Ben Carson Claims He Was Named "Most Honest" Student in a Yale Class That Didn't Exist

Ultimate Trickster Ben Carson Claims He Was Named "Most Honest" Student in Yale Class That Didn't Exist

I think there are several ways to spin this positively:

1. If he was the only person in that imaginary class, he was therefore the most honest.

2. Even if he is lying about this, he still may be the most honest person from his Yale class.

I went ahead and read that portion of Carson’s book, and the story does make some sense in context. (Click on "look inside this book" and search for Perceptions 301. Then click on the result.)


As he tells the story, it was an impossibly hard retest, and the only notification given was on a bulletin board, which just mentioned that it was a necessary re-test, and did not mention that it was to be far more difficult than the lost exam. The other students showed up, but walked out during the unproctored test when they saw that the questions simply could not be answered. They all figured they would simply claim that they had never checked the bulletin board. According to Carson, he was the only one who chose not to use this lie and accept a zero on the test if that’s how it worked out.

Of course, the fact that the story in its full context makes at least some sense doesn't change the fact that there was no such class as Perceptions 301. It is possible, however, that the story is essentially true, albeit with various facts deliberately or unintentionally misremembered.