I passed my oral board examination! My last test ever....was a nightmare

I recently took and passed the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) oral board examination, the final step toward becoming a board certified neurosurgeon. But the process turned out to be way more stressful and dramatic than I would have ever expected. Listen in as I recount the story of my nightmare exam, and how I overcame some unexpected cirumstances.

[@ethanpitney2563]

Absolutely insane story. So glad you passed given all that unexpected craziness. I couldn't even begin to imagine what you must have felt during all of that... Congrats!!!

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12 more years after medschool… my god. I am happy the world has you as a neurosurgeon after so many sacrifices

[@pranavvk8111]

Huge and heart congratulations, Dr. Rutkowski! You deserve all of this and more! The way you narrate is truly inspirational and as an incoming freshman undergraduate, I really look up to you. Congrats once again!!

[@danielwillis12]

Amazing job man, thank you so much for bringing us all on this journey with you 💪

[@joshbritton]

While I haven’t finished the video in it’s entirety I can say you have a calming voice and are an excellent story teller

[@dry.colton]

What a story doc. Things don't always go the way they are planned, but it seems that effort always produces results. Thanks for sharing!

[@kevinespinoza1016]

Your story melted my heart Dr. Martin. We are all very happy for your new accomplishment. Congratulations on being board certified 🎉🎉🎉

[@DW-bc2gl]

Wow! An incredibly encouraging story! Congratulations! A job well done!

[@mqamar28]

You are so well spoken. You’re story telling is flawless. Good work and congrats on your hard earned results.

[@StudyWithMe001]

Congrats on finishing, Dr. R - thanks for sharing your experience with us! Good luck to all my fellow students out there!!

[@ayeshakhilji2831]

Many congratulations Dr Martin. So happy for you!! 🎉🎉🎉 Can’t imagine how stressful it must’ve been. Glad to know that it’s over.

[@angeliriogbe8038]

Resilience at it's best 🥺. Definitely saving this video. Congratulations again Doc, so happy everything worked out well for you.

[@GamerDemonz]

You are a fantastic story teller! I'm so glad that you passed, well deserved!

[@SD0609]

Hearty Congratulations!! That must be such a relief. You are passionate about your profession and you definitely deserve the best. We are proud to have great doctors like you.

[@andrewwomer1052]

Huge congratulations!!!! Proud of you!!!!

[@CZMCIQ]

Absolutely terrifying and motivating at the same time, thanks for this one Dr.Rutkowski.

[@clintpotts5799]

Omg that sounds like hell, but you did it! Absolutely blown away by your story. Congratulations!!

[@da3ki]

Insane story, listen to this story makes me very emotional, i've had numbers of stressful experiences that had to do with examination and the feeling you get while you handle these und you succed and handle it well is great

[@minajones8341]

That’s amazing! Congratulations!!

[@MCMMADDOGXCV]

Crazy as hell! Congratulations! Well deserved

[@miskats]

This is so wholesome! I'm SO happy for you!!!!!

[@Danny_jrt]

Very happy for you Dr. Rutkowski! You're a huge inspiration, and your commitment to excellence is infectious. I appreciate the content. Looking forward to the next one.

[@erickdiaz92]

You're an amazing story teller! Truly enjoyed listening to the experience. Thank you for sharing and congratulations!

[@theresaabdo1039]

Thank you for sharing this. Please keep posting life lessons and wisdoms you learned along the way. These are very helpful.

[@Dr.Macrophage]

Such an amazing story, I love the way you tell it, thanks for sharing ❤

[@donkurtz560]

Dearest Martin. Nancy and I are so proud of you passing your board exams amidst all the trials of a power outage. So glad you persevered and were able to complete the process without a 6 month delay. All the best to you in your career. Love from us….

[@sahabrandon1]

Congratulations Dr. !! 🙌 You deserve it 👍

[@danielj844]

Congrats Dr. Rutkowski. It's great to see a new video again. Great story, I hope I can achieve the same one day. Thanks for your videos, are great motivation to me. Greetings from Ecuador.

[@michelegeiger520]

Congratulations! What an accomplishment!

[@quiesce8882]

Amazing stuff! Your work ethic and attitude to medicine is really inspiring, thanks for everything

[@lopj456]

Great job doc. Thanks for the inspiration

[@seriouslag]

Congratulations, after so long you finally are certified as you deserve to be. Here's to a long and storied career Dr Rutkowski!

[@yinkamoses6880]

Wow, Congratulations, Doctor Martin. So happy for you.🎉🎉

[@evanmiles7252]

Great video Dr! You are a great story teller!

[@lillysmith4040]

Congratulations 🎉 What an experience, you definitely won't forget this exam 😅 I just graduated from med school and I can't imagine myself going through exams again

[@holykalli2563]

Congratulations, Dr. Rutkowski! I'm so thankful for your videos.

