You are revising around a full-time supervised foundation training placement. You are dispensing, counselling patients, completing competency sign-offs, and building a portfolio. The revision plan that assumes 4-hour evening study sessions will collapse by week 2 — because you will be too tired, and the resentment of an unrealistic plan kills motivation faster than the exam content itself.
This plan assumes 1-2 hours per day, 6 days per week. It frontloads calculations — the most predictable failure point — then builds clinical and law knowledge systematically by BNF chapter weighted to exam priorities. Every week names the resource type that serves that phase, because using the right tool at the right time is the difference between productive revision and busy procrastination.
Phase 1 — Diagnostic and Calculation Foundation (Weeks 1-2)
Week 1: Establish Your Baseline
Monday: Download the CRA framework from the GPhC website. Read the indicative assessment topics and therapeutic area weightings. This is your revision blueprint — everything else is guided by this document. (30 minutes)
Tuesday-Wednesday: Complete the GPhC official example questions on the Surpass platform. Get familiar with the interface — the on-screen calculator, the question navigation, the EMQ format. Exam-day surprises cost time. Eliminate them now. (45 minutes each day)
Thursday-Saturday: Complete a 50-question mixed diagnostic on iatroX. Do not revise beforehand — this is a baseline, not a test. The performance dashboard will show your starting proficiency across all CRA content areas. Write down your 3 weakest therapeutic areas and your 2 weakest calculation types. These are your priority targets for the next 7 weeks. (60 minutes total across 3 days)
Week 2: Calculation Types — Isolation Drilling
Monday-Tuesday: Dose calculations and unit conversions. 20 timed questions per day on iatroX. Use your actual exam calculator. Every question timed — 3 minutes maximum. (45 minutes each day)
Wednesday-Thursday: IV infusion rates and drip rates. Same format. Focus on the unit conversion step — mcg to mg, minutes to hours. This is where the errors happen. (45 minutes each day)
Friday-Saturday: Displacement values and concentration expressions. These are the two types candidates under-prepare most — drill them specifically now rather than discovering the gap in week 7. (45 minutes each day)
Resource note: For calculations, you need practice, not teaching. If you do not understand the method for a specific type, watch a Pharmacy Masterclass or Pre-Reg Shortcuts calculation tutorial for that type — then immediately drill it on iatroX. Teaching without practice does not transfer. Practice without understanding does not stick. The sequence matters: understand the method → drill under timed conditions → repeat.
Phase 2 — Systematic Part 2 Clinical Content (Weeks 3-5)
Week 3: Cardiovascular and Respiratory
Daily (60 minutes): Read the cardiovascular BNF chapter summaries. If using PharmX slides or Focus Pre-Reg recordings, this is their highest-value phase — use them for the knowledge building. Cover: hypertension (NICE NG136 — thresholds, stepped care, targets), heart failure (NICE NG106 — ACEi/ARB, beta-blocker, MRA, SGLT2i sequencing), AF and anticoagulation (NICE NG196 — CHA₂DS₂-VASc, DOAC selection), lipids (NICE CG181 — QRISK3 threshold, atorvastatin). Then respiratory: asthma (NICE NG80/BTS-SIGN — stepwise approach), COPD (NICE NG115 — GOLD classification, inhaler hierarchy).
Daily (30 minutes): 15 adaptive iatroX questions on cardiovascular and respiratory topics. The adaptive engine will concentrate on whichever sub-topics within these chapters you get wrong.
Week 4: CNS, Endocrine, Infection
Daily (60 minutes): CNS: depression (NICE NG222 — stepped care, SSRI selection, monitoring), epilepsy (NICE NG217 — first-line by seizure type, drug interactions, pregnancy), Parkinson's (NICE NG71), pain management (WHO ladder, opioid equivalence, adjuvants). Endocrine: diabetes type 1 and 2 (NICE NG28 — metformin → SGLT2i → GLP-1 sequencing; insulin types and monitoring). Infection: antibiotic stewardship, NICE community infection guidelines, high-risk infections.
Daily (30 minutes): 15 adaptive iatroX questions on CNS, endocrine, and infection.
Week 5: GI, Renal, Remaining Systems
Daily (60 minutes): GI: PPI prescribing (NICE NG184), IBD (NICE NG129/NG130), H. pylori eradication. Renal: CKD staging (NICE NG203), dose adjustment principles, nephrotoxic drugs to avoid. Remaining: blood and nutrition, genito-urinary, immune system — cover the BNF chapter summaries for each.
Daily (30 minutes): 15 adaptive iatroX questions across remaining systems.
Resource note: The knowledge-building resources (PharmX slides, Focus Pre-Reg, BNF chapter readings) serve weeks 3-5. From week 6, you shift from building knowledge to testing and applying it. The tool changes because the task changes.
Phase 3 — Law, Ethics, and Under-Revised Areas (Weeks 6-7)
Week 6: Pharmacy Law Intensive
Daily (60 minutes): This is the domain candidates consistently underperform on — and it carries predictable marks. Cover: Misuse of Drugs Act — schedules 2-5, CD prescription requirements, CD register rules, destruction procedures. Human Medicines Regulations — prescription validity, repeat prescriptions. Responsible Pharmacist Regulations — absence provisions, RP record. Emergency supply — patient-request vs prescriber-request (the most commonly confused distinction). GPhC Standards for Pharmacy Professionals — all 9 standards.
