Certification Examination in Family Medicine

Certification Examination in Family Medicine
Fall 2023 NOTE: The short-answer management problem (SAMP) component of the fall 2023 administration of the Certification Examination in Family Medicine is scheduled after (not before) the simulated office oral (SOO).
Exam dates: SOOs October 14–15 SAMPs October 17–18		Exam fee: $3,520 CAD*
Application dates / deadlines		Eligible candidates
January 1 – April 1, 2023		Practice-eligible: First time applicants
May 1 – June 30, 2023		Residency-eligible: First time applicants Residency-eligible: Repeat applicants Practice-eligible: Repeat applicants

Spring 2024
Exam dates: SOOs April 9–11 (12) SAMPs April 20–21 & April 27–28		Exam fee: TBD
Application dates / deadlines		Eligible candidates
July 1 – October 1, 2023		Practice-eligible
December 1, 2023 – February 1, 2024		Residency-eligible

Fall 2024
Exam dates: SOOs October 19–20 SAMPs October 15–16 (17)		Exam fee: TBD
Application dates / deadlines		Eligible candidates
January 1 – April 1, 2024		Practice-eligible
May 1 – June 30, 2024		Residency-eligible

*A tuition tax credit is available to each candidate that attempts the examination.

Please note dates are subject to change.

Fees are approved by the Board of Directors in the fall of the previous year.

Short-answer management problems (SAMPs)

In-person seats and virtual spots are offered through Prometric, the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC)’s written examination delivery provider:

• Approximately four to six weeks prior to the written examination, each registered candidate will receive an e-mail from the CFPC with information on when and how to select an in-person seat or virtual spot. The CFPC will use the e-mail address on file.
• When the Prometric portal opens as indicated in the aforementioned e-mail, in-person seats and virtual spots will be administered on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Within 24 hours of scheduling your examination through Prometric, candidates will receive a confirmation e-mail. Remember to check your spam folder if needed.
• Candidates must make sure their name on the confirmation e-mail matches their valid, non-expired government-issued ID. Failure to do so may result in candidates being turned away from the examination.

Candidates may refer to the FAQs about Remotely Proctored Exams for additional information regarding the virtual testing option.

Simulated Office Orals (SOOs)

The SOO component will be administered virtually through risr/, the CFPC’s oral examination delivery provider:

• Approximately four to six weeks prior to the oral examination, each registered candidate will receive an e-mail from the CFPC with their assigned exam date. The CFPC will use the e-mail address on file. Remember to check your spam folder if needed.
• Five days prior to the examination, each registered candidate will receive an e-mail from the CFPC with their login credentials and start time.
• As an added safety measure, candidates should perform a system check on their intended device in the location they intend to sit the SOO, no less than five days prior to the examination. Instructions on the system check will be included in the email that contains their login credentials.

Candidates need to make sure their name on the confirmation e-mail matches their valid, non-expired government-issued ID. Failure to do so may result in candidates being turned away from the examination.

Candidates may refer to the FAQs about Virtual Simulated Office Oral Examinations for additional information regarding the SOO.

The College of Family Physicians (CFPC) is committed to providing all examination candidates an equitable opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities in the examination setting.  The aim of this policy is to remove barriers to testing, based on protected characteristics under applicable human rights legislation. This policy applies to candidates wishing to sit the Certification Examination in Family Medicine (CCFP) or the Examination of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine (EM).

All requests for a test accommodation must be made at the time of application for the examination. This allows the CFPC staff to identify and allocate the required, but potentially limited, resources as equitably as possible, and to assign candidates to appropriate examination locations equipped to meet stated needs.

• View the CFPC Test Accommodation Policy
• View the CFPC Policy on Providing Testing Accommodations for Lactating Individuals
• View the CFPC Policy on compensating for unforeseen accident, acute illness or impediment on exam day
• FAQs
• Request for Test Accommodation

A candidate-examiner relationship may occasionally constitute a conflict of interest. Examples of conflict of interest are:

• being related to each other, including being a spouse
• being a close friend
• having a financial or business relationship with each other
• having an ongoing learner-supervisor relationship where a pass/fail decision is involved

Simply knowing each other, personally or professionally, or having had occasional learner-supervisor encounters, is not considered a conflict of interest.

The family medicine SOO candidate/examiner schedules are designed to avoid candidates being assessed by examiners from the same education institution. We ask examiners to identify their educational affiliations to aid in this planning. We also ask examiners to declare all conflicts of interest (i.e., a close personal or professional relationship) with the candidates they are scheduled to see.

