SummarySince 1966 all recently appointed consultants in general psychiatry in the United Kingdom have been asked to rate their training experiences. Four postal surveys have been made at three yearly intervals, of 574 consultants appointed in the period 1 October 1965—30 September 1978. This paper reports the findings from the responses of 162 consultants appointed 1975–1978.Fifty per cent, or fewer, reported satisfactory training in special forms of psychotherapy, addiction, work in the community, mental handicap, forensic psychiatry, administration, research, psychogeriatrics, work with longstay patients, rehabilitation, medico‐legal work, group psychotherapy, work in a therapeutic community, child psychiatry, epidemiology and postgraduate teaching. Those who had been at the Maudsley Hospital considered that they had experienced the best training, while those who had been at peripheral hospitals the worst. Progress has been made in the past 3 years, notably in the fields of individual psychotherapy, community work and forensic psych