The registration assessment is one of the ways we test whether you can demonstrate that you understand how to apply knowledge appropriately and in a timely way, to make professional judgements in pharmacy practice. It also tests your number sense and that you are able to perform the calculations needed to practise as a pharmacist.
The assessment makes sure that all trainees have reached the same minimum standard of ability, no matter where they have trained in Great Britain. Passing the assessment is part of the overall criteria for registration as a pharmacist.
The registration assessment regulations set out key information and rules that cover the assessment. They are updated every year and issued before the first sitting of the year.
The registration assessment specification sets out how the assessment will be run and will help you decide if you need to request a reasonable adjustment.
The registration assessment framework sets out the outcomes that will be tested and gives an idea of some of the topics this may cover.
The registration assessment is set and moderated by an independent board of assessors.
You can only be considered for entry to the registration assessment once you have achieved a week-39 progress report that is marked as satisfactory. If you are marked as unsatisfactory at the week-39 point, you may need to take the assessment at a later date. You should develop an action plan – including SMART objectives – to help you deal with your shortfalls against the performance standards.
You will be judged against the same principles in your week-39 review as in the previous reviews. This judgement will be based on the quality of your evidence and performance, and must not be made more lenient so that you can enter the registration assessment.
You will need to submit an application form to sit the assessment through your myGPhC account by the deadline given and show that you meet the eligibility criteria to sit the assessment.
Visit the main GPhC website to find out about applying for the registration assessment, including the full eligibility criteria.
The topics covered by the assessment are set out in the registration assessment framework.
The standard a pre-registration trainee must achieve to pass the registration assessment remains the same across each sitting. The pass mark for each paper varies from sitting to sitting depending on the combined difficulty of the questions.This is to make sure that the assessment is fair and that the standard is maintained. Candidates must achieve the pass mark or above for each paper in order to demonstrate that they have achieved the required standard for safe and effective practice.
The pass mark for the assessment is arrived at using evidence-based standard setting processes - recognised methods used by examination bodies to derive pass marks for papers in order to apply a set standard across sittings. When preparing assessment papers, a standard-setting panel of pharmacists assesses the standard of each question in each of the papers. The standard setting panel reviews each question in relation to difficulty and this process produces a provisional pass mark for each paper.
Before agreeing pass marks for each paper, the Board of Assessors undertakes a full review of the performance of the questions, and the papers as a whole. This includes statistical analysis of the relative level of difficulty.
You won’t need to bring reference sources to the assessment. You will use only the reference sources provided.
Examples of possible reference sources include:
Part one of the assessment is amde up of 40 calculation questions. You will have two hours to complete these, and you will be able to use a calculator.
An example of a calculation question is below:
Part two of the assessment is made up of 120 questions: 90 'single-best-answer' questions, and 30 'extended-matching' questions. You will have 2.5 hours to complete these, and you will not be able to use a calculator.
Here is an example of a single best answer (SBA) question:
An SBA question has three parts: a scenario, a question and five answer options.
For this type of question, select the single best answer from the five options. Each question has one best answer, but there may be other answers that are plausible but are not the best answer – these are, therefore, incorrect.
Here is an example of an extended matching question (EMQ):
An EMQ has four parts: a theme, a list of answer options, an instruction and a number of scenarios.
For this type of question, choose the best option from the list provided. Each option may be used once, more than once or not at all.
After each assessment sitting, the board of assessors - who are responsible for setting and assuring the registration assessment - produce feedback about the topics that candidates found difficult. Use the latest feedback documents below to help you prepare for your attempt:
The registration assessment framework [PDF 209.46 KB] sets out the outcomes that will be tested and gives an idea of some of the topics this may cover.
Sometimes there are changes in practice close to the assessment day. You should answer any questions in the assessment as you would in practice on that day. If there has been a change in practice that affects a question after it has been written, this will be considered by the Board of Assessors after the sitting.
Make sure that if you attend any study days, or use any study materials, that they are up to date.
If you have a specific need which you feel could disadvantage you when sitting the registration assessment, you can request a ‘reasonable adjustment’ to the assessment conditions. The specific need can be a temporary or permanent one.
You can find out more about requesting an adjustment on the registration assessment application page of the main website.
When you request an adjustment, you must tell us:
You also need to include evidence to support your request. This evidence must be from a doctor or another appropriately qualified person, and must give details of how your specific need would affect you during the assessment. The person providing supporting evidence will need to have read and understood the assessment specification.
It is important that the evidence relates directly to the reasonable adjustment you are requesting.
Your request will be considered by the GPhC’s adjustment panel. This is an independent panel made up of an educational disability specialist and two members of the GPhC board of assessors (which sets and moderates the registration assessment).
If your request for an adjustment is not granted you have the right to appeal the decision. You must do this by the deadline given for the sitting.
It is very important that you only sit the registration assessment if you are fit to do so. Being ‘fit to sit’ means that you do not know of any reason why your performance would be adversely affected on the day of the assessment.
If you are aware of anything that might affect your performance on the day, you should not sit the assessment – even if it is a difficult decision to make.
You are eligible to withdraw from a sitting at any time up until the assessment begins. Once you have decided to withdraw, you will not be able to attempt the assessment. The final point at which you are able to withdraw from the sitting will be made clear to you. By continuing with the sitting after this point, you have declared yourself 'fit to sit'. This means that we will not consider as grounds for an appeal any reason that was known to you before your decision to sit the assessment.
You can find more information about deciding if you are fit to sit in the registration assessment application section of the main website.
