The Australian Pharmacy Council is actually testing your ability to safely function as a pharmacist in a real healthcare setting. That’s why the majority of the questions are clinical, and the best answer matters more.
The exam is a computer-based test with 120 questions. You will have 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) to complete the exam. As per the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC), the OPRA exam uses a scaled scoring system based on the Rasch model, where performance is adjusted for exam difficulty rather than a fixed cut-off. Results are reported as pass or fail, with no negative marking, based on the standard required for safe, entry-level pharmacy practice.
The OPRA exam encompasses five content areas:
1. Biomedical Sciences (20%)
It is indeed the foundation. You may get questions related to theory or clinical interpretation. Here, a pharmacist should cover:
• Physiology
• Pathophysiology
• Medical microbiology and immunology
• Clinical picture of the disease and laboratory parameters
2. Medicinal Chemistry & Biopharmaceutics (10%)
You don’t have to go deep into it. As a pharmacist, you must know, “Why does the drug behave in a particular way once it is inside the body?” Focus on:
• Drug properties affecting ADME
• Formulations
• Stability
• Pharmaceutical microbiology
3. Pharmacokinetics & Pharmacodynamics (10%)
Here, you need to learn the basics of factors that influence how medicines are absorbed, distributed, metabolised, and eliminated (ADME) from the body, as well as how pathophysiological changes impact ADME and selection of treatment options.
• Half-life, clearance, volume of distribution and dose adjustments
• Principles of PK, factors affecting ADME
• Evaluation of PK data and using it to treat patients
The exam will assess your knowledge in pharmacokinetics and drug action on receptors. For example, testing your knowledge in certain areas like:
• Adjusting dose in renal failure
• Understanding toxicity risk
• Choosing correct dosing intervals
• PK calculations
4. Pharmacology & Toxicology (15%)
I would like to say this part is extremely crucial—an amalgamation of theory and clinical practice.
• Concepts from general pharmacology
• Mechanism of action of drugs, adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, dosing
• Factors causing changes in the pharmacology and toxicology of drugs
• Toxicity and antidotes
5. Therapeutics & Patient Care (45%)
If you really want to pass the exam and pursue a career in pharmacy, this is the core part alongside pharmacology.
This section includes:
• Disease management
• Clinical decision-making
• Dose calculations
• Patient counselling
• Monitoring therapy
You’ll be expected to:
• Choose the best treatment option
• Identify drug-related problems
• Recommend safe alternatives
How are questions actually designed? The three basic levels are:
• Testing your ability to recall (55%)
• Understanding and linking concepts (30%)
• Application (15%)
There is a clear shift in the Australian Pharmacy Council assessment compared to the previous KAPS exam. The Australian Pharmacy Council OPRA exam now focuses more on clinical reasoning, real-life pharmacy scenarios, and patient safety than on memorization alone.
📌At Zeal Academy, we’re genuinely here to guide you through your OPRA journey. So far, four OPRA exam cycles have been completed, and we’ve carefully collected real questions shared by our students after each exam. Based on their experiences, we’ve reshaped our schedules, refined our timetables, and built a system that truly helps you practice the right kind of questions. Our mentors are constantly staying updated, so you’re always learning what actually matters for the exam.
