Here is what happens to almost every foundation trainee pharmacist between September and April. You ask the WhatsApp group what to use. Someone says PharmX. Someone says Coditioning. Someone says Focus Pre-Reg. Someone says just use PassMedicine, it is free. By December you have subscriptions to two platforms, a set of downloaded slides you have not opened, and the creeping feeling that you are preparing for the wrong exam with the wrong tools.
The problem is not a lack of resources. The problem is that nobody has explained what each resource actually does well, what each one does poorly, and how they fit together. Every platform's own marketing says it is the complete solution. None of them is. The candidates who score highest figure this out by about week six of revision. This post saves you those six weeks.
Five criteria. Four platforms. One honest assessment.
The Five Criteria That Actually Matter
1. Question volume and format match. The CRA has a specific format: Part 1 is 40 numerical free-entry calculations. Part 2 is 90 SBAs and 15 EMQ sets. A resource that gives you MCQs but not EMQs is only preparing you for part of the paper. A resource with 500 questions and one with 2,000 questions serve different needs at different revision stages.
2. Adaptive vs static. A static bank serves questions in a fixed order or random rotation. An adaptive engine analyses your performance and serves the next question to target your weakest area. The difference sounds marginal. It is not. A candidate who is strong in cardiovascular but weak in endocrine needs more endocrine questions — a static bank cannot provide this.
3. Content currency. The BNF updates quarterly. NICE guidelines update continuously. A resource whose explanations were written in 2023 may contain management pathways that have since changed. The question is whether explanations are anchored to live guideline text or authored once and periodically reviewed.
4. App availability. You revise on the bus, in the dispensary during quiet moments, and on your phone at 10pm. A platform that only works on desktop is a platform you will not use consistently. A native mobile app with offline capability changes when and where you can revise.
5. Value. Not just price — what you get per pound. A £200 lifetime licence that covers 70% of what you need is different value from a £99/year subscription that covers 100% of what you need.
PharmX
PharmX has built one of the largest trainee communities in UK pharmacy. The platform centres on structured slides — topic-by-topic revision material covering BNF chapters, clinical therapeutics, pharmacy law, and calculations. Kazim's teaching style is clear and systematic, and the community layer (WhatsApp groups, live sessions, peer support) is genuinely valuable — particularly for trainees who feel isolated in community pharmacy placements where peer learning opportunities are limited.
The slides are well-structured. They cover the CRA framework comprehensively. The pricing model (lifetime access) is genuinely good value compared to monthly subscriptions — you pay once and retain access through retakes if needed.
Where PharmX is strong: Knowledge building. If you do not understand the pharmacology of ACE inhibitors or the CD schedule structure, PharmX's slides explain it clearly. The community layer provides motivation and peer accountability. The lifetime pricing model is financially accessible.
Where PharmX has limitations: The slides are a teaching resource, not a testing resource. Reading well-structured slides builds knowledge. It does not build the retrieval fluency that the exam tests under time pressure. PharmX does not have an adaptive question engine that responds to your individual performance. The platform does not tell you which of the 40+ therapeutic areas you are weakest in — you have to guess, and most candidates guess wrong. There is no native mobile app for on-the-go question practice.
Best for: The knowledge-building phase of revision — weeks 1-5, when you are learning the content before you start drilling it.
Coditioning
Coditioning occupies a distinctive position: it is as much an exam strategy platform as a question bank. The calculation strategy content is strong — worked examples, method frameworks, and the kind of exam technique coaching that helps candidates who know the content but lose marks through poor question technique. Over 1,000 questions covering SBA, EMQ, and calculation formats.
Where Coditioning is strong: Exam technique. If you understand the pharmacology but still get questions wrong because you misread stems, fall for distractors, or run out of time, Coditioning's strategy content addresses that directly. The calculation drilling is systematic, with worked examples that show the method before you attempt the practice. The CRA framework analysis is helpful for understanding what the exam is actually testing versus what you think it is testing.
Where Coditioning has limitations: The question bank is static — no adaptive engine. You manage your own topic routing, which requires you to accurately self-assess your weak areas (a skill most candidates lack — Dunning-Kruger is not just a meme, it is a measured cognitive bias). No BNF/NICE integration in explanations. Web-based — no native mobile app.
Best for: Candidates who need exam technique coaching — particularly those who have sat before and scored near the pass mark, where technique refinement rather than content knowledge is the marginal gain.
Focus Pre-Reg Revision
Focus Pre-Reg provides a question bank supplemented by live Zoom sessions, BNF chapter recordings, and structured revision plans. The live teaching is the primary differentiator — Zoom sessions where a tutor walks through BNF chapters, answers questions in real time, and provides the kind of interactive teaching that self-directed platforms cannot replicate.
