The search continues for the optimum method of assessing psychiatric
residents' knowledge. In 1982, 72% of the U.S. residency programs gave the
Psychiatry Resident In-Training Examination ( PRITE ). The authors compared
the PRITE with an examination developed by their program. The two tests
yielded highly correlated percentages of correct responses and resident
rank orders for advanced residents, detected similar areas of weakness, had
comparable dollar costs, and elicited similar, moderately high resident
satisfaction. Important differences were the amount of information and
feedback provided to residents and to the residency program and the time
between the test and the feedback.Abstract Teaser