This workflow is for trainee (pre-registration) pharmacists using Focus Pre-Reg for the GPhC Common Registration Assessment (CRA) who have a very large bank in front of them and need a disciplined first-pass, review and exit plan rather than an open-ended grind. Focus Pre-Reg's strength is volume across both papers; its principal limitation is that a big bank makes it easy to mistake questions completed for blueprint covered, and to leave no protected unseen pool for a genuine final calibration.
What Focus Pre-Reg offers for the CRA right now
Verify these on the Focus Pre-Reg site before you subscribe; counts and prices move.
| Feature | What we found (vendor-reported, 20 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Single best answer / EMQ bank | "Over 10,000" GPhC-style SBA and EMQ questions |
| Calculations | "Over 700" GPhC-style calculations, by topic or as mixed mocks |
| Mock papers | Part 1: 17 sets of 40 calculations; Part 2: 3 sets of 120 questions |
| Organisation | By therapeutic chapter and practice topic (20 subject areas listed) |
| Adaptive / AI features | None advertised; conventional topic and difficulty organisation |
| Price / access | "Single monthly price of £30 includes everything"; month-to-month, exit any time |
| Extras | Recordings, live events and summarised notes; tutor and peer support |
Two things follow. First, the sheer volume — a vendor-reported 10,000-plus items — is more than any candidate can or should complete, which makes selection, not completion, the skill. Second, the month-to-month pricing rewards a short, intense, well-planned block over a long drift; the plan below is built to be efficient with subscription time.
Exam anchor: the current GPhC assessment framework
The CRA is two parts, both sat in the same sitting, both of which must be passed, with a maximum of three attempts. Part 1 is 40 pharmacy and healthcare calculations with numerical free-entry responses in 120 minutes. Part 2 is 120 multiple-choice questions in 150 minutes: 90 single-best-answer items with five options each, plus 15 extended-matching sets of two questions each (30 EMQ items), all on the safe and effective pharmacy care of the public. The GPhC's own assessment framework and its official sample questions are the calibration standard; Focus Pre-Reg's "GPhC-style" label is a vendor description, useful for volume but not a substitute for the official material. Note the free-entry calculations format — recognition practice will not train the free-entry discipline, so treat calculations as a construction skill.
Build a blueprint inventory and protect an unseen pool
Before your first block, map the framework's areas against the two papers and mark where you are actually weak versus merely unpractised. Then quarantine a protected pool: set aside two of the three Part 2 mock sets and several hundred calculations you will not touch until the final week. If you burn the whole bank as practice, you have nothing unseen left to measure readiness with, and your last data point will be a re-run of memorised items. Coverage is a matrix across the framework areas and both papers, not a completion percentage — the reasoning is set out in the blueprint-coverage matrix method.
First pass: mixed by default, topic-filtered only where weak
Start mixed. Topic-filtered blocks tell you the answer's category before you read the stem — "this is a cardiovascular block" — which is a cue the real exam never gives. Use topic filters only where a foundation is genuinely weak and you need to build it before you can practise mixed. Everywhere else, mixed blocks from the outset protect you from topic cueing and give a truer read of your recall. Calculations are the exception worth ring-fencing: drill them daily as a discrete skill because Part 1 must be passed in its own right, and the free-entry format punishes approximate method.
Review each miss with an error code and one action
For every missed item, assign a short error code — knowledge gap, misread, calculation slip, law/ethics confusion, guideline out of date — and write exactly one corrective action. Do not transcribe the whole explanation; copying is re-reading, not retrieval, and it feels productive while teaching little. The error codes accumulate into a profile that tells you where your marks are actually leaking, which is far more useful than a stack of copied explanations.
Use transfer practice before repeating
When you get something wrong, do not immediately re-attempt the same item. Answer a new item that tests the same principle first — Focus Pre-Reg's volume makes this easy — and only revisit the original later, spaced out. This tests whether the principle transferred to an unseen stem rather than whether you have memorised one question. Repeating the original too soon inflates your sense of mastery.
Switch to mixed timed blocks when domain floors are met
Once you have hit a floor in each framework area — a level you have defined in advance, not "felt ready" — move to full mixed timed blocks even if the bank is nowhere near finished. With a 10,000-item bank, "finishing" is neither possible nor the goal; timed mixed performance is. Run Part 1 and Part 2 mocks under real timing so pacing (40 calculations in 120 minutes; 120 MCQs in 150 minutes) becomes a trained skill, not a surprise.
Exit criteria
Leave the first-pass phase when you meet criteria, not a completion figure: coverage across every framework area; a stable unseen, timed score on the mock sets you protected; pacing that finishes both papers with review time; retention demonstrated by spaced re-tests holding up; and agreement with the official GPhC sample questions when you score yourself against them. One hundred per cent completion of a 10,000-item bank is neither necessary nor a readiness signal.
