The GPhC Exam Has a New Name: the Common Registration Assessment, Explained

If you are a trainee pharmacist searching for "GPhC exam questions", you may have noticed the General Pharmaceutical Council no longer uses that name. The assessment's official name is now the Common Registration Assessment (CRA). The exam itself, and what it demands of you, has not become easier or harder because of the rename - but knowing the correct terminology matters when you are looking for official guidance, booking your sitting, or choosing revision materials.

What is the Common Registration Assessment?

The Common Registration Assessment is the national licensing assessment for pharmacists in the UK. It is delivered jointly by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and the Pharmaceutical Society Northern Ireland, and it is sat simultaneously at Surpass test centres across the UK. Passing it is one of the requirements for registration as a pharmacist, alongside completion of your foundation training year and the other criteria set out by the GPhC.

The name reflects what the assessment has always been: a single, common threshold. Every trainee, whether they completed an accredited MPharm, an Overseas Pharmacists' Assessment Programme (OSPAP), or qualified in the EEA and must sit the assessment as part of their registration route, is measured against the same standard of safe and effective person-centred care at the point of registration.

Why the name changed

For years the exam was known informally as the "GPhC exam" or the "pre-reg exam", and formally as the registration assessment. Because the assessment is delivered jointly across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the regulators adopted a name that describes the assessment itself rather than one regulator: the Common Registration Assessment. Official documents for the 2026 sittings - the assessment framework, regulations, and specification - use CRA consistently, and you will see the name throughout the booking process and on assessment day.

You will still see "GPhC exam" used by trainees, universities, and revision providers (including, in places, this site, because it is what many trainees search for). The terms refer to the same assessment.

What has not changed: the format

The structure of the assessment is set out in the CRA framework and specification for sittings in 2026:

• Part 1: 40 pharmaceutical calculation questions, free-numerical entry, over 2 hours. Calculators are permitted - your own model from the approved list, or the on-screen calculator in the Surpass platform.
• Part 2: 120 multiple-choice questions over 2.5 hours: 90 single best answer (SBA) questions with five options, and 30 extended matching questions (EMQ) in themed sets.

You must achieve the pass mark for both parts within the same sitting. The assessment can be sat a maximum of three times. Sittings are usually held twice a year, in summer and autumn; for 2026, the June sitting timetable ran from the January application window through to results on 21 July 2026.

What this means for your revision

• Search both names. Official GPhC documents say "Common Registration Assessment"; much trainee discussion still says "GPhC exam". Use both when looking for resources, and check any guidance you find against the current 2026 framework.
• Anchor to the framework, not the folklore. The CRA framework defines the learning outcomes and their weighting. Revision that maps to the framework - high-weighting areas first - is revision that matches how the paper is built.
• Practise in the real formats. SBAs with five options, EMQ sets, and free-entry calculations each reward a different technique. A question bank that mirrors all three, with worked answers, transfers better to assessment day than passive reading.
• Mind the deadlines. Application windows, reasonable-adjustment deadlines, and booking confirmations all run to fixed dates published on the GPhC website. Missing the reasonable-adjustment deadline is one of the most common avoidable problems.

The bottom line

The Common Registration Assessment is the GPhC exam you already know - the same two parts, the same stakes, the same pass standard - under a name that now reflects its joint delivery across the UK. Nothing about the rename changes what you need to do: know the framework, practise calculations until they are automatic, and work through enough SBA and EMQ questions that the formats hold no surprises.

References

• General Pharmaceutical Council. Common Registration Assessment. Available at: https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/students-and-trainees/pharmacist-education-and-training/common-registration-assessment
• General Pharmaceutical Council. Sitting the Common Registration Assessment (2026 timetable). Available at: https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/students-and-trainees/pharmacist-education-and-training/common-registration-assessment/sitting-common-registration-assessment
• General Pharmaceutical Council. Common Registration Assessment regulations for sittings in 2026. Available at: https://assets.pharmacyregulation.org/files/2026-01/CRA-regulations-for-sittings-in-2026.pdf
• General Pharmaceutical Council. Common Registration Assessment specification and permitted items for sittings in 2026. Available at: https://assets.pharmacyregulation.org/files/2026-01/CRA-specification-and-permitted-items-for-sittings-in-2026.pdf
• General Pharmaceutical Council. Common Registration Assessment framework for sittings in 2026. Available at: https://assets.pharmacyregulation.org/files/2025-12/Common-Registration-Assessment-framework-for-sittings-in-2026.pdf

PreReg Exam Prep is an independent revision platform. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or commissioned by the General Pharmaceutical Council or the Pharmaceutical Society Northern Ireland.