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Med school final exam plagued with technical issues after moving online due to COVID-19

Fourth-year medical students across Canada are reporting stress and "agony" as the major standardized test that marks their transition from med school to residency has faced technical and communication problems.

The $1,300, nine-hour Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination Part 1 made a major shift to online testing with remote supervision through virtual proctors because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there have been a series of system failures during the first month of exams. More than 7,000 people have registered to take the test between June and September, according to the Medical Council of Canada (MCC). About a third of them are set to write the exam remotely. It's administered by Prometric, a U.S. company.

The MCC said about 300 students who have so far taken the test remotely have raised issues ranging from difficulty starting the exam at home to system failures. Almost 1,200 remote tests have been administered.

Some students only agreed to speak to CBC News on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional repercussions for speaking out against the MCC, their accrediting body. One Ontario-based medical student said she was repeatedly kicked out of the online exam and struggled to be readmitted. "I felt like it wasn't testing our knowledge; it was testing our endurance to deal with technical issues," she said.

Watch |Technical difficulties cause frustration among medical students taking online exams:

Technical difficulties cause frustration among medical students taking online exams

4 years ago

Duration 1:15

Rishi Sharma, director of education with the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, says technical issues and communication problems have caused concern among medical students who are taking exams online during the pandemic.

Dr. Rishi Sharma, education director of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, said the MCC and Prometric have been pointing the finger at each other, with students caught in the middle. "Students largely want the MCC to be accountable for these issues and compensate students because we're not typically writing the examination as it normally would," he said.

The MCC said the problems with remote exams have been "unacceptable," and it is working to improve the situation. "We are meeting twice daily with Prometric senior executives to develop solutions to all reported issues, in particular those related to test accommodations, hardware compatibility, proctor responsiveness and connectivity before and during the exam," Dr. Maureen Topps, the council's executive director and CEO, said in a statement to CBC News. Prometric has blamed the bulk of the issues on internet connectivity, especially when both the med student and the remote proctor are using home wireless connections.Read more on this story here.

Downward dog domes

(Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

People participate on Sunday in an outdoor yoga class in Toronto put on by LMNTS Outdoor Studio in domes to facilitate social distancing and proper protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In brief

B.C.'s COVID-19 death rate of approximately 33 deaths per million people is one of the lowest among jurisdictions in Canada, the U.S. and western Europe with populations of five million or more. In mid-March, with cases of COVID-19 rising rapidly and with outbreaks in multiple long-term care homes, it appeared that B.C. was poised to be hit particularly hard by the global pandemic. However, in the months since, the province has been praised for flattening the curve ahead of other regions. Officials and health experts credit its success to a combination of sound decision-making and good fortune. Read more on this story here from CBC's Briar Stewart.

Watch |There's more work to be done, says Dr. Bonnie Henry:

B.C. not COVID-19 free yet

4 years ago

Duration 1:03

B.C.'s Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry says despite its relative success, B.C. is not in the clear with COVID-19.

Iran's efforts to resume diplomatic relations with Canada while the country is under international pressure over the downing of Flight 752 has some worried that Iran is using the tragedy as a bargaining tool. "At this moment, they need to show some level of co-operation ... before starting to talk about a diplomatic relationship," said Reza Akbari, the president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton. Iran shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in January, killing all 176 people on board, including 55 Canadians. Iran initially denied responsibility for the incident, but later admitted its role in downing the jetliner. The country has since been accused of stalling international efforts to conduct a transparent investigation as Canadian officials continue to push for the country to release the flight recorders involved in the crash. Read more about the concerns being raised about Iran's attempts to resume diplomatic relations.

Mexico says it will resume sending temporary farm workers to Canada after the two countries reached an agreement on improved safety protections for labourers on Canadian farms during the coronavirus pandemic. The Mexican government announced the move yesterday, just days after saying it was pausing sending workers to farms with coronavirus infections because Mexican nationals had died from COVID-19 after outbreaks on 17 Canadian farms. Sunday's announcement came as health officials in southern Ontario confirmed a third migrant worker from Mexico had died. Read more about the Mexican migratory workers here.

