The Last Three Weeks Before the GPhC Assessment: A Week-by-Week Plan
The Common Registration Assessment is on Tuesday 10 November 2026. With three weeks to go, the aim is no longer to cover everything. It is to find out where you are losing marks, fix the most valuable of those gaps, and arrive on the day with no surprises.
Here is a plan for those three weeks.
Week one (20 to 26 October): find out where you stand
Sit a full paper under the real timings. Do Part 1 at 10:00 for two hours, take a proper lunch break, then Part 2 at 14:15 for two and a half hours. That is the shape of the real day, and the second half of the afternoon is where concentration goes. You only find out how you cope with that by doing it.
Mark it by area, not just in total. A single score tells you little. Break Part 2 down by clinical area and by law, and Part 1 by calculation type. Write down the three areas that cost you the most marks and sit near the top of the framework's list: cardiovascular, central nervous system, endocrine and infection are assessed most often.
Read every wrong answer's explanation. Ask why each wrong option is wrong, not only why the right one is right. That is what single best answer questions test: four plausible options and one best one.
Do a few calculations every day from now on. Ten a day keeps the method fresh. Part 1 is passed or failed on its own, so a strong Part 2 will not rescue it.
Week two (27 October to 2 November): fix the biggest gaps
Spend most of the week on your three weakest high-prevalence areas. For each, revise the first-line choices, the monitoring, the interactions that matter and the counselling points, then do practice questions on that area only.
Cover the high-risk drug classes on purpose. The framework lists twelve, including anticoagulants and antiplatelets, insulins, opioids, immunosuppressants, teratogenic medicines and drugs needing therapeutic drug monitoring. They can appear in either part.
Revise the law that tripped up the last cohort. The GPhC's report on the June 2026 sitting named controlled drugs (prescribing, storage, supply, disposal and record keeping) and emergency supply as areas where candidates needed to improve. It also named the calculation types we cover in the four calculations the June 2026 cohort found hardest.
Practise reading supplied material. You bring no references. When a question needs a BNF extract, an SmPC section or a medication chart, it is supplied inside the question, so the skill is finding the one line you need, quickly.
Sort out your calculator. You can use the on-screen calculator or bring an approved model, and a spare is allowed. If you bring one, it must be on the GPhC's approved list. Practise on the exact calculator you will use.
Week three (3 to 9 November): rehearse, then ease off
Early in the week, sit a second full paper under the real timings. Compare it with your week-one paper, area by area. Improvement in the areas you worked on is the evidence that your revision is working.
Then stop learning new material. The last few days are for reviewing your own notes on the areas you fixed, a handful of calculations each day, and sleep.
Check the practical details:
- Your test centre booking. Know the address and how long the journey takes.
- Your identification. Only a valid passport, or a UK or European driving licence photocard (full or provisional), is accepted. If you have neither, the GPhC asks you to email regexam@pharmacyregulation.org by 17:00 on Wednesday 28 October 2026.
- Your calculator and a spare, if you are bringing your own.
- Water in a transparent bottle, and lunch.
The day itself
The November 2026 guide sets out the timings. They may vary a little between test centres:
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 9:00 | Morning registration opens |
| 9:30 | Assessment rooms open |
| 9:50 | Announcements |
| 10:00 | Part 1 starts (two hours) |
| 10:15 | Last point latecomers can arrive |
| 12:00 | Part 1 ends; at least a one-hour break |
| 13:30 | Afternoon registration opens |
| 14:15 | Part 2 starts (two and a half hours) |
| 14:30 | Last point latecomers can arrive |
| 16:45 | Part 2 ends |
Anyone arriving after the latecomer cut-off is not allowed to sit. You can leave the test centre during the break, but leave plenty of time to register again.
If you are not well enough to sit
The GPhC asks you to sit only if you are fit to do so. You can withdraw at any point before you start the assessment and sign the fit-to-sit declaration on screen, and a withdrawal before you start does not count as one of your attempts. Once you have declared yourself fit to sit and stayed at your workstation, you can no longer withdraw. An illness you already knew about on the day cannot later be used as grounds for nullification or an appeal.
If something goes wrong on the day, such as a technical problem, report it to the invigilator and keep the incident report number. The deadline for a nullification request for this sitting is 17:00 on Thursday 12 November 2026.
Where to start today
Sit your baseline paper this week. Our GPhC mock papers follow the 2026 format and the real timings, and mark you by area so week two has a clear target. If you want a feel for the style first, try ten questions free in the free GPhC practice questions.
Dates, timings and rules from the GPhC's Sitting the November 2026 Common Registration Assessment guide and its 2026 framework, specification and June 2026 key insights, read on 18 October 2026. Dose Up is independent and is not endorsed by the GPhC.
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