Failed step 1, can i still match for FM in canada?

[MrKhiladi]

hello all
Iam a canadian at a US med school.I failed step 1, then passed it the second time.Will my failure hurt my chances of getting FM residency in canada.Is it looked down upon and will it prevent me from getting interviews or even asked on my interviews?Can anyone who has been in this situation please respond.
any help will be greatly appreciated
thanx
MrK

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[med2UCC]

hello all
Iam a canadian at a US med school.I failed step 1, then passed it the second time.Will my failure hurt my chances of getting FM residency in canada.Is it looked down upon and will it prevent me from getting interviews or even asked on my interviews?Can anyone who has been in this situation please respond.
any help will be greatly appreciated
thanx
MrK

I haven't been in this situation but I have reviewed applicant files for residency. You need to explain the failure in your personal statement; explanations can be assimple as "I didn't study enough" or can involve personal circumstances. It is a mistake to ignore this sort of thing and hope the reviewers do as well. Any failure or gap in your transcript has to be adequately explained. As long as this is the only failure, it sholdn't hurt your application. A pattern of repeated failures (missed a couple of courses, failed the USMLE, etc) will get you marked down on the academic side of things. Cheers,
M

 

[MrKhiladi]

did the applicants who u reviewed that failed, did they get resiidency?What univeristy do u represent.
thanx

 

[med2UCC]

did the applicants who u reviewed that failed, did they get resiidency?What univeristy do u represent.
thanx

I don't know if they matched. Some made the cut-off for the match list, some did not (for a variety of reasons - applicants are scored in many ways and exam scores are just one of them).
Dalhousie University.
Cheers,
M

 

[MrKhiladi]

i always assumed that canadian medical schools did not really put any weight on usmle's.How much weight do they put on it?what are some other criterias?
thanx

 

[med2UCC]

It kind of depends on the school. In the Atlantic Provinces, which Dalhousie services, they don't accept any exams except the Canadian ones. That being said, you don't have to write the MCCQE1 until your 1st year of residency, although the Canadian med grads write it at the end of 4th year.
However, although they don't accept the USMLE, they do look for a pattern of consistent academic difficulty/failure. So, you don't really get credit for passing it but it can count against you if you fail it.
Other criteria they look at would be academic transcripts, letters of reference, your Dean's letter, what kind of electives you've done, where the electives were done, your personal statement - that is, all the rest of the application. Plus, if you get interviewed, a lot depends on how you interview. If you interview poorly, come off as arrogant or a jerk, that will affect your chance of matching. Cheers,
M

 

[MrKhiladi]

hey med, thanx for the advice. Iam doing 8 weeks of fm rotations in toronto as part of my away rotations, is that sufficient enough or do i need to do more?Does the amount you do affect your chances b/c its hard to get away rotations in cda.
thanx

 

[med2UCC]

hey med, thanx for the advice. Iam doing 8 weeks of fm rotations in toronto as part of my away rotations, is that sufficient enough or do i need to do more?Does the amount you do affect your chances b/c its hard to get away rotations in cda.
thanx

If you want to match into Ontario, doing 8 weeks of elective in Toronto is probably fine. I don't really know since I'm not in Ontario.

 

[MrKhiladi]

hey med, i have a q about the maching system in cda.In the U.S, because of the volume of medical programs, most people rank at least 15-20 schools increasing there chances of matching.But in cda, we dont have that mamy programs.Therefore, when ranking for FM, what is the ideal # to put down.And how does the match work.In the u.s, theres a scramble.I know this year in cda there were several open spots of FM, therefore do they just go down your list till they find a spot for you.And how does the 2nd iteration work?If theres still spots after the first iteration, is there a good chance of matching to the second if you keep your options open and are willing to go anywhere in cda (main provinces like sasask,b.c,ont,alb,queb,etc) .i really dont wanna get stuck not matching if i only apply to cda.
thanx
MrK

 

[med2UCC]

hey med, i have a q about the maching system in cda.In the U.S, because of the volume of medical programs, most people rank at least 15-20 schools increasing there chances of matching.But in cda, we dont have that mamy programs.Therefore, when ranking for FM, what is the ideal # to put down.And how does the match work.In the u.s, theres a scramble.I know this year in cda there were several open spots of FM, therefore do they just go down your list till they find a spot for you.And how does the 2nd iteration work?If theres still spots after the first iteration, is there a good chance of matching to the second if you keep your options open and are willing to go anywhere in cda (main provinces like sasask,b.c,ont,alb,queb,etc) .i really dont wanna get stuck not matching if i only apply to cda.
thanx
MrK

I don't know the ideal number of spots to put down. I interviewed in one place and matched on the 1st round - probably a bit of a fluke, really. I know most people applied to every province that accepted IMG's on the 1st round in their specialty, which would be Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec if you can meet the language requirement, Dalhousie for the Maritimes and MUN.. Ontario and the Maritimes centralise interviews for their programs ,so you only interview once for all the Ontario schools and you only interview once for Dal for the 6 FM programs.
The 2nd iteration works just like the 1st iteration in Canada. After the 1st iteration, they post all the left-over spots and you start writing personal statements for those spots and getting LOR's if you don't have suitable ones for that specialty already. Then you submit your application to those programs and cross your fingers. Your chances are not so hot for matching as there are very few spots. It helps to be willing to go anywhere. After the whole thing is done, you can call programs and see if they have spots open. Sometimes programs will call you, but this doesn't happen very often in my experience, and only happens if you were on their ROL to begin with.
I didn't say don't PM me - you can still do that you know. Cheers,
M

 

[Ashphoenix]

If you go to a LCME accredited US school, then you are not considered a IMG. You can apply to any CMG spot in the 1st round as well as any spot in the second round.

In terms of matching to FM, if you are willing to go anywhere, and you are not an IMG, chances are you will match. Just apply broadly. The match is similar to the US match except in Canada there is no pre-match spots and the scramble is subsituted with a second round. The second round is essentially the same process as the first round, just with a shorter time frame. If you want to match to Canada, doing 8 weeks of electives is enough time. The only suggestion I would have for you is, perhaps don't do all 8 weeks in Toronto, unless that is the only place you want to go. It shouldn't be too difficult to get away electives in Canada in FM. There are tons of those spots available.

 

[med2UCC]

Sorry. I forgot when I posted that the OP was not an IMG. That being the case , i would advise you to apply to all the programs that are in places where you think you could stand to live for 2 years. Good luck,
M

 

[MrKhiladi]

hey ash and med, thanx for the advice.Just wondering, how is it possible to apply to more that 3 programs considering that all the interviews seem to overlap, therefore restricting ones chances of keeping there options open?I was looking at this past yrs FM interview dates for the various uni and they all seem to coincide on the same dates, therefore forcing one to choose.
thanx
MrK

 

[Ashphoenix]

Generally speaking, for CaRMS interviews, schools coordinate. The exception to this are the bigger programs like FM and IM. But usually there are enough dates for the FM interviews that allow people to be able to schedule 7+ interviews easily. The multiple dates spanning over 3 weeks will allow you to interview to pretty much everywhere you want.