Daily (30 minutes): 15 iatroX law and governance questions in adaptive mode. The engine will identify which law topics you confuse and concentrate practice there.
Week 7: OTC, Minor Ailments, Paediatrics, Remaining Gaps
Daily (60 minutes): OTC counselling scenarios, Pharmacy First pathways, minor ailments management, paediatric dosing (BNFc — weight-based doses and maximum dose checking), and pregnancy/breastfeeding prescribing considerations. These are the areas most candidates under-revise because they feel less "clinical" — but they carry reliable marks.
Daily (30 minutes): 15 iatroX adaptive questions — mixed topics, including paediatrics and OTC scenarios.
Dashboard checkpoint: Review your iatroX performance dashboard at the end of week 7. Any CRA content area still showing red is your priority for week 8. If everything is amber or green, week 8 is consolidation. If one or two areas are red, week 8 is targeted rescue.
Phase 4 — Mock Conditions and Consolidation (Week 8)
Week 8: Exam Simulation
Monday: Full Part 1 mock — 40 calculations, 120 minutes, timed, using your exam calculator. Do not pause. Do not look up methods. Simulate real conditions. Score it. Identify which calculation types you still lose marks on.
Tuesday: Full Part 2 mock — 120 questions, 150 minutes, timed. Score it by domain (therapeutics vs law vs calculations embedded in clinical scenarios).
Wednesday-Thursday: Targeted drilling on the weakest areas from both mocks using iatroX adaptive mode. This is where the adaptive engine earns its value — it already knows your weak areas and will serve exactly the questions you need.
Friday: Light review. CD schedules. Paediatric dosing. The two topics the Board of Assessors flags most consistently. Read the Board of Assessors feedback from the most recent sitting — it tells you exactly what current candidates get wrong.
Saturday: Rest. No revision. Sleep well. The exam is Monday or Tuesday.
Which Resources Serve Which Phase
This plan is not anti-PharmX, anti-Coditioning, or anti-Focus Pre-Reg. It is pro-sequencing — using the right tool at the right time.
Weeks 1-5 (knowledge building): This is where structured notes platforms earn their value. PharmX slides, Focus Pre-Reg taught sessions, or BNF chapter recordings provide the systematic knowledge scaffolding that question practice requires. You cannot test knowledge you do not have. Build it first.
Weeks 2-8 (knowledge testing): This is where iatroX earns its value. The adaptive engine converts passive knowledge into active retrieval fluency — the ability to produce the correct answer under time pressure, not just recognise it when you see it. The performance dashboard tracks your progress by CRA content area and identifies which topics need more work each week.
Weeks 6-7 (law and governance): This is where most candidates under-invest. Pharmacy law does not map neatly to MPharm training or daily dispensing. It requires dedicated study time — and adaptive question practice that drills the specific regulatory scenarios the exam tests (CD prescription validity, emergency supply conditions, RP absence provisions).
Throughout (guideline verification): When a question explanation raises a "what exactly does NICE say?" query, Ask iatroX provides the cited answer in seconds. This is not a separate study session — it is a 10-second verification within your existing Q-bank practice that ensures every management pathway you learn is grounded in the current UK guideline.
The combination — structured notes for building knowledge + adaptive questions for testing it + live guideline AI for verifying it — is more effective than any single platform used alone. The candidates who figure this out early outperform those who commit to one tool and hope it covers everything.
The Three Most Common Ways This Plan Derails (and How to Prevent Them)
Derailment 1: Skipping week 1. Candidates who skip the baseline diagnostic and jump straight into content revision are revising blind. They do not know which areas need the most work. They spend week 3 on cardiovascular (which they are already strong in from MPharm) instead of endocrine (which they are weak in but do not realise). The week 1 diagnostic on iatroX takes 50 questions and one hour. It saves you weeks of misdirected effort. Do not skip it.
Derailment 2: Spending too long on calculations. Calculations are the most drillable section — and drilling feels productive, because you can see immediate improvement. Some candidates spend 4 weeks on calculations and run out of time for Part 2 clinical content. The plan allocates 2 weeks to calculations (with ongoing maintenance in mixed sessions). If your calculation proficiency is amber or green on the iatroX dashboard by end of week 3, move on. Do not over-invest in your strongest area at the expense of your weakest.
Derailment 3: Abandoning the plan in week 6. By week 6, exam anxiety peaks. Candidates abandon the structured plan and switch to panicked, random question practice — doing 100 mixed questions per day with no targeting, no review of wrong answers, and no strategic focus. This feels productive (high question volume) but is not (no targeting, no learning from errors). The plan exists to prevent this. Trust the dashboard. Target the red areas. Resist the urge to do more at the expense of doing better.
Why This Plan Works
The plan separates knowledge building (PharmX slides, Focus Pre-Reg sessions, BNF reading) from knowledge testing (iatroX adaptive questions). Most candidates do not make this distinction — they read and re-read, or they do questions without building the knowledge first. The sequence matters: build → test → verify → consolidate.
The plan embeds iatroX at every phase — not as an add-on, but as the adaptive engine that guides which topics receive the most attention. The performance dashboard replaces guesswork with data. And the mobile app means the 30-minute daily question sessions can happen on the bus, in the dispensary, or before bed — wherever you have your phone.
Set your week-one baseline at iatrox.com/quiz-landing?exam=uk-gphc.