The resident's perception of the nature of the socialization process during specialization in relation to hospital size and field of specialization was studied. A closed-type questionnaire was administered to 258 residents who in 1984 registered for Phase One of the National Board Examination during their training. The results indicate considerable homogeneity in their perception of the norms and rewards of the practice of medicine. No significant differences were found by field of specialization or size of hospital. However, there were significant differences in the nature of the actual training in relation to the size of the hospital. A great deal of direct training and a large routine workload was reported by residents in medium-sized hospitals as compared with large and small hospitals. Surprisingly, achievements of residents were not congruent with the pattern of training: the highest rate of success in the examination was achieved by residents in large hospitals, a lower rate in small hospitals, while the lowest was in medium-sized hospitals.