Marc A. Neff
Editor

2014

Second Edition

“The American Board of Surgery regrets to inform you that you were not successful in the Certifying Examination given in Cleveland, OH, in October, 2002. It was the consensus of your examiners that your performance during the examination was not of the level required for certification by the Board.” That is the way the letter reads if you do not pass the Oral Boards from the American Board of Surgery. Three more paragraphs follow in that awful letter I read to myself the evening of November 2, 2002, less than 4 days since I had taken the Oral Boards. It was a cold fall night and all I could think of was, Why I didn’t care more? Was it because a good friend had informed me earlier in the day that he had failed too? Was it that I just had such a bad gut instinct since I left the Board exam that I had been preparing myself the past few days for bad news.