If you start the assessment and then have problems during the sitting which significantly affect your performance, you can request that your attempt is ‘nullified’ under the registration assessment regulations that apply to the sitting. You must let an invigilator know as soon as possible if you have problems during the sitting. They will fill in a report form to verify your problem. It is very important that you do not wait until receiving a 'fail' notification before contacting us to tell us anything that has affected your performance.
If your attempt is nullified, it will not count towards the three attempts you can have to pass the assessment, and you will not find out your result.
The decision to grant the nullification will be made by the board of assessors based on your request, and is not guaranteed to be accepted. They will not know what your marks were.
You cannot request a nullification after you have received your results.
If you decide to sit the assessment again, you must apply as normal and you will need to pay another entry fee.
You can find more information about nullification requests in the registration assessment section of the main website.
The registration assessment framework explains what we are testing in the registration assessment. You can download a PDF copy of the framework here.
The registration assessment tests some, but not all, of the learning outcomes set out in Future pharmacists: standards for initial education and training of pharmacists. The other outcomes will be tested as part of your MPharm degree and pre-registration training placement - some may be tested in more than one way.
In the framework, each of the learning outcomes tested by the registration assessment has been linked to ‘indicative assessment topics’. This will help you better understand how learning outcomes are applied.
The assessment topics give an idea of what will be tested – there will be other topics included in an assessment paper. Pharmacy is a very broad subject, so it is not realistic to provide a framework that covers every topic in detail.
You can find out more about the framework in our YouTube video presentation.
To help you understand the relative importance of each outcome to the registration assessment, we have given them a weighting of high, medium or low:
Proportion of questions |
|
high weighting |
60% to 70% |
medium weighting |
25% to 35% |
low weighting |
up to 10% |
10.1 Expectations of a pharmacy professional |
||
Future pharmacists outcome |
Indicative assessment topics |
|
Low |
Recognise the duty to take action if a colleague’s health, performance or conduct is putting patients or the public at risk |
|
Low |
Apply the principles of clinical governance in practice |
|
Low |
Demonstrate how the science of pharmacy is applied in designing and developing medicines and devices |
|
Medium |
Respond appropriately to medical emergencies, including providing first aid |
|
10.2 |
The skills required in practice |
|
10.2.1 |
Implementing health policy |
|
Future pharmacists outcome |
Indicative assessment topics |
|
High |
Access and critically evaluate evidence to support the safe, rational and cost-effective use of medicines |
|
Medium |
Apply knowledge of current pharmacy-related policy to improve health outcomes |
|
10.2.2 |
Validating therapeutic approaches and supplying prescribed and over-the-counter medicines |
|
Future pharmacists outcome |
Indicative assessment topics |
|
High |
Identify and employ the appropriate diagnostic or physiological testing techniques in order to promote health |
|
Medium |
Identify inappropriate health behaviours and recommend suitable approaches to interventions |
|
High |
Instruct patients in the safe and effective use of their medicines and devices |
|
Medium |
Analyse prescriptions for validity and clarity |
|
High |
Clinically evaluate the appropriateness of prescribed medicines |
|
High |
Provide, monitor and modify prescribed treatment to maximise health outcomes |
|
Low |
Record, maintain and store patient data |
|
Med |
Supply medicines safely and efficiently, consistently within legal requirements and best professional practice. NB: This should be demonstrated for both human and veterinary medicines |
|
10.2.3 |
Ensuring that safe and effective systems are in place to manage the risk inherent in the practice of pharmacy and the delivery of pharmaceutical services |
|
Future pharmacists outcome |
Indicative assessment topics |
|
Low |
Ensure the quality of ingredients to produce medicines and products |
|
Med |
Apply pharmaceutical principles to the formulation, preparation and packaging of products |
|
High (Part 1) |
Use pharmaceutical calculations to verify the safety of doses and administration rates |
|
Low |
Procure and store medicines and other pharmaceutical products working within a quality assurance framework |
|
Low |
Dispose of medicines safely, legally and effectively |
|
Low |
Identify, report and prevent errors and unsafe practice |
|
10.2.4 |
Working with patients and the public |
|
Future pharmacists outcome |
Indicative assessment topics |
|
High |
Identify and employ the appropriate diagnostic or physiological testing techniques to use in clinical decision-making |
|
10.2.5 |
Maintaining and improving professional performance |
|
Future pharmacists outcome |
Indicative assessment topics |
|
Low |
Demonstrate the characteristics of a prospective professional pharmacist as set out in relevant codes of conduct and behaviour |
|
Low |
Participate in audit and in implementing recommendations |
|
Low |
Contribute to the development and support of individuals and teams |
|
Questions in part two that relate to clinical care are linked to key therapeutic areas. An individual question may link to multiple therapeutic areas: for example, a patient may be described who has hypertension and type 2 diabetes. The weighting given to individual therapeutic areas is shown in the table below.
Therapeutic area |
Weighting |
Cardiovascular system |
High |
Nervous system |
High |
Endocrine system |
High |
Infection |
High |
Genito-urinary tract system |
Medium |
Gastro-intestinal system |
Medium |
Respiratory system |
Medium |
Immune system and malignant disease |
Medium |
Blood and nutrition |
Medium |
Musculoskeletal system |
Low |
Eye |
Low |
Ear, nose, and oropharynx |
Low |
Skin |
Low |
Vaccines |
Low |
Anaesthesia |
Low |
Each assessment is likely to include at least one question on each of the following drugs or drug groups:
Around 20 per cent of questions in the assessment will relate to paediatric patients.
Each assessment is likely to include at least one calculation question involving each of the following in part 1:
Some questions in part 2 will require some calculation.
Additional resources
Additional resources are provided for up to 25% of questions in part 1 and part 2 of the registration assessment. Examples of additional resources include photographs and dosing information.