This paper describes the third stage in the evolution of methods of te
aching on audit in general practice at the Department of General Pract
ice, University of Glasgow. The authors asked the final year students
to develop, carry out and submit a written report on an audit project
devised by themselves, after briefing and with continued support. Ever
y student asked was successful in producing a report and the standard
was generally very high, although only two students completed the audi
t cycle in the 4 week period. More than half the students (51.7%) foun
d the project valuable or very valuable. As many as 90.6% understood a
udit better or much better after doing the project and 83.4% thought t
hat the project should continue to be part of the GP attachment. Seven
ty-eight per cent of the GP tutors thought that teaching audit to unde
rgraduates in general practice was valuable or very valuable, 64.4% re
ported that the audit had been of benefit to their practice, and 89.9%
thought that audit should continue to be part of the GP attachment. T
his method of teaching students about audit was the most successful of
three methods tried. It has produced benefits both for students and f
or the general practices to which they were attached, ultimately produ
cing benefits for patients.