The revalidation question

It was 1995, and I had smoothed down my hair, flattened my John Major suit, and adjusted my silk tie—this was my viva examination for membership of the royal college. This was a time of Russian roulette examinations, and everything depended on the examiners. My goal was to be just like them, such is the power of peer pressure. A hot question then, as now, was revalidation, and I had my response learnt, though without the pain of experience.

The ideas behind revalidation seem like common sense: …