Cancellation of the MCCQE Part II on October 24 and 25

As was highlighted in the statement by the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) yesterday, it was our full intention to proceed with a safe and psychometrically defensible Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Part II on October 24 and 25 at as many sites as we were able to across the country.

Regretfully, due to recommendations by Public Health and late-breaking decisions by some contracted third-party exam sites, primarily in university settings, we are no longer able to administer the MCCQE Part II to a large enough reference group cohort to ensure the exam results are defensible from a high-quality psychometric perspective. We are left with no choice but to cancel all sites for this session of the exam. We apologize for the disruption this has caused candidates.

Despite the ongoing pandemic and a few early site cancellations, we firmly believed, given our extensive consultations with public health and exam sites, that we could safely move over one thousand candidates along the route to licensure, some who had been previously delayed by the postponement of the MCCQE Part II in May 2020 and are practising with provisional licences. We delayed making this decision to cancel for as long as possible, in the best interest of those candidates who wished to proceed with their exams.

We understand the impact of this decision on candidates. COVID-19 has affected both this exam administration as well as our contingency plans. With the support of the MCC Council, our team is already in the process of quickly pivoting to the option of virtual delivery of the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations, including the MCCQE Part II. This will reduce our reliance on contracted locations for in-person exam delivery and mitigate against the challenges this delivery has brought due to the impact of the current pandemic. We are also exploring the addition of dates in the first part of 2021 to address the backlog created by current site cancellations.

As soon as details on future exam options are confirmed, the MCC will inform candidates and stakeholders, and work directly with candidates to transfer their exam application to a future session. If a candidate prefers to withdraw their application, they will receive a full refund.

Please continue to consult our website for future updates.