Worked example: a seven-day plan
Focus Pre-Reg does one job here — high-volume first-pass and calculations drilling — and iatroX supplies unseen transfer measurement. No proprietary-algorithm claim is made; this is ordinary spaced retrieval.
- Day 1: Diagnostic mixed block (Part 2 style) plus one 40-item calculation mock. Map results onto the framework inventory.
- Day 2: Mixed Part 2 blocks on the two weakest areas; error-code every miss, one action each.
- Day 3: Calculations day — topic drills on your weakest calculation categories, every method checked; free-entry discipline, no multiple-choice shortcuts.
- Day 4: Transfer day. Unseen iatroX GPhC items on the principles you missed on Days 2–3; compare the error type, not the wording.
- Day 5: Law, ethics and pharmacy-practice mixed block, cross-checked against the GPhC standards and MEP framing rather than clinical guidelines alone.
- Day 6: One protected Part 2 mock (120 questions) and one 40-item calculation mock, both timed. Log completion and pacing.
- Day 7: Review the error log; set next week's quotas from the recurring codes; note which framework cells are still empty.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue with Focus Pre-Reg as your volume engine while your unseen score is climbing and framework cells remain to be filled.
- Supplement with the official GPhC sample questions for calibration, and with an unseen bank for transfer, once your accuracy is high but your self-scoring and the official standard disagree.
- Switch emphasis to timed mixed mocks once domain floors are met and new questions stop changing your error profile.
- Stop paying for another month when new items no longer teach you anything; because the price is monthly, the honest question is whether the next month buys learning or just more of the same.
Frequently asked questions
Is Focus Pre-Reg enough for GPhC Common Registration Assessment on its own? Focus Pre-Reg's large bank can serve as a single primary resource for volume across both papers, but "enough on its own" is the wrong frame, because passing the CRA depends on calibrating against the GPhC's own sample questions and framework, which no third-party bank replaces. Use Focus Pre-Reg for breadth and calculations volume, and anchor your readiness judgement to the official material and to unseen, timed performance rather than to how much of the bank you have completed.
Which GPhC Common Registration Assessment component does Focus Pre-Reg not reproduce well? No third-party bank fully reproduces the exact standard-setting and question calibration of the official CRA, and the Part 1 free-entry calculations in particular are only as realistic as the platform's format allows — so treat "GPhC-style" (vendor-reported, 20 July 2026) as an approximation. The safest approach is to use Focus Pre-Reg's 700-plus calculations for volume but to sit the official sample calculations under timed, free-entry conditions as your true calibration.
How many Focus Pre-Reg questions should I complete per day for GPhC Common Registration Assessment? There is no magic number, and a daily target measured in questions completed encourages exactly the wrong behaviour with a 10,000-item bank. Aim instead for a quality target: one or two mixed blocks reviewed to the point where every miss has an error code and one action, plus a ring-fenced daily set of calculations. For most candidates that is roughly 40 to 80 well-reviewed items a day, but the review, not the count, is what moves your score.
When should I stop using Focus Pre-Reg and move to mixed mocks? Move to timed mixed mocks once you have met a defined floor in every framework area and your single-topic accuracy has plateaued, even though the bank is far from finished. Continuing topic-filtered blocks past that point trains cued recall that the exam never rewards; the mixed, timed mock is what exposes pacing and unsignposted recall. The trigger is coverage plus a plateau, not completion.
How should I combine Focus Pre-Reg with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign each a single job and never answer the same item on both. Use Focus Pre-Reg for first-pass volume, calculations drilling and its mock papers; use iatroX only for a fresh, unseen, timed block on the principle you just missed, so you are measuring transfer rather than repeating a question you have seen. Compare the error type across the two platforms, not the wording, and treat divergence as the signal — the discipline is the two-Q-bank rule.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. Focus Pre-Reg figures — the 10,000-plus SBA/EMQ bank, 700-plus calculations, the 17 Part 1 and 3 Part 2 mock sets, and the £30 monthly price — are vendor-reported from the Focus Pre-Reg site on 20 July 2026 and may change; verify them before subscribing. The CRA format is taken from the GPhC Common Registration Assessment framework for sittings in 2026. Pharmacy medicines facts should be checked against the SmPC/eMC, with the GPhC standards and MEP and NICE/CKS for practice.
Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing GPhC question bank, so it is a competitor to Focus Pre-Reg. We have confined iatroX's role to unseen, timed transfer measurement — a job the Focus Pre-Reg bank does not claim — and have credited Focus Pre-Reg's genuine strength in volume. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: Focus Pre-Reg Revision product pages; GPhC Common Registration Assessment framework and official sample questions (pharmacyregulation.org); SmPC/eMC, GPhC standards/MEP and NICE/CKS for content. Internal: the iatroX GPhC bank, the comparison hub, and Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score.
Run a fresh, timed GPhC Common Registration Assessment block in iatroX →