During the Exam

For examiners:
If you enter an examination SOO station where you know the candidate, carry on with your examination.  

For candidates:
If you enter a station and feel a conflict exists (refer to definition above), please inform the examiner. The examiner will notify the administrators, who will help you take this station with another examiner after completing other SOO stations. Stay in the current station and do not interact with the examiner.

After the Exam
Please notify the College of Family Physicians of Canada™ (CFPC) of any conflict of interest that may have occurred during your examination by sending an email to [email protected] as soon as possible after your exam.

For repeat candidates who are still eligible, the deadline date to register to resit the family medicine examination is February 1st for the spring exam, June 30th for the fall exam, or June 15th for the emergency medicine examination. Eligible candidates who wish to sit the next available examination must register via the online application. As a decision may not be made until after the deadline date, candidates are encouraged to register for the next exam while their appeal is being considered.

A refund for a portion of the examination fee will depend on the date of receipt of a written, signed withdrawal/refund request.

• Candidates who withdraw from the examination more than 60 days prior to the date of the examination will be subject to a penalty of $500.
• Candidates who withdraw within 30 to 60 days prior to the date of the examination will be subject to a penalty of one-half (50%) of the examination fee.
• There is no refund for candidates who withdraw within 30 days of the examination.

Candidates must withdraw and re-apply should they wish to take the examination at a later date. Fees paid for a previous attempt are not transferable to a later session. Please send your cancellation request to [email protected].
 

Find out how to Appeal your Certification Examination in Family Medicine results

Translation steps and language quality assurance (QA) process during the development of short-answer management problems (SAMPs) for the Certification Examination in Family Medicine

Figure 1

Figure 1 – Development process and language quality assurance steps. Further marking-related QA steps outlined below

1. The SAMP questions are developed by experienced, trained SAMP writers on the Committee on Examination – Family Medicine (SAMP) Each question and all answers are reviewed and commented on by the entire SAMP committee membership then finalized.
2. The final exam questions are tested by external reviewers who have not taken part in the question development.  
3. The content of the English SAMP exam is then edited for clarity and grammar. The copy editor ensures the questions are written in plain unambiguous language.
4. Once edited, the Chair of the Committee on Examinations – Family Medicine reviews and approves the English examination content.
5. The content is translated into Canadian French by an experienced certified medical translator.
6. Once completed, the translated content is reviewed by the College of Family Physicians of Canada™ (CFPC) Translation and French Language Services team for clarity in Canadian French (e.g., written in plain language) and to ensure it correctly reflects the English version.
7. The translated content then goes through a further independent review by a native French-speaking bilingual family physician who is familiar with the context of the questions, has access to the English versions of the questions, and employs the Canadian French medical terminology that Canadian French-speaking physicians use in everyday practice.
8. Once the francophone physician is satisfied with the translation, the content is reviewed once more by the CFPC Translation and French Language Services team to check again for clarity and correct any typographical or grammatical errors.
9. The translated content is then reviewed a final time and transferred to (i.e., published in) the software that delivers the examination. This step is done to ensure accurate presentation on the day of the examination.

Quality Assurance during and after exam marking

Figure 2

Figure 2 – Quality Assurance post-exam

Many quality assurance steps are taken after the exam:

• Candidates’ written comments produced during and after the examination are analyzed to detect potential issues with questions. These comments are reviewed by staff both in the Certification and Assessment department and the Translation and French Language Services department.
• All French answers are scored by French-speaking physicians who can also identify potential quality issues with questions.
• Every exam question is scored by two independent markers for each candidate. If discrepancies arise during marking, a third trained super-marker settles the dispute. If a question goes on to be excluded due to performance concerns in one language (i.e., differing answering patterns in one language compared to the other), that question is automatically excluded from the examination in both languages for all candidates.
• Psychometric analyses ensure the questions included in an examination meet predefined performance criteria. Question-by-question analysis comparing the performance of English test takers with French test takers is performed. Specific attention and review are paid to any question where there is an inconsistency between English- and French-speaking candidates’ performance metrics or scoring patterns. If an identified error or flaw in a question in either language is determined to have a potential effect on candidate performance, both the English and French versions of that question is removed from the examination content and the above-mentioned psychometrical analyses are re-done.

Continuous Quality Improvement
The Board of Examinations and Certification and the Committee on Examination – Family Medicine review feedback from multiple sources to identify areas for improvement:

Figure 3