Where Focus Pre-Reg is strong: The live sessions. For trainees who learn through taught instruction rather than self-directed reading, the Zoom format is genuinely more effective than slides or recorded content. The BNF chapter recordings provide a systematic walkthrough that can be rewatched. The structured revision plans give week-by-week guidance — useful for trainees who struggle with self-organisation.
Where Focus Pre-Reg has limitations: Scheduling. Live sessions happen at specific times — if you are on shift, you miss them. Recordings are available but lose the interactive element. No adaptive engine. No performance dashboard showing topic-level proficiency. Web-based. The taught format means you progress at the course pace, not your pace — if you already know respiratory pharmacology but need help with endocrine, you still sit through the respiratory session.
Best for: Trainees who learn best from taught instruction and want interactive, live support alongside question practice.
The Format Match Problem Nobody Talks About
Here is something most comparison posts do not address: does the platform actually test you in the format the exam uses?
The CRA Part 2 includes 15 EMQ sets — extended matching questions where you have 8-10 options and 2-4 clinical scenarios sharing that option list. This is a fundamentally different cognitive task from an SBA. EMQs test your ability to discriminate between similar diagnoses or treatments across multiple scenarios simultaneously. Candidates who have only practised SBAs find EMQs harder — not because the clinical content is harder, but because the format requires a different approach (reading the option list first, not the scenario first; avoiding anchoring on early selections; using each option only once in most sets).
If your revision platform does not include EMQ-format questions, you are not practising 12.5% of the Part 2 paper. Check whether the platform you are considering offers EMQs — not all do.
Part 1 is 40 numerical free-entry questions. You type the number. If your calculation practice is multiple-choice (select 125, 150, or 175 mL/hour), you are not replicating the exam format. The free-entry format is harder because there is no option to eliminate, no "closest answer" to select, and no safety net of recognition. Only platforms that use numerical free-entry for Part 1 practice are replicating what you will actually face.
iatroX
iatroX provides 1,000+ questions mapped to the CRA blueprint — SBAs, EMQs, and Part 1 calculations in the exact exam format — with a true adaptive engine, BNF/NICE-integrated explanations, and a native mobile app on iOS and Android.
Where iatroX is strong: The three things the other platforms cannot offer.
First: the adaptive engine. After every question, the system updates your proficiency profile across all CRA content areas and selects the next question to target your weakest area. This is not a rotation. It is not a daily feed. It is a real-time response to your actual knowledge state. If your endocrine therapeutics proficiency is 40% but your cardiovascular is 80%, the engine serves more endocrine questions until the gap closes — then moves to your next weakest area. No other GPhC platform does this.
Second: live BNF and NICE integration. Every Part 2 explanation references the relevant BNF section or NICE guideline — cited, with context. When the BNF updates a first-line recommendation or NICE revises a stepped care pathway, the explanation reflects the current guidance. The explanations are not authored once in 2023 and left untouched — they are anchored to the live guideline text that the exam tests against.
Third: the mobile app. iOS and Android. Native, not a wrapped web page. Your commute, your lunch break, your dispensary downtime — all become adaptive revision time. No other GPhC platform has this.
Where iatroX has limitations: No live teaching. iatroX is a self-directed adaptive platform — there is no Zoom session, no tutor walking you through BNF chapters, no live Q&A. If you need a teacher to explain the pharmacology before you can test it, iatroX is the testing layer, not the teaching layer. The question volume (1,000+) is growing but currently lower than some competitors' totals.
Best for: The testing phase of revision — from week 3 onwards, when you have the foundational knowledge and need to convert it into exam-ready retrieval fluency. And for candidates who revise on mobile, which is most of them.
Pricing: £29/month or £99/year at iatrox.com/quiz-landing?exam=uk-gphc.
The Combination That Works
What most high scorers figure out by week six of revision is that the revision tools serve different phases — and the candidates who use the right tool at the right phase outperform those who use one tool for everything.
Weeks 1-4 (knowledge building): PharmX slides or Focus Pre-Reg taught sessions. Learn the content systematically by BNF chapter. Build the foundational knowledge that question practice requires.
Weeks 3-8 (knowledge testing): iatroX adaptive Q-bank. Convert passive knowledge into active retrieval fluency. Let the adaptive engine identify your weak areas rather than guessing. Use the performance dashboard to track progress weekly.
Throughout (exam technique): Coditioning strategy content. Particularly valuable for calculations technique and EMQ approach.
Throughout (guideline verification): Ask iatroX. When a question explanation raises a "what exactly does NICE say?" query, get the cited answer in seconds.
The answer is not "one platform wins." The answer is "a structured notes platform plus an adaptive MCQ engine is the combination that works." The structured platform builds knowledge. The adaptive engine converts it into exam performance. The candidates who understand this distinction pass at higher rates than those who do not.
Start with a free diagnostic on iatroX — see where your baseline sits before you plan your revision.