Pharmaciae (SAPC) | Council records improved pass rates for June 2018 pre-registration examinations

Council records improved pass rates for June 2018 pre-registration examinations

Following Council’s decision to increases the number of pre-registration examination opportunities in 2017, the Office of the Registrar has this year implemented this resolution thus increasing the number of shots pharmacist interns have at qualifying for registration as pharmacists to four (in March, June, September and November).

The pre-registration examination, which is a computerised, venue-based assessment, is part of the instruments used for the pre-registration evaluation of pharmacy graduates for certain competencies. The examination consists of two papers, the first of which (Paper 1) is based on calculations while the second (Paper 2) is sector-specific and assesses competencies relevant to the graduate’s area of internship (i.e. academic, community, institutional, or manufacturing). Following each examination session, the results are electronically generated and moderated prior to being released to the interns.

For 2018, Council approved that the examinations be conducted on 3 March, 2 June, 1 September and 24 November 2018.

At the time of writing, two examination sessions had been successfully conducted. As Table 1 below shows, more than three quarters of the interns who wrote Paper 1 in March 2018 passed – with a failure rate of 23%. However, the pass rate increased notably to 97% in the June 2018 examination. An overwhelming majority of the interns proved to be knowledgeable and competent on aspects of pharmacy practice related to their sector of practise, with the pass rate for the two examination sessions remaining constant, at 99%.

Table 1: Summary of intern performance for March and June 2018 pre-registration examination