News
CFPC Update on Emergency Medicine Exam
2021-09-13
Dear colleagues,
We have encountered significant technical difficulties affecting the written (SAMP) component of the 2021 Certification of Added Competency in Emergency Medicine Examination and are reaching out to explain and apologize. We understand the dedication that candidates have committed to preparing for this exam and the personal and professional sacrifices made to accommodate it. We acknowledge and are very sorry for the hardship and stress that this creates. The CFPC’s dedicated Examination team is working with Prometric to ensure that all candidates can complete the examination in this testing period.
What happened?
Those using remote access are the ones who have been affected.
We learned that the problem stems from an unexpected error in how the EM exam was prepared for the ProProctor platform following a software update. On Thursday, September 9th the error resulted in 12 candidates not being able see 15 images that were needed to answer multiple exam questions. Prometric was unable to fix the issue and cancelled the EM exam delivery for 80 candidates scheduled to write the exam on Friday, September 10th.
What are we doing about it?
We are in contact with all affected individuals who are being rescheduled to write a comparable and validated examination. As of Sunday, September 12th, over 70% had been rescheduled to the expanded window of September 14th to 21st. We are assured all remaining candidates will be scheduled today. You will be contacted directly by Prometric.
Seats in test centers and via ProProcter are limited, so Prometric is offering all available times – including throughout the night and early in the morning for anyone who can accommodate them.
Marking of the examination is delayed until all the testing is complete. All examination data will be thoroughly scrutinized as per our internal quality improvement processes.
The CFPC CEO and the Board of Directors are aware of this situation. Once this round of testing is complete, the CFPC will re-examine all facets of our relationship with Prometric.
Once again, we apologize for this disruption and the distress it causes. Thank you for your continued patience as we work to accommodate each candidate as quickly as possible.
Sincerely,
Brent Kvern, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Director, Certification and Examinations
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
www.cfpc.ca/exams
