As a meritocratic system relies on a standard of merit to measure and compare people against, the system by which this is done has to be reliable to ensure that their assessed merit accurately reflects their potential capabilities.
Siden et meritokratisk system er afhængige af en standard af merit for at kunne vurdere og sammenligne folk, så har systemet dette er gjort af at være pålideligt for at forsikre at ens vurderet merit faktisk reflekterer ens potentielle evner.