Assessment & Diagnosis
30–34%
60–68 questions
History, examination, investigations, interpretation, differential diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and evidence-informed practice.
Examination Blueprint
Build your study plan around the official weighting
The blueprint is the central map for content selection, question-bank allocation, mock-examination balance, and remediation.
Three Domains
Official competency distribution
Approximate question counts are calculated from a 200-question examination.
Modalities
55–59%
110–118 questions
Botanical medicine, homeopathy, nutrition, physical medicine, counselling, TCM, acupuncture, and pharmacology.
Critical Care & Public Health
9–13%
18–26 questions
High-risk patients, stabilization, referral, CPR, oxygen, infection control, biohazards, counselling, and reporting.
Item-Type Distribution
Case-based realism is part of the blueprint
The April 2026 blueprint specifies that 68–72% of the examination is case-based and 28–32% is independent. BoardQBank full mocks use the midpoint: 140 case-based questions (70%) and 60 independent questions (30%).
140 Case-Based
Thirty-five linked patient records per mock, with multiple contiguous questions sharing the same clinical record.
60 Independent
Stand-alone single-best-answer questions remain mixed into both timed components.
No Split Cases
Linked patient records stay entirely inside one 100-question component and never cross the 15-minute break.
Assessment & Diagnosis
What the first domain tests
Evaluate patients
Ethical patient interactions, medical and psychosocial history, physical examination, laboratory selection, specimen collection, and imaging selection.
Assess conditions
Risk factors, signs, symptoms, comorbidities, differential diagnosis, pathogenesis, and etiology.
Interpret findings
Physical findings, laboratory results, interfering factors, imaging, complications, prognosis, and monitoring.
Apply evidence
Interpret and critique research, then apply findings to individual patient management.
Modalities
The largest examination domain
The College publishes one combined modalities weighting rather than separate official percentages for each modality.
Botanical Prescribing
Safety, contraindications, interactions, toxicity, pharmacognosy, indications, mechanisms, route, and posology.
Homeopathic Prescribing
Acute classical case taking, keynotes, modalities, potency, repetition, and prescribing abbreviations.
Clinical Nutrition
Dietary assessment, nutrients, nutraceuticals, therapeutic diets, interactions, adverse effects, and monitoring.
Physical Medicine
Orthopedic assessment, manipulation, hydrotherapy, therapeutic devices, exercise, and contraindications.
Counselling
Communication, behaviour change, psychological assessment, lifestyle support, crisis recognition, and referral.
TCM & Acupuncture
Patterns, formulas, points, needling, clean needle technique, contraindications, and adjunctive methods.
Clinical Pharmacology
Mechanisms, indications, adverse effects, interactions, toxicity, monitoring, and safe integration.
Critical Care & Public Health
Safety, stabilization, and professional responsibility
High-Risk Patients
Identify unstable patients and critical conditions, initiate appropriate management, and refer or transfer without delay.
CPR & Oxygen
Understand immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation priorities and oxygen administration.
Infection Control
Sterilization, disinfection, universal precautions, and biohazardous materials.
Public-Health Reporting
Communicable-disease counselling and reporting, plus suspected adverse-reaction reporting to Health Canada.
Study in proportion to the blueprint
Spend the greatest share of practice time on integrated modality decisions while maintaining strong assessment and emergency judgment.