We have noted Dr Faruqui's comments on our editorial. Dr Faruqui believes we should be more specific about recommendations for psychiatry examinations in the future, and argues that we have been ambiguous in not defining the format for future psychiatry examinations in more detail.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is not able independently to direct the course of examinations in the future. The Postgraduate Medical Educational and Training Board has indicated what principles should hold in postgraduate examinations, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists follows these as well as observing the practices of the other medical Royal Colleges.

There is a move to include workplace assessments as part of the panoply of assessment of competence. The methods to achieve this have not yet been fully described or, indeed, evaluated. The degree to which this kind of assessment will form part of the assessment of a candidate in a future MRCPsych examination has not been made explicit.

This is the present state of affairs. We are not expressing our own opinions in this part of the editorial; we are indicating the present state of play. We believe that competence is judged by public examinations and that performance is measured by workplace assessments that approximate to what occurs in the real world. Quality of work is not assessed in examinations and we do not believe that this is part of the remit of examination boards.