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Australian Pharmacy Council — Pharmacy Written Examination

Information on scheduling and enrolment of the Australian Pharmacy Council’s (APC) Pharmacy Written Examination is outlined below. At the time of sitting the examination, you must have completed at least 50% of your required supervised practice hours.

Examination Format

The examination will cover pharmacy practice in Australia and consists of one paper which will comprise 125 multiple choice questions (MCQ) including 15 calculations and forensic-/ethics-based questions. The paper will be of three hours duration. The examination is a restricted open book examination.

Testing Tutorial and Practice Exam

It is recommended that you make use of the online tutorial and practice exam by clicking on Practice VUE Testing Tutorial and Practice Exam provided under the RELATED LINKS on the right hand side of this webpage.

Allowable texts

The following texts may be taken to the examination:

current edition of the Australian Medicines Handbook (AMH)
current edition of the Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary (APF)
the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons (SUSDP) or its equivalent from 1 July, 2010, Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons (SUSMP)
relevant state or territory drugs and poisons schedules and pharmacy Acts and Regulations
the articles Supplying Medicines—What Pharmacists Need to Know and Information for Pharmacists may be downloaded here.

Please see the examination guide for Pharmacy Written Examination on the APC website for more information regarding the format and content of the examination.

NOTE: You will be provided an online calculator during the examination and no hand held calculators will be admitted.

Special requirement requests

If you have any special requirement, you must contact the APC on 0061 2 6262 9628 for assistance. All special requirement requests must be approved by the APC before you register online for your examination.

Provisional (Intern) Registration Number

Candidates will be required to provide their provisional (intern) registration number at the time of registering for an examination. If this number is unknown at the time of registration, candidates should complete this field by entering a series of sixteen 1’s to fill the field on the registration screen. Candidates should update this field when their provisional (intern) registration number is known. If your provisional (intern) registration number is thirteen digits, please add three 1’s at the end to make it sixteen digits.

Registration and Enrolment

You may now register for the Examination by clicking on the link below (Schedule Online means the same as Register Online):

If you are unable to register online, please contact the Australian Pharmacy Council on 0061 2 6262 9628 for assistance.

We have put together a list of the most commonly asked questions regarding the Registration and Enrolment. Read these FAQs (pdf). Following registration, you will receive a confirmation email which will include an enrolment letter providing information regarding your testing centre name, address, location, city, contact number and the date and time of your examination. This email confirms both your enrolment and testing centre selection. You will be required to print the letter and present it at the examination as proof of enrolment.

Registration closes on 9 October 2010 at 6.00pm (AEST)

Additional Information

Please note that the Pharmacy Written Examination is only available in Australian test centres. Centres located outside of Australia are not open for this Examination.

Testing Centres

Adelaide
Brisbane
Canberra
Darwin
Hobart
Melbourne
Perth
Sydney
Townsville

Please click on Locate a Test Centre for more information regarding the above mentioned testing centres.

2010 Examination Dates

The examination is available six times per year.

August 21^st and 22^nd
October 23^rd and 24^th
December 18^th and 19^th

Please note there will initially be two examination slots available for registration- the morning and the afternoon session on Sunday. Candidates will be able to register for the afternoon session on Saturday only after the two examination slots on the Sunday are filled.

Examination Fees

Examination fees for the current year (2010) will be $AUD200 per examination. Costs have been subsidised by the APC for 2010.

Examination fees for the next year (2011) will be $AUD550 per examination.

Change of Testing Centre

If you wish to change your testing centre, please click on Reschedule a Test. You are permitted to change a testing centre up to two weeks prior to your examination appointment.

Cancellation Policy

You may cancel your examination session up to two weeks prior to your examination appointment and your full fee minus any transaction fee will be refunded to you.

Please note if you cancel your examination session within two weeks prior to your examination appointment, you will be required to contact APC in writing and provide documentary evidence for the reason for cancellation. You will forfeit the whole of the examination fee unless documentary evidence is provided. If the documentary evidence provided is considered acceptable by the APC - 40% of the fee will be forfeited.

What to bring to the centre:

You must provide the following two identity documents to enter the testing centre for the examination.

A current passport or Australian driver’s licence. This identity document MUST contain your photograph and signature, and
A copy of the enrolment letter provided in the confirmation email. You will be required to sign this letter at the examination as part of the identification process.

You will be required to present your identity documents at reception and in the examination room. Failure to do so may result in you being denied entry to the examination.

The identity document must be current, legible and display your name exactly as you have provided when registering for your test appointment. It must also include a recent, recognisable photograph, your signature and date of birth. If you cannot meet these requirements, please contact APC.

You will be provided a space at the front of the examination room to keep your belongings, however we advise you not to bring any valuables to the testing centre.

Late arrivals

If you arrive late for your scheduled appointment time, you may be refused admission to the examination and will need to re apply.

Privacy Policy

We understand that you have voluntarily given personal information to Pearson VUE so that they can schedule your examination and forward the test data to the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC). The APC complies with the requirements of the Privacy Amendment Act (Private Sector) 2000 which imposes specific obligations such as the National Privacy Principles (NPP) in regard to handling information. Please visit our website www.pharmacycouncil.org.au.

Third party nominees

The Australian Pharmacy Council is generally not permitted to disclose personal information about a candidate to a third party (i.e. agent) without the candidates consent.

A candidate may authorise a third party (agent) to communicate with APC on the candidate’s behalf by completing the Agent Authorisation Form on the APC website.

Contacts

To contact APC regarding your examination please visit www.pharmacycouncil.org.au or call 0061 2 6262 9628 or email apec@pharmacycouncil.org.au. To contact Pearson VUE regarding changes or any problems you experience during the registration or booking process please contact Pearson VUE.

Examination Results

Examination results are processed by the APC. The results will be placed on the APC website approximately one to two weeks after the examination and will remain on the website for a period of four weeks, after which time they will be removed. To obtain results, you must go to the APC website / Examination Results, select the appropriate session and log in by entering your 13 character Provisional Registration Number beginning with the letters PHA_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in the Candidate ID field and Date of Birth in the Password field. You will be provided a Pass/Fail result. Please take a print of your results as no further documentation will be provided. Please contact the APC if you have any results related enquiries. Please remember to update your Provisional Registration Number by logging into your web account again, if you were unable to provide it at the time of creating your web account. If you do not do this, you will not be able to access your results via the APC website.

Candidates in Western Australia will not be able to access their results via the APC website. The results for candidates in Western Australia will be sent to the Pharmaceutical Council of Western Australia and the Council will notify candidates of their results. Please contact the Pharmaceutical Council of Western Australia if you have any results related enquiries.