The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland have announced the results of the November 2022 online registration assessment.

A total of 525 candidates passed the assessment across the four UK countries on 3 November – 56% of the total 937 entrants, which was a slight decrease from the 61% pass rate in Autumn 2021.

The pass rate was similar across first-, second- and third-time candidates, at 56% of candidates on their first sitting, 57% of those on their second sitting, and 56% of those on their third sitting.

In November 2022, 59% candidates sat for the first time, 30% for the second time and 8% for the third time. In the previous sitting in June, 89% of candidates were sitting for the first time, 7% were sitting for the second time and 4% were sitting for the third time.

In June, 80% of pharmacist trainees passed the registration exam, after some faced delays and disruption during their sitting. This compared to an 82% pass rate for summer 2021 and 61% for autumn 2021.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said that the GPhC had worked closely with the PSNI and exam provider BTL, to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible on the day of the assessment, ‘and we hope the candidates taking it were able to focus all of their efforts on completing the assessment successfully’.

He added: ‘We wish the successful candidates all the best in their future careers and encourage those who were unsuccessful to make full use of our guide to help them with their next steps towards future registration and success in the profession.’

The GPhC has published a guide on its website outlining the options available to unsuccessful candidates, as well as links to organisations and resources that can provide support with mental health and wellbeing.