[@tknc99]

Congrats Doc, and wishing you all the best!!! Thank you for the videos for providing some insight of your profession of a Neurosurgeon. The world is lucky to have a guy like you who’s passionate about the field of medicine and saves peoples lives on a daily basis. From the bottom of my heart congrats again, you deserve it!

[@dandefoe]

Great video about your training journey and results of your certification exam. Congratulations. The sphere of worry and sphere of control and when to let go part was my best takeaway. Here's wishing you many years of fulfilling work helping patients by doing what you love. You're a great credit to your profession. Keep creating your content. It's engaging, educational, and shows that super specialists are humans, too. Thanks

[@jocelynorozco5632]

Congratulations Dr.Rutkowski this is a very much deserved accomplishment 👏🏻

[@angeliriogbe8038]

Congratulations Doc🥳🥳

[@jordanmackner7334]

I'm a first year medical student starting this summer. Love your videos. You are an inspiration

[@serajajaj8201]

Congrats, you are a fighter by nature. Best regards

[@steph.91]

Congrats Dr. Rutkowski!!!! Well deserved. You are such an inspiration. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

[@sharynwithawhy1851]

Wow, so stressful! Congratulations 🎉 You’ve certainly earned it.

[@SJTha]

Congratulations!!! I am so amazed that you have had time to even be on KZbin as you were preparing for this exam. Then to have such issues during your exam, wow! Again, congrats!

[@johnkirk8650]

Congratulations on passing despite the series of events Dr Rutkowski ! Awsome and brutal story

[@ssrum3419]

Congrats Doc!!

[@davidpitcher3054]

Congratulations, Sir! Full board certification is so important! Well done!

[@omiddelfi2510]

OMG this sounds insanely stressful. Well done you didn’t let your unexpected situation effect your performance in the most important test of your life. Also I’m glad to see your med experiences helped to cope with the whole situation, after all you’re at your pick of emotional intelligence. Huge congratulations 🧠❤️

[@cuyareview3039]

Congratulations doc. You've got a story to tell for the rest of your life. I hope and pray that neither I nor any of my family ever need brain surgery but if we do, I would travel to GA to be your patient. You inspire confidence like no doctor I've ever met and certainly more than any Internet doc, apropos to your next video.

[@PharaohYTC]

congratulations!! 🙌🏾🙌🏾

[@alexobrien4466]

Congratulations to you and your family.

[@bryanjacobs9680]

To put it simply, you are a BOSS!!!

[@aaqibzyt]

Such stress and getting grilled on your mistakes. Love it already. What a chance to improve as a person and a specialist.

[@Rawhite007]

Congrats on passing your boards and the last test of your life with heavy weather ! Must be intense picking 5 cases at random from your entire history but at the same time the power going out + the mad dash across town must be violently rough on the psyche but hey you passed the last exam ever ! hope the 16 years of training has been a good and enriching ride for you & your life! ending reminds me of the saying "Control your controllables" but you did it, one last time wholeheartedly congrats on achieving the Board Certified Neurosurgeon status.

[@shashishekhar----]

Congrats Doctor Rutkowski, you are one hell of a man, keep these videos coming.

[@elmerparedes1098]

GRIT, that’s what separates you and the rest of us mere mortals. My hat is off to you and anyone else who spends half a lifetime to hone in their craft, never losing sight of the prize. I’m assured you’ll “enjoy the fruits of your labor” and have a long rewarding career. I’m now subscribed

[@drsmart0078]

Intriguing anecdote to stimulate my interest in neurosurgery .Kudos to ur success.

[@liftingisfun2350]

I'm was a pre med and neuroscience student turned software engineer post-graduation, and it's interesting and inspiring to hear you describe your path and build your career. Congratulations and onward

[@thenightcorereaper]

Amazing, this is just amazing. You serve as a huge inspiration to me, sir.

[@koz7102]

Ohhh Doctor, that should've been one HELL of an experience. More adversity makes it more rewarding though...Congratulations on your Board Certification Doc! I hope I'll get to meet with you someday as a colleague and share my story

[@danielmadeira3957]

u a champ. i’m a 1st year med student in the uk! hoping to be where you are soon. keep up the work :)

[@abdulkhaliqkarim509]

congratulations sir !very inspirational .

[@amjadaltarawneh3219]

Congratulations, Amazing story filled with excitement , let it go ☝️

[@adambomber96]

Wow such an intense rollercoaster! Thank you for the context of this examination as well (your experience, education, and position) it really helped me understand the weight of this exam so much more. I am begging my education as an MD as an M1 in 2 months and this kind of content is so helpful and informative about the possible journeys I may take as I begin my career in medicine. How did you choose and when did you choose neurosurgery as a specialty? Also when did you choose tumors as your subspecialty in neurosurgery?

