The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has warned more than 2,000 pharmacy trainees against sharing mock registration exam papers without permission.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) had alerted the RPS that “mock papers from a recent RPS pre-registration revision course have been shared on [file-sharing website] Dropbox”, the RPS told C+D.

The society responded by emailing “over 2,100” pharmacy trainees last week (July 1) with a warning that permission is required to use “any RPS material”, it said.

“The GPhC is now investigating this matter further, upon the request of other training providers,” the RPS said in its email, seen by C+D.

“Sharing of papers is not supportive to others, as you are unable to practise the mocks as intended – under exam settings – and therefore you would not get a true result that you can positively reflect on,” it said in the email.

Four students left "anxious and confused"

The RPS told C+D that it has since been contacted by four trainees who were “anxious and confused about the email, because they hadn’t shared any RPS materials”.

It said: “We completely understand this would have had an impact on students and could have upset some, but [we] have to defend the action by saying that such sharing is not appropriate”. 

The RPS had delayed sending out the email until the day after the registration exam “to minimise worry and concern”, it said.

GPhC aware of issue

The GPhC said it is aware of the matter. Some GPhC sample questions were among those being shared by trainees, but these were already available on its own website, the regulator said.

The RPS added that any concerned trainees should contact its support team for professional advice by emailing [email protected]. 

The society is “keen to support trainees” and had offered to organise a webinar “to discuss this matter, if useful”.

Find out how tough students found the new-look registration exam here

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