summary Besides being taught to perform the 'normal' clinical evaluation of a patient, trainee psychiatrists should be introduced to and learn to work with psychiatric measuring instruments. Trainees need to learn to assess the results of the most important screening instruments and self-report instruments and be able to conduct screening interviews, complete diagnostic interviews and interviews for rating the severity of the major psychiatric disorders. The measuring instruments which the authors believe are suitable for use in psychiatric training are listed; the instruments have been selected on the basis of the recommendations contained in other articles in this issue.