Exams

​No.

​There are no prerequisistes to take the exam.

However, many of the exam units require a knowledge of human biology so the hours of study are likely to be less for someone with this background than for a person who has done no biology since a GCSE several years ago.

The exam will require those people who do not have a science background to study in more depth, but the knowledge they will gain will enable representatives to have have meaningful conversations with healthcare professionals about the products their company supplies.

​Cancellation of an exam booking only leads to a refund if the exam is cancelled within 14 days of the original booking. Beyond this date you can, however, amend your booking (for example change the booking to a later date or change the papers you plan to sit) up to the cut off date for the exam you are booked to sit.​ After the cut off date no changes can be made by you or by ABPI. To amend your booking, click on 'Manage exams' on the home page.

Yes.

You may sit the morning and afternoon sittings on different days, unless your employer requires you to sit the entire exam in one day. ​

No. The company that the person works for provides final signatory training, there is no recognised exam for this role. The requirements for this role are set out in Clause 14 of the Code of Practice.

​Candidates can sign up for alert notifications on exam sittings that are fully booked up.

This means that if someone drops out of an exam sitting, an email notification will be sent to you letting you know that there is a spare seat. The email goes out to everyone on the waiting list, so it is on a first come first served basis.

When you see a space has become available, you need to either:

- reschedule your exams if you have already booked exams for a different sitting (go to upcoming exams and click the reschedule button)

or

- book an exam as normal if you don't yet have a place on any other sittings.

​The ABPI Code of Practice Clause 16.3 states that representatives must take an appropriate examination (this includes disease area units) within their first year of employment as a representative, and must pass it within two years. This time limit does not apply to candidates not currently employed in the promotion of medicines to prescribers.​ I​f you have any queries about your individual circumstances, contact the PMCPA​.

​It depends on your background knowledge. Most of the units require knowledge of human biology, so if you have a life science degree or a recent Biology A-level (or equivalent) you will not need to study as many hours as someone with little biology knowledge. If you have no prior knowledge of any of the topics you may need to study for 300 hours for the four mandatory units, and for ​150 hours for the disease area units. It sounds a lot, but the Diploma exam is equivalent to an A-level.

​You must bring photo ID in the form of a passport or driving licence to your exam. If you have changed your name from the one on your exam website profile you must bring proof of this change, for example a marriage certificate. You will not be allowed to sit the exam unless you produce valid photo ID. If you have any queries about your ID, please contact the ABPI as soon as possible.​

​You will need to contact the Exams department on 020 7930 3477 to ask for your qualification registration to be changed.

If you have already sat any exams or are booked onto an exam for which the closing date has passed, there will be a charge of £30 to change your qualification registration. Please call us on 020 7930 3477 so that we can take a manual payment and change your qualification.

Provided that you are still within your time limit to pass the exam, you can resit the paper/unit you have failed. This is booked in the same way and at the same cost as your original booking.

You do not need to resit any papers/units you have previously passed.​

​The ABPI 2017 exam award will be presented at our ABPI annual dinner 2018. The candidates who completed the IQ Level 3 Diploma exam in 2017 will be considered for the 2017 award. We expect this to be an annual award going forward.

We have developed the exam award criteria below with input from the ABPI exam steering group:

• Must have achieved Distinction in the ABPI Diploma exam in the year in question. The date the last set of exams were taken will determine the appropriate year.
• If more than 5 people achieve Distinction in the year, the 5 exam candidates with the highest overall marks will be considered for the award.
• The winner must be employed by a pharmaceutical company in a customer-facing role at the time the award is being considered.
• A decision on the award winner will be made after taking into account the marks achieved in the exam and the company endorsement of this candidate.

We hope that this will provide an opportunity for candidates who have excelled in the exam to be recognised in the presence of their managers and other ABPI members and stakeholders.

To pass the ABPI exam, you must achieve at least 60% in each unit.

To achieve Distinction, candidates must meet all the following criteria:

• an average of 80% or more for the morning units and an average of 80% or more for the afternoon units

• the minimum mark on each individual unit must be at least 70%, apart from Unit 1 Code of Practice and NHS, where the minimum mark must be at least 80%

• these marks must be achieved at the first attempt (you do not need to sit the mandatory units on the same day as the optional disease area units to achieve a Distinction).

If you are sitting the accredited Level 3 Diploma and achieve a Distinction, you will receive a certificate from the ABPI rather than from our external awarding body. 

You must bring photo ID (driving license or passport) in the name that you are registered on the ABPI Exams website. If your name has changed and you have not contacted the ABPI, please bring proof of your change of name. You will not be allowed to sit your exam without photo ID.

​If you are sitting the Certificate or Diploma in the promotion of medicines (accredited qualification), you will need to bring a basic calculator. The calculator should not be able to store data and may be inspected by the invigilator.

Calculators must not:

• be designed or adapted to offer any of these facilities:

o language translators;

o symbolic algebra manipulation;

o symbolic differentiation or integration;

o communication with other machines or the internet;

• have retrievable information stored in them - this includes:

o databanks;

o dictionaries;

o mathematical formulas;

o text.

The invigilator will provide you with a pencil and eraser; you must not use your own stationery.

There will be space in the exam room for your belongings however ABPI does not take responsibility for their security.

​The morning session starts at 10am and finishes at 12.40pm for those taking all four compulsory units. You can split your time across the papers you are taking.

The afternoon session starts at 2pm and finishes at 4.15pm for those taking all their disease area units (normally 3 units, unless you are taking Unit 6 Cardiovascular diseases. In which case you just take 2 units). You can split your time across the papers you are taking.

The following information applies to the accredited Certificate and Diploma.

You will be asked a mixture of questions across all areas of the unit. Please click here​ for further information.​

The accredited ABPI exam requires understanding of the subject matter, not just recall of key facts. This results in more sustained learning and ability to apply what has been learned in other situations.

Some exam questions require information to be interpreted in order to identify the correct answer to the question.

​​We hold one exam a month at venues around the UK. Please see this link​ for more information about venues. Once you have registered for the website a full list of relevant sittings will be displayed. If you would like to view a list of provisional sittings, please click here​.​

Yes, the content in section ​​4.2.4 of Volume 1 of the learning materials (accredited Certificate and Diploma) may be examined in all other units. You should bring a calculator to all exams. ​