Official Expert Answer
Your colleague is essentially right. The Kenntnisprüfung is a pass or fail examination:
• You either pass and the result goes to the Approbationsbehörde, or you do not and you retake it. The Approbationsurkunde that follows does not display a grade.
• Employers ask whether you hold the Approbation, not how the exam went. In interviews the questions that actually decide things are about your clinical experience, your Hospitation, your references, and your German.
• Delaying has a real and measurable cost: months of Assistenzarzt salary, later start of your Weiterbildung, and a longer path to permanent residence.
If you are reasonably prepared, take the date. The exam is the gate, not the scorecard, and nothing on the other side of it depends on how narrowly you passed.
• You either pass and the result goes to the Approbationsbehörde, or you do not and you retake it. The Approbationsurkunde that follows does not display a grade.
• Employers ask whether you hold the Approbation, not how the exam went. In interviews the questions that actually decide things are about your clinical experience, your Hospitation, your references, and your German.
• Delaying has a real and measurable cost: months of Assistenzarzt salary, later start of your Weiterbildung, and a longer path to permanent residence.
If you are reasonably prepared, take the date. The exam is the gate, not the scorecard, and nothing on the other side of it depends on how narrowly you passed.