So one of the things that I did in my time off was prepare for the CFPC exam. Now coming from the US, I didn't have to write this exam but I did it anyway just to cover all of my bases. It was nice because the Canadian model of family practice is very patient-centric. Yes, you do have to learn the medicine as well but the emphasis is on really knowing and appreciating the social context your patients operate in and integrating that into your clinical approach (FIFE-ing as it is known! :P).
When I was studying for the ABFM exam, I didn't sit down and study everything in a systematic manner. I did tons and tons of questions. Being a multiple-choice exam, you could also reason your way to the answer and there was at least a 25% chance that you would be right. The CFPC exam, on the other hand, requires a different approach altogether. But before I jump into that, here are all the resources I used for the ABFM exam:
1. Old in-training exams dating back 3-5 years.
2.
ABFM question bank app (free)
3.
UWorld Qbank for family medicine
4.
UWorld Qbank for internal medicine (yes, I did do this Qbank and I am glad I did because the exam had a lot of internal medicine in it!).
5.
AAFP practice questions (did 1200 of these in 1 day and nearly lost my marbles in the process! X_X)
I was also regularly meeting with a study group and it helped to hear people discuss the answers as well. The same principles apply towards any exam preparation: having a plan, staying consistent and giving yourself enough time to prepare. The above prep gave me a score of 730 which I was quite pleased with because it was substantially higher than my ITE scores. In the grand scheme of things though, this score means nothing so sorry to disappoint those who like me really savor those scores! :P.
Now for the prep for the CFPC exam. I took this exam incredibly seriously, particularly because there was a short answer component as well as an oral component. Neither format was a style I was used to (except maybe for the Step 2 CS and MCCQE2). I regularly felt anxious and underprepared through the past few months but on the day I took the exam, I felt much better. The written portion went fairly well in my opinion. The oral cases as well were straightforward but I left feeling terrible because of all of the questions I forgot to ask and not knowing if I hit all of the important points.
In any case, to study for the SAMPs, I used the following resources:
1.
Family Medicine Notes - Danielle O' Toole.
2.
Mike Kirlew podcasts
3.
ABFM prep course slides
4.
The Review Course (also refer to this great
link for additional resources recommended by the Review Course).
5.
Family Medicine Study Guide
6.
SAMP Prep app
7. Self-Learning modules dating back to 1997. Through a lot of googling for additional resources, I stumbled across the
Queen's FM Study resources which included a lot of SAMPs from old Self-Learning modules.
For the SOO's, I used the
SOO library from the CFPC website and practiced with a partner. I also attended the BC Family Physician SOO Prep course.
Family Medicine Notes looks really overwhelming when you first approach it. I studied it three times, each time reviewing more topics/day than the previous attempt. During the first round, I tried to get through 5 topics/day. During the second round, 10 topics/day. During the third round, roughly 20 topics/day. It was doable if you stuck with it and broke up the monotony with questions. This is where the old SAMPs came in handy.
It was also great to break the Family Medicine Notes with Mike Kirlew podcasts. I loveeee this guy! He is brilliant! And what he says stays with you because of his eccentric style.
I reviewed the ABFM slides as well mostly for general knowledge although I think I would have been fine for the exam if I had skipped them as well. I only went through them once.
As for the Review Course, I didn't find it as useful as some other folks have found it. I think it's a great adjunct and some of the tips and tricks they provide will definitely help. Their SNOPQRST approach towards the SOO's is invaluable but as an IMG, if you only rely on The Review Course, I think it would be difficult to pass the exam. That being said, these guys are great! Very accommodating and lots of neat little perks!
The two apps, SAMP prep and the Family Medicine Study Guide, were great for more practice questions to do. I am the type of person who needs to do questions to really retain the material and so being forced to recall what I had learned was invaluable.
Finally, the old SAMPs from the Self-Learning modules are so great to get used to the style of questions the CFPC expects. The further back you go, the more you have to take the answers with a pinch of salt as they may be outdated but overall, they are a great resource to practice with.
Was it all enough? I'll find out in a few weeks! :)
