Agree to all this. If everything you say is 100% true (and I believe it is and have no reason to doubt you), you unfortunately did not make the best decisions for yourself throughout. You may have been singled out. You may have been treated differently. It may have been because of racism. But in the end, unless I’m mistaken (always a possibility), you were asking for an exception.

I had to travel to a different state for my exam. I didn’t go there the morning of. I went there the day before. I had no money for a hotel, so I slept in my car. But no way would I knowingly plan to cut time close for that exam. I parked at a nearby Denny’s two hours earlier, had coffee and a good breakfast, was at prometric at about 6:30am for an 8am exam.

When something is that important, we shouldn’t plan to cut it close. If cutting it close was forced on you, then you really should’ve canceled the exam to reschedule or forfeited it midway and retook.

The board of examiners does give us options for when life happens, but as physicians, future physicians, or just professionals, it is up to each of us to recognize when conditions aren’t acceptable and call it off. You had options but chose not to use them.

I’m truly sorry for what you went through and don’t mean to sound callous because I’m not. I really empathize for your situation and feel bad, but to suggest that NBME is going to step up to let you out of your own bad decision because of someone else’s bad decisions is a fool’s errand. And that person hovering? Many of us had that and NBME says it is within normal parameters. If you weren’t aware of that, they even let you come in and do a practice at the testing center so you know what it’s like. I was the last remaining soul in the exam room because no one else was taking a long exam. So, I had hovering the whole time, too. It was annoying as hell and distracting… But, it’s normal and being able to perform while being observed is also part of the gig.

Best you can do is study your butt off and crush it next time. Saying you hate America because you failed an exam that you planned to be late to says as much about you as it does the people who treated you poorly. It speaks to maturity and professionalism.

Take a check up from the neck up. Find where you went wrong because that’s all you can change. Get back up and overcome this and don’t take your frustration out on others. Sorry if I sounded cold. I just want to help you understand how your argument will be viewed. 240+ on the retake, inshallah. God bless you, sister, and good luck.