The Common Registration Assessment (CRA) is the General Pharmaceutical Council's registration exam — the assessment trainee pharmacists in Great Britain must pass to join the register. It is computer-based, sat in two parts on the same day, and unforgiving in one specific way: you must pass both parts in the same sitting, with no compensation between them, and you have a maximum of three lifetime attempts. This guide covers the format, what each part tests, the 2026 sitting dates, how the pass mark is set, and where candidates actually lose marks.
What the CRA is and who sits it
The CRA is the GPhC's registration assessment, delivered with the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland. It sits at the end of a defined pathway: an accredited Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree, then a 52-week foundation training year at an approved site where you evidence the GPhC learning outcomes, then the assessment itself. Overseas pharmacists reach it through the Overseas Pharmacists Assessment Programme (OSPAP) route, then follow the same foundation-training-and-CRA pathway. From 2026 the format and content of the CRA are the same for all trainee pharmacists, regardless of the route taken before foundation training.
Format: two parts, one sitting
The CRA is computer-based, delivered on the Surpass platform at Pearson VUE test centres. Part 1 is 40 pharmacy and healthcare calculations in 120 minutes, with answers typed as numerical free text rather than selected from options; a GPhC-specified or onscreen calculator is permitted. Part 2 is 120 selected-response questions in 150 minutes: 90 single best answer questions plus 15 extended matching sets, where each set has two questions sharing eight options. You must meet the pass mark in both parts in the same sitting — there is no compensation between them — and you have a maximum of three attempts.
What each part tests
Three content areas run across both parts: clinical therapeutics; law, governance and regulation; and pharmacy and healthcare calculations. Part 1 calculations include weight-based and paediatric dosing, unit conversions, IV infusion rates, displacement values for reconstitution, concentration expressions such as percentage strengths and ratios, and creatinine-clearance-based dose adjustments using the Cockcroft–Gault equation; you should expect to convert fluently between units and to handle multi-step problems under time pressure. Part 2 is applied clinical decision-making: therapeutics, UK pharmacy law and ethics, patient safety, and guideline application to realistic scenarios involving comorbidities, interactions and age-related adjustments. Revise from the sources you will actually use in practice — NICE, CKS, the SmPC, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Medicines, Ethics and Practice guide and wider RPS guidance, and the GPhC framework — rather than reading passively.
The law and governance trap
Law, governance and regulation is the area prepared candidates most often underestimate. Expect the legal classification of medicines — prescription-only, pharmacy and general sale — the requirements around controlled drugs including schedules, storage, records and destruction, the Misuse of Drugs and Human Medicines Regulations, the responsibilities of the responsible pharmacist, and the professional-judgement and ethics scenarios that have no clean algorithm. This is knowledge that daily dispensing does not reinforce, which is exactly why it is examined and exactly why it catches people out.
2026 sitting dates
The CRA runs twice yearly, in June and November. For the June 2026 sitting, the GPhC's stated key dates are: candidate emails and the application window opening on Thursday 22 January 2026; the reasonable-adjustments deadline at 5pm on Monday 23 February 2026; an assessment day of Tuesday 16 June 2026; and results on 21 July. A November 2026 sitting also runs. Confirm all dates on the GPhC site before booking. Last reviewed June 2026.
Pass marks and pass rates
The passing standard is set for each sitting using a modified Angoff method plus one Standard Error of Measurement, and is maintained through Item Response Theory; the GPhC sets no target pass rate. Recent sittings show a clear pattern. June 2025 had an overall pass rate of around 77% (2,247 of 2,913 candidates), with a Part 1 pass mark of 24 out of 40 and a Part 2 pass mark of 79 out of 120. November 2025 was around 62% (722 of 1,174), and November 2024 was around 58%. November sittings run consistently lower than June ones — roughly 56–66% versus 75–80%. Verify current figures against the GPhC Board of Assessors feedback before relying on them.
Where candidates actually lose marks
Part 1 is the predictable failure point. In June 2025, around one in six candidates failed Part 1 alone, regardless of how well they did in Part 2. It is the most drillable section of the whole assessment, yet it eliminates a steady share of candidates every sitting. Part 2 law and governance is the consistent weak area: therapeutics is reinforced by MPharm training, but specific UK pharmacy legislation is not reinforced by daily practice, and the Board of Assessors flags it repeatedly.
How to prepare
A common approach is a structured run of around twelve weeks: calculations drilled daily from the start as a standalone skill; therapeutics and law built up in parallel through applied questions; and full, timed mock sittings in the final weeks to build the stamina both papers demand. Treat Part 1 as a separate, timed skill rather than an afterthought, and target pharmacy law explicitly, since it is where prepared candidates still slip. With only three lifetime attempts and no compensation between parts, every sitting carries weight — a candidate who fails one part loses the whole assessment for that sitting, so the safe strategy is to arrive genuinely ready on both papers rather than strong on one.
Where iatroX fits
iatroX has a new adaptive GPhC CRA bank of more than 1,000 questions, on iatroX's subscription (£29/month or £99/year), covering calculations, therapeutics and law. It leads with a Socratic tutor that works back through the reasoning behind a wrong answer; questions mapped meticulously to the GPhC framework and its three content areas; spaced repetition; adaptive sequencing that returns your weak areas, the law-and-governance gap especially; and a mobile app.
A few common questions
How many questions is the CRA? 40 calculations in Part 1, and 120 in Part 2 (90 single best answer plus 15 extended matching sets).
Can I pass one part and resit the other? No — both parts must be passed in the same sitting, with no compensation.
How many attempts do I get? Three lifetime attempts.
Is iatroX's GPhC bank free? Not in full — the bank is on iatroX's subscription (£29/month or £99/year), with free sample questions to try first.