IG and DM sections
Information Gathering vs Decision Making on the CRPO exam
Facts checked against CRPO's and Ontario's official sources on October 21, 2026.
Every section of every simulation on the CRPO Registration Examination is one of two types. Information Gathering (IG) sections ask what you need to know at this point in the case; Decision Making (DM) sections ask what you would do, and the exam adds them up as two separate totals that you must both pass. The clinical knowledge behind them is the same. The way you read the options, and how many you select, is not.
The two section types side by side
The Resource Manual defines them in one line each: in IG sections "test-takers gather all relevant information for answering the question", and in DM sections "test-takers make judgments or decisions".
| Information Gathering | Decision Making | |
|---|---|---|
| The stem asks | What would you want to know, for a stated purpose | What would you do, at a stated decision point |
| Instruction | SELECT AS MANY | SELECT AS MANY, or CHOOSE ONLY ONE |
| What a click shows | What you learn | What happens in the room |
| The test you apply | Does this serve the purpose in the stem, now? | Is this the right act, now, with what I know? |
| Counts toward | The IG total | The DM total |
In both, information appears directly under an option once you select it, and the manual is plain that "There is no way for you to change your mind once you click on a response".
How they fit together in a simulation
The exam has ten simulations in three hours. Nine are scored; one is "being pretested for future Examinations" and you cannot tell which. Each simulation has "approximately five to eight sections", and the two types alternate the way real work does: you gather, you decide, the situation changes, you gather again.
That order matters. What an IG section reveals is often the fact that makes a later DM option right or wrong. A safety plan built before you have assessed the risk is an action taken too early; the same plan afterwards is good practice.
You cannot come back to a section you skip. The manual says you "will NOT be able to return to that section to insert a response", so an empty section scores nothing in its total.
Two totals, and you must pass both
This is the fact that decides more results than any single clinical error. In the manual's words: "Candidates must achieve total raw passing scores in both IG and DM to successfully complete the Registration Examination."
- Within one stream, sections can balance each other. A candidate below the pass score in one section "can still achieve the pass-score by being sufficiently above the pass-score in another section".
- Between streams, nothing balances. Points earned in IG never count toward DM, and the reverse.
- Your score sheet reports your IG and DM results separately, each with its own required pass mark.
Two profiles fail for this reason. The careful clinician gathers thoroughly, then selects one or two actions per DM section out of caution and falls short in DM. The confident clinician takes the one obvious enquiry in each IG section, then decides well, and falls short in IG. How the CRPO exam is scored covers the weights and totals in more detail.
Reading an Information Gathering section
The stem names a purpose and usually a time frame. Name both before you click. In the lab's free practice case, the first stem asks what you would want to know "to orient Amrit and establish consent", before turning to why he came. Asking how his father died is relevant grief work, and it is weighted -2 there, because it invites disclosure before he knows how the information will be recorded or when it might have to be shared.
The test is relevance to the purpose, not thoroughness. Sort the options into four groups before selecting: what you must know to do what the stem describes, what is useful and related, what serves some other purpose, and what would harm the client or the relationship. Take the first group, add the second if it fits, and leave the rest. The manual warns that if you select all options "you will have selected options with both positive and negative point values".
Reading a Decision Making section
The two formats need two different habits.
SELECT AS MANY. Several actions are appropriate and you are expected to assemble a complete response, not pick a favourite. Ask whether you have covered what is happening in the room, the client's say in what happens next, the record, and the follow-up. One strong option leaves most of the section's credit unearned: the manual notes that if you "select almost no options, you will likely have insufficient points" for the section.
CHOOSE ONLY ONE. One option is the most acceptable, though others may be defensible. You are ranking, not filtering. Read every option first, set aside the clearly weaker ones, then ask which of the last two a careful practitioner would see as the more complete answer to what the client actually said or did.
In both formats, watch the time stamp on each action. Many negative options are correct acts taken before the assessment that would justify them. The exam strategy module works through these traps case by case.
Common questions
Can a strong Information Gathering score make up for weak Decision Making?
No. The two are separate raw totals with separate pass marks, and you must reach both. A strong section can only offset a weak one inside the same stream.
Are Information Gathering sections ever CHOOSE ONLY ONE?
The Resource Manual describes IG directions as SELECT AS MANY. The CHOOSE ONLY ONE format is described as one of the two ways a Decision Making section may be set out.
Is one type worth more than the other?
CRPO and COMPASS do not publish a split between them. Since each total has its own pass mark, prepare for both to the same standard.
Does the client's reply tell me whether I chose well?
No. Nothing in the manual links the information shown under an option to its weight, and a harmful option can draw a warm reply. Decide each option on its merits before you see the response.