The GPhC Common Registration Assessment is the final gateway to pharmacy registration in the UK. Every pharmacist practising in Great Britain — whether trained in the UK, through OSPAP, or via the international route — must pass this exam. Understanding the format, structure, and assessment framework before starting revision ensures your preparation targets what is actually tested.
Format
The CRA is a computer-based, single-day examination. The exam uses Single Best Answer (SBA) questions — clinical scenarios where you select the single most appropriate answer from a list of options. The questions are applied: they test your ability to make pharmaceutical decisions in clinical context, not to recall isolated facts. The exam is administered at Pearson VUE test centres across the UK.
Assessment Framework
The CRA maps to the GPhC's assessment framework covering three competency domains: person-centred care, professionalism, and professional knowledge and skills. Questions are distributed across these domains — meaning you need clinical knowledge, professional judgment, and patient communication awareness. The 2026 framework has been updated to exclude independent prescribing content (LO37), ensuring fairness across training pathways.
Question Types
Clinical pharmacy scenarios — a patient presents with symptoms or a medication issue; you identify the problem and recommend an appropriate action. Pharmaceutical calculations — dosing, dilutions, infusion rates, concentration conversions, displacement values. Legal and ethical scenarios — Medicines Act, controlled drugs, professional standards, fitness to practise, confidentiality dilemmas. Medicines management — prescribing error identification, medicines reconciliation, drug interaction detection, dose adjustments for special populations.
Eligibility
MPharm graduates complete the foundation training year and sit the CRA. OSPAP (Overseas Pharmacists Assessment Programme) candidates complete the one-year diploma, then follow the same foundation training and CRA pathway. The CRA typically runs twice yearly — June and November sittings.
Pass Rates
GPhC publishes annual pass rate data. Historical first-attempt rates have ranged from approximately 60-80% depending on the sitting. The exam is passable with structured preparation but not trivial — the failure rate reflects candidates who underestimate the applied nature of the questions. Three attempts maximum — this limit makes systematic preparation essential.
Study Resources
iatroX's GPhC Q-bank is the only adaptive, spaced-repetition-based CRA revision tool available — the same proven cognitive science technology serving 300,000+ medical professionals, applied to pharmacy for the first time. Other resources: BNF (essential reference), CPPE modules (free, NHSE-funded), Pre-Reg Shortcuts (course-based), clinical pharmacy textbooks.