Over the last decade I have had the privilege of being involved in medical education as a postgraduate trainer and undergraduate tutor. In that time much has improved in terms of standard setting. However, an excessive focus on writing up reflective case studies is proving time-consuming for all concerned, impeding both learners and teachers. In 2007 the examination for Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) changed format, and became a compulsory exit exam to practise within our specialty. The key tenets of postgraduate education are building on the relevant within the basic sciences and clinical specialties, and linking theory with practice. Most would agree that knowing the distribution of the saphenous veins, or the pathophysiology of heart failure, are highly relevant to clinical care, while a detailed recollection of the Krebs cycle is not. To that end, the summative components of the MRCGP are sound. The applied knowledge test (AKT) reasonably tests the application of factual knowledge, while the clinical skills assessment (CSA) is certainly more representative of a consulting practise than the video assessment it replaced. By contrast the third component, the workplace-based assessment (WPBA) should, I believe, be reassessed. At its hub is the requirement for registrars to keep a diary of case studies with reflective analysis on the ePortfolio, and for trainers to review and comment on these, validating evidence in 12 domains. While a degree of written reflection is desirable, attempting to make it nearer an exact science is erroneous. The categories necessarily overlap, with inevitable repetition in trainers’ reports, and the ethos that not everything that counts can be counted should be respected. As Guy Claxton states in his co-authored book Liberating the Learner: ‘While the idea that learning demands continual busyness, and that therefore if you are not visibly doing something you cannot be learning anything of significance, disables those vital modes that require stillness, reverie, inwardness, and reflection.’ 1