How Many Practice Questions Should You Do Before the GPhC Exam?

There's no magic number of GPhC practice questions. Most full-time trainees manage 50 to 200 a week, building up towards the exam. How you review them matters more, so we set out a weekly plan by phase and a simple error log method.

By Umar Majid · 9 Nov 2026

There's no magic number of practice questions for the GPhC exam. Most trainees working full time can manage somewhere between 50 and 200 a week, building up as the exam gets closer, and over a foundation year that adds up to a few thousand. But that total is the result of a good plan, not the goal. How well you review each question matters far more.

Anyone who tells you that exactly 3,000 or 5,000 questions will get you through is guessing.

Why doesn't the number matter as much as you'd think?

Two trainees can each do 2,000 questions and end up in very different places. Trainee A does questions quickly, checks the answer and moves on. Trainee B does fewer, but for every mistake works out why, writes down the rule and re-tests it a week later.

Trainee B nearly always improves faster. Questions aren't just practice. They show you the gaps you didn't know you had, and that only works if you look closely at what went wrong.

The GPhC Board of Assessors feedback after each sitting shows the same problems again and again: misreading scenarios, wrong units, rounding at the wrong stage, supply quantities and drug interactions. Most of these aren't knowledge problems. They're habits, and habits change through careful review, not volume.

How many questions a week, phase by phase

Treat this as a starting point and fit it around your rota. The ranges are wide on purpose. A week of late shifts or e-portfolio deadlines will be lighter, and that's fine.

The time estimates allow about 75 seconds per clinical question and 3 minutes per calculation, plus at least the same again for review. If you're short of time, cut the number of questions, not the review.

What each phase is for

Phase 1 is about learning. Revise a topic, then do questions on it straight away. You'll get plenty wrong, and that's the point. Start calculations now too, even a few a day. Our guide to the 9 GPhC calculation types gives you the methods.

Phase 2 is about building. Move to mixed sets so you have to recognise the topic yourself, as you will in the exam. Start timing yourself, and go back to your error log every week.

Phase 3 is exam mode. Do mostly mixed, timed sets in the same format as the exam: SBAs, EMQs and free-entry calculations. Sit one or two full mocks. Our GPhC mock paper guide covers when and how.

How should you review a question?

Take every question you got wrong, and every one you got right by guessing, and answer four things:

1. Why is the right answer right? One sentence is enough.
2. Why is each wrong option wrong? Most of the learning happens here.
3. What rule or fact would have got me there? Write it down in your own words.
4. What made me choose my answer? Did I misread, rush, or simply not know?

Expect to spend at least as long reviewing a set as you did answering it. For calculations, re-work the question from scratch rather than just reading the method.

Keeping an error log

An error log turns your mistakes into a revision list that's specific to you. A spreadsheet, a notebook or a notes app all work. Keep it simple.

Every two weeks, group your errors by type. If most are misreads, slow down and underline. If most are knowledge gaps, go back to the lessons for that topic.

Re-test after a gap. A week later, try a similar question. If you get it right, mark it done. If not, it stays on the list.

Read the log before every mock and again in the final fortnight. It's the most personal revision material you'll have.

How do you know you're doing enough?

Stop counting questions and watch for these instead:

• your accuracy on mixed, timed sets is rising over several weeks
• repeat errors are shrinking (the same mistake turning up three times means your review isn't working yet)
• you can explain why the wrong options are wrong, not just pick the right one
• you're finishing timed sets with a few minutes to spare

Where trainees go wrong

• Chasing a target number. Rushing through 300 questions a week with no review is worse than 100 done well.
• Only doing favourite topics. Use the GPhC framework to check you're covering every area, including law.
• Repeating questions you remember. If you recognise the answer, you're testing memory, not understanding. Re-test on similar questions instead.
• Never timing yourself. Untimed practice is right early on, but by the final 8 weeks most sets should be timed.
• Leaving calculations until the spring. Little and often from the start works far better.

For an overview of the whole year, see how to pass the GPhC registration assessment, and for the question formats, see SBA vs EMQ.

Common questions

How many practice questions should I do for the GPhC exam? There's no fixed number. Somewhere between 50 and 200 a week, rising towards the exam, is realistic for most trainees working full time.

Is it better to do more questions or review them more? Review. If time is tight, do fewer questions and review them properly.

Should I repeat questions? Only after a gap, and ideally similar questions rather than ones you remember.

When should I start timed practice? Start timing yourself a few months before the exam, and make most sets timed in the final 8 weeks.

What is an error log? A simple record of each mistake, why you made it and the rule that fixes it. You re-test each one a week later.

Make every question count

Review is much quicker when the explanations are clear. The Pre-Reg Shortcuts question bank has 2,000+ questions, including calculations and clinical sets, so you can practise by topic early in the year and switch to mixed sets as the exam gets closer. Start your error log from the very first set.

Explore the question bank or try the free calculation quiz.

Sources

• GPhC: Common Registration Assessment overview
• GPhC: CRA specification and permitted items for 2026
• GPhC: Feedback from the November 2025 CRA
• GPhC: CRA example questions guide
• MHRA: Simvastatin, updated advice on drug interactions