Failed Oral in April this year and ABR feedback letter includes wrong name

[newradonc2025]

Hi all,

I need some wisdom/help.


To my surprise I failed 3 sections in my oral this April, so I've requested ABR for feedback.

The letter containing feedback was vague such as "you failed to display appropriate anatomic knowledge or your treatment of *** cancer was not acceptable."

None of the feedback was specific enough to let me know why I failed, and you could have said those things to anyone.


To make things even worse, some of the things that were commented on in the feedback letter made me think they were completely irrelevant to my cases.

For example, there was one section where my examiner kept asking me the same question 3 times (twice in a row) then at the very end of that section, the examiner asked the same question again, so I knew my answer was not satisfactory. That was probably the only section I thought I might have gotten a conditional pass or a failure.


In the feedback letter that was not mentioned at all and states a completely different reason why I failed. Again, none of those reasons were specific or constructive enough to convince me why I failed.


Lastly, I could not believe that the letter contained a wrong name. It did have the right ABR ID and on the top the right name and the address but in the actual content, it starts with a wrong name addressing me.


I took 4 different mock orals including the ones from my home institutions by my attendings right before the real one. I felt all my attendings endorsed me that I was ready to move on to the real one. I would have known if I was making major mistakes and the real one was the most uneventful exams I've ever had. So, I felt pretty good.


I have not reached out ABR yet because I am concerned that they will tell me that this was just a typo or clerical error that they made in the letter and why I failed is still valid. But how can I trust that? I feel like I need more than their words.


I think I heard during the oral exam intro session that they do record the examines for quality control. Would it be possible for me to request those videos or to see any transcripts if they exist?


Again, if there is anyone out there who has had similar experiences, please feel free to message me privately and I appreciate any advice on how I can navigate my situation wisely. Again, thank you so much everyone.

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[udrag14]

Hi all,

I need some wisdom/help.


To my surprise I failed 3 sections in my oral this April, so I've requested ABR for feedback.

The letter containing feedback was vague such as "you failed to display appropriate anatomic knowledge or your treatment of *** cancer was not acceptable."

None of the feedback was specific enough to let me know why I failed, and you could have said those things to anyone.


To make things even worse, some of the things that were commented on in the feedback letter made me think they were completely irrelevant to my cases.

For example, there was one section where my examiner kept asking me the same question 3 times (twice in a row) then at the very end of that section, the examiner asked the same question again, so I knew my answer was not satisfactory. That was probably the only section I thought I might have gotten a conditional pass or a failure.


In the feedback letter that was not mentioned at all and states a completely different reason why I failed. Again, none of those reasons were specific or constructive enough to convince me why I failed.


Lastly, I could not believe that the letter contained a wrong name. It did have the right ABR ID and on the top the right name and the address but in the actual content, it starts with a wrong name addressing me.


I took 4 different mock orals including the ones from my home institutions by my attendings right before the real one. I felt all my attendings endorsed me that I was ready to move on to the real one. I would have known if I was making major mistakes and the real one was the most uneventful exams I've ever had. So, I felt pretty good.


I have not reached out ABR yet because I am concerned that they will tell me that this was just a typo or clerical error that they made in the letter and why I failed is still valid. But how can I trust that? I feel like I need more than their words.


I think I heard during the oral exam intro session that they do record the examines for quality control. Would it be possible for me to request those videos or to see any transcripts if they exist?


Again, if there is anyone out there who has had similar experiences, please feel free to message me privately and I appreciate any advice on how I can navigate my situation wisely. Again, thank you so much everyone.

Sorry about your failure. It is a shock but you have lots of opportunities to fix it.

I would reach out to them. You could receiving the wrong feedback. That could help explain it for you.

The feedback is vague. They dont want you to figure out the scoring system. Just try to correlate what you said and the feedback to realize weak areas.

 

[drowsy12]

You’ll bounce back no worries. Worth asking and making sure they don’t have the wrong person but otherwise you’ll do fine on a re-test.

Agree with you that the examiner asking you the same question three times was their attempt to give you a lifeline, sorry it didn’t work out.

Out of curiosity - willing to share what the question was?

 

[StIGMA]

Not smart to post this here as ABR can easily identify you from what you posted.

 

[newradonc2025]

So ABR will start policing me and hunt me down now, right?

I am sharing my own experience and real concerns here without giving away specific of the exams. I am seeking for some insights or perhaps if others have similar experiences, so perhaps we can make things better.

Am I not even allowed to do that?

Is silence the professionalism we are looking for?

Also, what about the professionalism from ABR? The feedbacks they are giving to me but also to other failed examinees are similar (at least one other feedback I read from one other failed examinee). Vague and useless.

It needs to be fair and transparent. Or I won't be the last to complain.



Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

 

[wysdoc]

So ABR will start policing me and hunt me down now, right?

I am sharing my own experience and real concerns here without giving away specific of the exams. I am seeking for some insights or perhaps if others have similar experiences, so perhaps we can make things better.

Am I not even allowed to do that?

Is silence the professionalism we are looking for?

Also, what about the professionalism from ABR? The feedbacks they are giving to me but also to other failed examinees are similar (at least one other feedback I read from one other failed examinee). Vague and useless.

It needs to be fair and transparent. Or I won't be the last to complain.



Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

I think that comment was directed at the person who asked you what one of the questions was.
You wisely didn’t answer.

Are you going to ask about the feedback since they used an incorrect name?

 

[drowsy12]

I think that comment was directed at the person who asked you what one of the questions was.
You wisely didn’t answer.

Lol I don’t think that was directed at me at all though yes I didn’t expect he/she to publicly post the question.

 

[StIGMA]

So ABR will start policing me and hunt me down now, right?

I suggested to not make it identifiable- not to not post.

 

[alwaysbeIMRTing]

Don't worry.

ABR will almost certainly admit their mistake and issue you an apology.

They would certainly never call you stupid and intentionally try and ruin your life.

 

[newradonc2025]

Thank you everyone. I was just concerned. I will reach out to ABR. Again, my apology if I have offended anyone. It has been a rough time since the oral board result came out and we all know how this impacts our lives.

 

[fiji128]

My guess is you will probably never get actionable real feedback from the ABR other then just vague generalities. I'd just make sure there were no mistakes made with the name/ID thing. Otherwise the only real play you can make is to double down on studying and practice for the next exam. You will have another year of real world practice as an independent doc so that in of itself should help a good deal.