The pre-registration examination forms part of the pre-registration evaluation (Figure 1), which pharmacist interns are required to successfully complete.
Figure 1: Pre-registration evaluations with associated criteria
In 2021, the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) conducted three pre-registration examinations in March (n=47), August (n=576) and November (n=276) and in total, eight hundred and ninety-nine (899) interns wrote the examinations.
A compulsory pre-registration practice examination was introduced in 2020 in order to familiarise interns with the remote examination conditions and examination platform. There were one thousand and seventy-four (1074) interns who participated in the four practice examinations conducted in January, June, August and October 2021.
The online pre-registration examinations were conducted remotely and the majority of the interns (93.33%, n=839) chose to write the examination at their place of residence. Fewer interns chose to write their examinations at the place of work or another venue.
Figure 2: Venues where interns opted to write the pre-registration examination
The overall performance of interns in the pre-registration examinations is illustrated in Figure 3. There were forty-seven interns who wrote the examination in March 2021 and the pass rate was 68.09%. Higher numbers of interns wrote the August (n=576) and November (n=276) examinations and the pass rates were 97.22% and 88.4% respectively. Interns struggled more with calculation questions, where fifty-three interns were unsuccessful across the three examinations as compared to the general questions (n=17).
Figure 3: Overall performance of interns in the pre-registration examinations
The SAPC congratulates the eight hundred and thirty-six (836) interns who successfully completed the pre-registration examination.
Interns reattempting the examination are required to complete both sections of the examination irrespective of whether they were successful in either the calculation or general section in their previous attempt. The next pre-registration examination will be conducted in March 2022 and the SAPC wishes these interns well as they prepare for the pre-registration examination.
