Hi Everyone,
I am shocked and embarassed--found out this week that I failed the ABIM exam for 2009. Just started fellowship and thought that everyone passes the exam--is there any advice that you can offer me? Also, my Fellowship program is sufficiently pissed over this (it potenitally screws up their results) but is anyone aware of any other consequences that they can invoke upon me?
I appreciate your consideration and thoughtful input.
Hey Cards...sorry to hear about this....but here is some words that (hopefully) console you...
My mother is assistant fellowship PD (OK...fine, it's in neonatalology, subspeciality of peds, but the principle is still the same), and she has had a couple of fellows over the years who have failed their general peds boards...trust me, my friend, your fellowship program HAS had fellows in this situation before and there will be many more in this situation AFTER you...i'm not gonna lie to ya' and say the she, as a Ass't PD, is ecstatic over this when it happens, but they ALL know these things happen....from THEIR perspective, the not passing has nothing to do with intelligence, per se, but more of a nuisance, in that now the fellow has to take some time off and take this test, etc, etc, blah, blah...
Albeit every program is different, but try not to let it shake you too much...I can only reassure you in that they have had people in this boat before and know that some of the best ones don't pass their first time....it's more of an "inconvenience" issue for THE MAN (I mean administration
) than anything else...i can only assume that you are in cards...i am sure your cards "grade" was top notch, and they realize that if your knowledge in, say, pulm or rheum is not stellar, it's not really gonna make you a bad cards fellow....now, it's just a matter of redeeming yourself and hunkering down to pass the next time...i sympathize for your mental lack of peace, time and energy wasted in the future, and not to speak of more freggin' $$$ for this exam, but that should be even MORE of an impetus for you to knock the CRAP outta this test the next time...
And about the fellowship people....don't worry too much about that...i can ASSURE you that they've been through this before and will go through this again in the future...
Hope this helped!
BTW....these are
