A method for determining an operational characteristic of a vibrating structure gyroscope having a movable mass includes: driving the mass to oscillate along a first, predefined path; rotating the vibrating structure gyroscope so as to oscillate the mass along a second path, wherein the second path is different to the first, predefined path; sensing the oscillation of the mass along the second path so as to generate a sensing signal; converting the sensing signal into an in-phase signal and an out-of-phase signal using a demodulator, wherein the in-phase signal is in phase with the oscillation of the mass along the first path, and the out-of-phase signal is out of phase with the in-phase signal.