Ontario Clinical Exam: Exam Reviews and Appeals

Reviews and Appeals Process

The goal of the Ontario Clinical Exam (OCE) is to fairly assess the competency of all candidates. However, during and after the exam, a candidate may identify factors that could have impacted their performance.

Remember: During the exam, candidates should always inform staff of any issues they encounter. Staff will document the issues and troubleshoot as much as possible. 

If a candidate believes that the issues they experienced could not be mitigated by staff and therefore impacted their exam performance, they may choose to request an Exam Review and potentially an Exam Appeal. 

Please carefully review the information on this page and review the appropriate policies before requesting an exam review or appeal. 

If you would like to request a review or appeal, please download and complete the Exam Review and Appeal Request Form.

Exam Review

Candidates can request an Exam Review after the exam and before receiving their results.

The Exam Manager will review the request to see if one or more of the criteria for an exam review have been met. If so, the Exam Manager will decide if the candidate's result should be confirmed or annulled based on the information provided by the candidate. 

Criteria for an Exam Review

Candidates may request an Exam Review if there was:

  • A significant administrative or procedural error (e.g., an interruption of the exam or malfunctioning technology).
  • An illness or personal medical issue which occurred during the exam.
  • An extraordinary circumstance that was outside of the candidate’s control that could not be mitigated and had an impact on the candidate.
Exam Review requests must be received before results are released to candidates. Candidates are strongly encouraged to reach out to the College immediately after their exam if they experienced issues that impacted their performance.

There are two possible outcomes of an Exam Review: 

  • The exam result is annulled. The fees for the review will be refunded to the candidate and the exam fee already paid will be applied to the next exam session, or
  • The exam result is confirmed. In this case no fees are returned

The fee for an Exam Review is $200.

Please carefully review the Exam Review Policy for more information.

Exam Appeal

If a candidate is dissatisfied with the result of the Exam Review, they can pursue an Exam Appeal which will be considered by the Exam Committee. All requests for an appeal must be sent to the College by email including the reason for the appeal.

Criteria for an Exam Appeal

Criteria for an Exam Appeal is the same as an Exam Review. Candidates may request an Exam Appeal if there was:

  • A significant administrative or procedural error (e.g., an interruption of the exam or malfunctioning technology).
  • An illness or personal medical issue which occurred during the exam.
  • An extraordinary circumstance that was outside of the candidate’s control that could not be mitigated and had an impact on the candidate.

An Exam Appeal is a paper-based review by the College's Exam Committee. The candidate can make submissions to the Exam Committee and the Committee will have access to all relevant documents to make a decision about the appeal.

There are two possible outcomes to an Exam Appeal:

  • The exam result is annulled, and associated fees are returned back to candidate. In this case the exam fee will be applied to the next exam session; or
  • The result is confirmed. In this case no fees are refunded, and the candidate is responsible for paying the associated fees to register for the next exam session, if the candidate is still eligible to take the exam.

The fee for an Exam Appeal is $300.

Please carefully review the Exam Appeals Policy for more information.

Questions? Email exam@collegept.org or call 1-800-583-5885 ext. 215.