The British Pharmaceutical Students' Association (BPSA) has criticised this year's registration exam for failing to test practical knowledge and skills.

The student body praised this year's venues and open-book exam, but argued at a meeting with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) last week (July 23) that the closed-book exam failed to test "essential areas of the syllabus".

The GPhC argued that the exam tested everyday pharmacy practice in a number of different contexts and was required to contain a specific number of questions on each syllabus area.

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	The pass rate for this year's exam, which was designed to put a stronger emphasis on clinical practice, was 78 per cent – down on last year's 95 per cent.

The BPSA received feedback on the assessment from 387 pre-reg trainees and concerns about the closed-book exam were mentioned by all "without exception".

"Many [candidates] stated that the paper did not test their competency in being a pharmacist, neither did it assess their decision-making ability with regards to pharmacy practice," the BPSA reported.

Candidates queried the relevance of certain parts of the assessment, such as questions on how many parts per million of carbon monoxide were needed in air, or the required levels of platelets and haemoglobin in test results. Students also reported "a lot of ambiguity" in some sections, which they claimed would depend on personal perception of a scenario.

The BPSA said students had felt unprepared for the exam based on the sample papers, which they believed focused too much on clinical questions and "did not reflect any of the non-clinical questions posed in the exam". It called for the syllabus to be made clearer to avoid confusion in future exams.

The GPhC said it was clear that the topics in its sample papers would not necessarily be covered in the actual exam and reported that this year's assessment had included more clinical questions. But it agreed to work with the BPSA to make the sample papers and syllabus clearer to candidates.

"We are pleased that candidates overall thought the venues were appropriate, that the sittings ran to time and that the registration process went well," said GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin. "We have addressed each of the BPSA's recommendations in our response and will continue to work closely with the BPSA to make further improvements."

Read the BPSA's report on the registration exam in full.