[@michael-m]

Congratulations Doc!

[@mhaeblue4686]

Congratulations!!!!! I look up to you

[@lacey1714]

What a story!! Thanks for sharing doc! Another video topic maybe… how do you balance life? 😁 I’m curious! Seems very stressful!

[@robinveitch7457]

Crazy Story and Congratulations Dr. Rutkowski!!

[@ChosenWon]

Congratulations. You're a great representative of the profession.

[@hashemtawfiq400]

congratulations Doc. you earned it

[@frogprincessss]

Thank you for sharing. Experienced something similar last year, but unfortunately I didn't make it. Here I am, one year later and about to take the exam in roughly 2 months. Hope I make it this time.

[@aidanmorgan4630]

I wish I was you. Over the last two days watching your videos I have felt like I could not possibly find a better role model on the internet for anything in life that requires discipline, intelligence and confidence. Thank You!

[@usmleislife3396]

Congratulations 🍾🎉

[@mr.truffles9294]

Congratulations Doc 🎉

[@dpk737]

I'm so happy for you.Doc

[@jeanlanz2344]

Congratulations, Dr Rutkowski. Your dedicated hard work over more than 16 years (plus your undergraduate degree and two years of research before med school) has given you the skills, experience and commitment to save many people's lives. That is truly meaningful. God bless you and your family.

[@brianepst]

Congrats doc🙌👏🙏

[@indyraweng777]

Heyyyy doctor :))) congratulations I’m very happy for you I even cried at the end,cant imagine the pressure. When you said you studied 16yrs, you me mean my whole life ahahaha. You inspire me to never give up and I hope in the future I can be like you:) Operating brain ;))))

[@maxxxgsd]

Well deserved sir !

[@NickanM]

_WOW!_ _Congratulations from Sweden!_ 🇸🇪

[@lenz5362]

This will help me certainly go forward about how i feel about my accomplishment in residency

[@emilymyers1095]

Congratulations!

[@mannagarwal5390]

You're really a good speaker.

[@duran4689]

This happened to me as well. I was going to take a final online but the power to my house went out and I only had a desktop not a laptop. I rushed to school with 13minuets before the test begins. I go to my university library and had to check out a charger and laptop (slowest laptops on planet earth) took my 20m to login and get the browser lock going before I could take a 2 part exam. I didn’t even begin part 2 before my time ran out due to my school laptop being so slow. Sadly my teacher didn’t care that I had technical difficulties and said it wouldn’t of mattered if I taken the second part. I was down in the dumps for a while being that it was in covid times and no in person exams were being held I raged for why this was happening to me. Luckily I was able to make myself proud again by still passing the semester and making honors the next semester. It makes me feel better when even a neurosurgeon has the same predicaments as me showing we are all human and have the same things happen to us all. Currently on my journey to becoming a cardiologist one day. Thank you for the video it really made me laugh and feel better about past troubles🤝🏼👍🏼

[@TheMeeeww]

Congratulations!!!

[@siyuan962]

Ur just too awesome! Would love to know ur parents recipe for raising such a hard working and dedicated human being.

[@nicorusso1526]

Love the human side, doc, glad all went well

[@andrepalms]

Congrats!!!

[@yay10101010]

Wow. Wow. Wow. I was on the edge of my seat!!! I died 10 times...but you brought me back!!!😅 congratulations!

[@kevinhuie1]

Congratulations Dr. Rutkowski!!

[@darshank1571]

Congrats . Kudos to you.

[@s96822]

Big Congrats first of all. IMO the best and truest exam is that multi year exam called residency where you are observed and evaluated by your peers 24/7 in the fire in real life conditions with real cases. Now with a time limited certificate you can look forward to coughing up MOC fees and redoing the tests in 10 years.

[@Malftap]

Congrats on passing....trust me, I know how much goes into preparing for that test. Especially if you did the tumor sub-specialization section. Oh ya....you're suppose to feel like crap after taking that test

[@zephyr7227]

Congratulations, Dr. Rutkowski.

[@ahmedsaber1997]

After 2 days from now I will do my exam in the 6th grade in med school , when I remember all past years and all the exam that I had before , especially the exam that determine that I will go to med school and become a doctor, with all these recall and now seeing the last exam in my life in med school before go to hospital as a resistor, it’s really seem very emotional to me

[@khushis8759]

I was almost stressing about my exam I have to take in 2 days ....and i remembered this video ...i knew I cud calm down when I will hear that it is okay to feel jittery about a big exam....and that I just need to be calm and revise I really hope i do good 🤞

[@ZonMart6]

Congratulations 🎊 👏 💐 🥳

[@haridave5817]

Congrats Dr. Rutkowski! 🎉🎉

[@Foriamme]

That is possibly the most stressful examination story I have ever heard and I am a university professor.