If you are looking for free General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) revision material, the good news is that some genuinely useful resources exist at no cost. The bad news is that a lot of what circulates online is outdated, inaccurate, or both. This guide covers what is legitimately free, what to watch out for, and where to find reliable material.
Start with what the GPhC itself publishes
The most important free resources come directly from the regulator.
The Registration Assessment Framework: This is the single most important document for your revision planning. It tells you exactly which competency areas are assessed, how they are weighted, and what the exam is testing. Everything you study should map back to this framework. It is free on the GPhC website.
Sample assessment papers: The GPhC publishes sample questions that show you the format, style and difficulty level of the real exam. These are worth working through carefully — not just for the answers, but to understand how questions are structured and what kind of reasoning they require.
GPhC standards and guidance documents: The Standards for Pharmacy Professionals, Standards for Registered Pharmacies, and various guidance documents are all free. These are not revision notes — but they are source material for the professional practice and ethics questions you will face.
The British National Formulary (BNF) is free online
The British National Formulary is available free of charge through the NICE website. Since you will have BNF access during Part 2, being fluent in navigating it is essential. Use the online version during your revision to practise looking up drug interactions, dosing, cautions and contra-indications quickly.
Make sure you are using the current edition. The BNF is updated regularly, and practising with an old version can embed outdated information.
Free PDFs floating around online: proceed with caution
Every year, collections of "GPhC revision notes" and "free pharmacy exam PDFs" make the rounds on WhatsApp groups, social media, and forums. Some of these are:
- Outdated notes from candidates who sat the exam years ago
- Summaries based on old BNF editions with drug information that has since changed
- Calculation sheets with errors that nobody has corrected
- Copies of copyrighted material shared without permission
The risk is real. If you revise from a summary that says Drug X is first-line for Condition Y, but guidelines changed two years ago, you will confidently give the wrong answer in the exam.
Before using any free PDF, check:
- When was it created? If there is no date, treat it with suspicion.
- Does it align with the current BNF and current NICE guidelines?
- Who wrote it? Unattributed notes with no source are unreliable.
- Has anyone verified the calculation answers? Errors in calculation PDFs are common.
NICE guidelines and Clinical Knowledge Summaries
NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) are free and cover the management of common conditions in primary care. These are useful for building your Part 2 clinical knowledge, particularly for questions about treatment choices, monitoring, and when to refer.
NICE Technology Appraisals and clinical guidelines are also free. For the GPhC assessment, you do not need to memorise every guideline, but knowing the first-line treatments for commonly tested conditions is important. CKS gives you a quick, reliable way to check these.
Pharmacy organisation resources
Several pharmacy organisations produce free educational content that can supplement your revision:
- The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has free articles, CPD resources, and access to The Pharmaceutical Journal for members. If you are a pre-registration or foundation trainee, check whether your membership includes access.
- CPPE (Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education) offers free e-learning programmes. Some of these cover therapeutics topics that are directly relevant to the assessment.
- National Health Service (NHS) England publishes free resources on medicines safety, supply and governance that can support your understanding of professional practice questions.
How to use free resources effectively
Free resources work best as supplements, not as your entire revision strategy. Here is a sensible approach:
- Use the framework as your map. Every study session should connect to a framework area.
- Use the BNF as your primary clinical reference. Get fast at finding information.
- Use NICE CKS for condition management. Build your treatment knowledge from reliable, current sources.
- Use the GPhC sample papers to calibrate. They show you the standard you are aiming for.
- Be sceptical of everything else. If a free PDF does not have a clear author, date and source, verify the content before trusting it.
What free resources cannot replace
Free resources typically lack:
- Large volumes of practice questions with worked answers
- Timed mock exams that simulate real assessment conditions
- Structured question banks that track your performance and highlight weak areas
These features are where paid question banks add value. Free resources can fill knowledge gaps and provide reference material, but most candidates find they need a question bank with enough volume to build exam readiness.
Quick FAQs
- Are free GPhC revision notes on social media reliable? Some are, but many are not. The problem is you usually cannot tell without checking every fact against current sources. If you use shared notes, always cross-reference key facts with the current BNF and NICE guidelines.
- Is the BNF really free? Yes. The BNF and BNF for Children are both available free online through the NICE website at bnf.nice.org.uk. You do not need a subscription.
- Should I use free resources instead of a question bank? Free resources are great for building knowledge, but they generally do not provide the volume of practice questions or the timed exam simulation that most candidates need. Think of them as complementary — use free material for learning, and a question bank for exam practice.
- Where can I find the GPhC sample papers? They are available on the GPhC website. Search for "Registration Assessment" on the GPhC site and look for the sample papers section. They are free to download.