I found it extremely difficult to get through 51 cases, it seemed like they would never end. It probably had something to do with the back breaking pain I was having close to 5pm.

My buddy failed last year and there are no repercussions, other than you can't write the LMCC part 2 until you pass part 1. He said the whole 'getting orders cosigned' is just a scare tactic to make you study. Rewrites are in the fall and you have to pay the $720 again (or whatever it was) and you may have a bruised ego, but nothing more.

The rewrite went fine for him and he said the material and questions didn't change that much. I used Toronto notes and clerkship stuff, as well some of the back to basics lectures our school provides. I bought 'the purple book' that came out this year:

http://www.amazon.ca/Essentials-Cana.../dp/0781776503

Can't say I thought much about the book. It had some good money points in it but in retrospect I would have focused more on TN and personal notes.

[national]

yeah, the people i know who bought the purple book weren't crazy about it

and there is that online qbank specifically for the LMCC, which is also useless.