Aim: Programmatic assessment for learning (PAL) is becoming more and more popular as a concept but its implementation is not without problems. In this paper we describe the design principles behind a PAL program in a general practice training context.Design principles: The PAL program was designed to optimise the meaningfulness of assessment information for the registrar and to make him/her use that information to self regulate their learning. The main principles in the program were cognitivist and transformative. The main cognitive principles we used were fostering the understanding of deep structures and stimulating transfer by making registrars constantly connect practice experiences with background knowledge. Ericsson's deliberate pra...