Dear all,
I would like to express my discontent with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology's (ABPN) Psychiatry Part II Oral Board Exam. It's an artificial and unfair evaluation of a psychiatrist's ability to take care of patients. The ABPN benefits from failing candidates so that the ABPN can collect $1350 for each additional exam that each candidate takes.

The ABPN does NOT disclose the actual exam score to each candidate. The results are simply "acceptable" or "unacceptable." How in the world do they objectively decide whether a candidate passes or fails, especially without full disclosure of the score? What are the ABPN examiners hiding?

To pour salt into a fresh wound, the ABPN charges an additional $100 to receive "feedback" about the Part II Oral Board Exam. Shouldn't that feedback be included with the exam fee? Why does the ABPN need to charge candidates an additional fee as well as the waiting time to wait for the feedback to be mailed out after already receiving the exam results?

What's even more ridiculous is that the ABPN charges $1000 for a candidate to appeal the exam results if there was an "administration" error. Even if the candidate wins the appeal, the candidate would STILL have to retake the stupid oral board exam. Therefore, most candidates who fail the Part II exam would prefer to pay another $1350 to retake the exam or just not take the exam again... perhaps forever. I think that the ABPN has secondary gain to fail a large percentage of the candidates. I think that this oral board exam is a disgrace to psychiatrists who have worked so hard to take care of patients.