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Canada · Licensing exam

MCCQE score: the scale, the pass score and what a good score is

Your Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) score is a scaled score from 300 to 600, and you pass with 439 or more. The Medical Council of Canada (MCC) works it out from which questions you got right and how hard they were, so it can’t be turned into a percentage. The pass score doesn’t move with how other candidates do.

  • 439Pass score on the scale
  • 450Scale mean, with a standard deviation of 30
  • 300 to 600Range of the MCCQE score scale
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Updated October 2026 · Written from official sources, listed at the bottom of this page

How is the MCCQE scored?

Each multiple-choice question scores 1 point if it’s right and 0 if it’s wrong. You lose nothing for a wrong answer, so the MCC recommends answering every question.

The MCC then uses the Rasch model to estimate your ability from your pattern of answers and the difficulty of each question, and converts that to the 300 to 600 reporting scale. So your score isn’t a simple count of right answers. If a question is dropped after the exam, for an error or ambiguity, it’s dropped for everyone.

MCC: MCCQE results ↗

What the 439 pass score means

The MCCQE is criterion-referenced: you pass by reaching a set standard, not by beating other candidates. In July 2025 a panel of 23 physicians from across Canada set that standard with the Bookmark method, judging the point after which a minimally competent candidate becomes less likely to answer questions correctly. The MCC’s Exam Oversight Committee (EOC) approved 439.

The MCC says 439 stays in place until it runs another standard-setting exercise. A higher number on a different scale doesn’t mean the exam got harder.

MCC: Technical report on the 2025 standard-setting exercise (PDF) ↗

What is a good MCCQE score?

The MCC suggests judging a score by how far it sits from the pass score, in standard deviations. On the 300 to 600 scale, 469 is one standard deviation above the pass score and 499 is two.

Your Supplemental Information Report (SIR) shows subscores for the eight blueprint domains alongside the average of first-time takers who passed. The MCC says subscores are feedback on strengths and weaknesses, less reliable than the total, and shouldn’t be used to compare candidates. For residency selection, the MCC advises programs not to rely on one exam and warns against reading much into small score differences.

MCC: Score interpretation ↗MCC: Sample Supplemental Information Report (PDF) ↗

Comparing your score with older MCCQE scales

SessionsScore rangePass score
April 2025 onward300 to 600439
April 2018 to October 2024100 to 400226
April 2015 to November 201750 to 950427

The MCC has no official conversion between scales, partly because exams before 2025 included clinical decision-making (CDM) questions. To compare, look at distance from the pass score: 469 on the 300 to 600 scale and 256 on the 100 to 400 scale are both one standard deviation above their pass scores.

MCC: Score interpretation ↗Getting your MCCQE results →
Sources: MCC and 3 more. Checked October 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.

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