The GPhC Assessment in 2026: What Changed and What It Means for Your Revision

If you learned about the GPhC registration assessment from older revision guides, a surprising amount of it is out of date. The assessment is now called the Common Registration Assessment (CRA), it is set jointly by the GPhC and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland, and the framework for sittings in 2026 changed several things that affect how you should revise.

Here is what changed, and what each change means in practice.

One assessment for every route

In 2026 the format and content of the CRA are the same for every trainee pharmacist, whatever route you took to your foundation training year. That includes trainees whose MPharm was accredited to the 2021 initial education and training standards, trainees on the older interim learning outcomes, and those who came through an Overseas Pharmacists Assessment Programme.

June 2026 was the first sitting taken by trainees whose education and training was based on the 2021 standards. The November 2026 sitting follows the same framework.

Prescribing is not assessed

The 2021 standards include learning outcome 37: prescribe effectively within the relevant systems and frameworks for medicines use. The framework is explicit that this describes the act of prescribing and cannot be assessed in the CRA. It is overseen during the foundation training year instead.

So you will not be asked to act as a prescriber. Questions still test the decisions a pharmacist makes and the advice a pharmacist gives, including advising a prescriber.

No fixed percentage per clinical area

Older guides quote bands such as "60 to 70% of questions from high-weighting areas". The 2026 framework does not. It lists fifteen clinical therapeutic areas in order of how often they are assessed, aligned with the BNF and BNF for Children:

1. Cardiovascular
2. Central nervous system
3. Endocrine
4. Infection
5. Gastro-intestinal
6. Respiratory
7. Musculoskeletal and joint diseases
8. Obstetrics, gynaecology and genito-urinary
9. Nutrition and blood
10. Malignant disease and immunosuppression
11. Skin
12. Eye
13. Ear, nose and oropharynx
14. Vaccines
15. Drug toxicity

The framework then says there is no fixed minimum or maximum number of questions for any area. Content reflects disease prevalence in the UK, prescribing trends across the four nations and high-risk areas for patient safety. Most of Part 2 is clinical, and the rest is law, governance and regulation.

What it means: spend most of your time at the top of the list, but do not skip the bottom. An area with no guaranteed questions can still appear.

High-risk drug classes get their own list

The framework names twelve high-risk drug classes that may appear in either part, because errors with them are more likely or more harmful:

• anti-infectives (antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals)
• anti-thrombotics (antiplatelets and anticoagulants)
• chemotherapy
• conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs
• corticosteroids
• hypnotics and anxiolytics
• immunosuppressants
• insulins
• narrow therapeutic index medicines and those needing therapeutic drug monitoring
• opioids
• teratogenic medicines
• time-critical medicines

You are also expected to be up to date with MHRA and Commission on Human Medicines safety alerts.

The format, as it stands

Part 1 is 40 calculations in 120 minutes, answered by typing a number. Every paper includes at least one of each of nine calculation types: concentrations, dilutions, displacement volumes, dose and dosage regimens, infusion rates, medical statistics, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacokinetics and quantities to supply. All of them are multi-step.

Part 2 is 120 questions in 150 minutes: 90 single best answer questions with five options each, and 30 extended matching questions, set as 15 pairs that share a theme and eight options.

Both parts are sat on the same day, and you must reach the pass mark in each part separately. A strong Part 2 cannot make up for Part 1, or the other way round. We explain how that works in how the GPhC assessment is marked.

You bring nothing; the question supplies what it needs

You cannot bring any reference sources into the assessment. Where a question needs you to read something, it is supplied inside the question: a BNF or BNFC extract, a summary of product characteristics, a medication administration record, a prescription, a dispensing label, a register entry, a guideline or a treatment algorithm.

Common guidelines are not supplied, so you are expected to know them. Normal reference ranges for laboratory results are given, but normal ranges for everyday physiological measurements such as blood pressure and heart rate are not.

A calculator is allowed in both parts. You can use the on-screen calculator or bring an approved model, and a spare is allowed. In Part 2, the on-screen calculator only appears on questions that need a calculation.

Four nations, one paper

Because the same paper is sat across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, questions avoid anything that differs from one nation to another. Revise the principles and the law that apply everywhere rather than one nation's local services.

What this means for your revision

• Practise applying, not recalling. The framework says the CRA prioritises applying knowledge to realistic scenarios over factual recall. Expect a patient, a medicines list, a result, and a decision.
• Practise reading supplied material quickly. Get used to finding the one line you need in an SmPC section or a BNF-style extract under time pressure.
• Rehearse the real timings. About three minutes per calculation in Part 1, about a minute per single best answer and two per extended matching question in Part 2.
• Cover the high-risk classes deliberately. They can turn up anywhere.

The quickest way to see how all of this feels is to sit a full paper under the real timings. Our GPhC mock papers follow the 2026 format exactly, and you can try ten questions in the same style, free and with no account, in the free GPhC practice questions. For the November dates and what happens on the day, see GPhC exam 2026: dates, format and tips.

Facts from the GPhC's Common Registration Assessment framework for sittings in 2026, its regulations and its specification, read on 18 October 2026. Dose Up is independent and is not endorsed by the GPhC.