Since 1952, the Menninger School of Psychiatry has given its residents annual written examinations to evaluate their learning and to check the ratings of their supervisors. The results showed that the residents improved, but more in their second than first year; one third of the third-year residents failed to use an acceptable basis for their diagnostic formulations; the supervisors' ratings of advanced fellows were often not corroborated by results of the examinations. There is a low but consistent positive correlation between performance on examination, supervisors' ratings, and intelligence. The best scores were obtained when the subject matter had been re-enforced by clinical experience. Growth seemed to be greatest in the second and third years, after it had been possible to relinquish the narrow medical orientation characteristic of the first year.