A noose was found in the garage stall of Black driver Bubba Wallace at a NASCAR race in Alabama yesterday, less than two weeks after he successfully pushed the auto racing series to ban the Confederate flag at its tracks and facilities. NASCAR announced the discovery late Sunday and said it had launched an immediate investigation. It said it will do everything possible to find who was responsible and "eliminate them from the sport." Read more on this story here.

Data on work refusals reported to provincial labour authorities shows there's been a spike in the number of people who have formally refused to work citing dangerous conditions. But virtually none of those work refusals are being upheld, which may illustrate just how unprepared existing labour laws are for dealing with COVID-19. All provinces have laws allowing people to refuse dangerous work. But a general fear of contracting COVID-19 is not enough to justify a work refusal, and neither are the risks associated with travelling to-and-from work, illustrating the challenges Canadians face as they balance the risk of exposure to the virus with getting back to the office or factory floor. Read more about work refusal and COVID-19 here.

The compressed four-day work week has gained renewed attention since COVID-19 changed the way people work, but some experts say employers should consider another type of four-day work week. They propose one that allows employees to work fewer hours and get paid their same weekly salary. That structure, they said, would not only improve a work-life balance, but boost productivity among employees. But paying workers the same amount for fewer hours could be a difficult and counterintuitive concept for employers to embrace. Erica Carleton, an assistant professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Saskatchewan, acknowledged that the benefits an employer would see from such a work structure, including a boost in employees' health and well-being, wouldn't be immediate. Read more about proposals for four-day work weeks here.

Now for some good news to start your Monday:Just before Mother's Day, Mielle Tetreau, 8, and her sister Azlynn, 5, decided to put some lilac blooms near their front-yard lemonade stand in Kelowna, B.C. They carefully made a hand-drawn sign to indicate the flowers were free. It was a sweet gesture, meant to help those still searching for a Mother's Day gift. But their young entrepreneurial spirits took a blow when someone misunderstood their "free" sign and walked away with the chalkboard easel it was written on, as well as some other items. Their mother took to social media to try to find the person who took the items. While no one came forward to return what was taken, strangers started offering support in various ways. Chris Stanley offered to build the girls a new lemonade stand, complete with a menu board. He delivered it last weeked. Check out the photo of Mielle and Azlynn with their new stand and read more here.

Front Burner:Canada's incoming contact-tracing app

The federal government is rolling out a new, voluntary contact-tracing app called COVID Alert. It will first be tested in Ontario before rolling out to the rest of the country. But it's still too early to tell how many Canadians will be willing to sign up to share their personal health information, especially since companies such as Google, Apple, BlackBerry and volunteers from Shopify were all involved with its creation. Today on Front Burner, we talk with infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch about how the app works and the privacy concerns surrounding it.

Front Burner24:00COVID Alert: Canadas incoming contact-tracing app

Today in history: June 22

1774: The Quebec Act is given royal assent, establishing French civil law and the British system of criminal law in Quebec. As well, Roman Catholics were to have religious freedom. It also enlarged the province's borders to include Labrador and territory south and west of the Great Lakes. The latter move enraged American settlers and contributed to the American Revolution. The law was replaced in 1791.

1960: The Liberals win their first Quebec election in 16 years, defeating the Union Nationale and ushering in what became known as The Quiet Revolution under Premier Jean Lesage.

2006: Prime Minister Stephen Harper offers a formal apology and compensation for a racist head tax applied to Chinese immigrants between 1885 and 1923.

2007: Canada's first-ever F5 tornado touches down near Elie, Man., carving a path of destruction more than six kilometres long and 300 metres wide. Miraculously, there were no fatalities despite top wind speeds estimated between 420 and 510 km/h.

2017: Sears Canada announces plans to close 59 locations across the country and cut approximately 2,900 jobs under a court-supervised restructuring.