ABSTRACT
The Part II MRCPsych Examination underwent a major change in the Spring of 1999 when the Short Answer Question paper (SAQ) was replaced with the Critical Review Paper (CRP). This has also coincided with withdrawal of the research option due to lack of interest. Reasons for the change and the aims of the paper have been summarised in the Psychiatric Bulletin (1997) but it appears that the main reasons for change were:
. Analysis of results showed consistently that candidates’ marks in the SAQ and Multiple-Choice Question (MCQ) papers correlated closely and assessed the same type of skills.
