Intern Written Exam 2025: Course, Fees, Sample Questions and More

Written by

Dr. Akram Ahmad
Intern Written Exam 2025
Created At : May 12, 2025 Updated At : May 15, 2025 3 min read

Key Takeaways

  • What is the pharmacy intern written exam in Australia, what are the eligibility criteria for this exam, how many attempts one can give, and everything about IWE under the sun.
  • Start your preparation with Academically and learn from the experts with 12+ years of experience.
  • Assistance to the exam takers
  • We’re here to help you in this journey 
  • Commonly asked questions about the pharmacy intern written exam 2025

The Pharmacy intern exam is the most awaited one for all the pharmacists who would want to practice pharmacy in Australia. This exam is done in two steps:

  • Intern pharmacist oral exam
  • Intern written exam

And the best part, it's an open book exam, it's exactly what it sounds like. You can carry notes in the exam only digital gadgets are not allowed. Let's learn everything about this exam:

What is Intern Pharmacist Written Exam?

The intern pharmacist's written exam is a registration exam regulated by the Pharmacy Council of Australia. It is one of the practices to test the pharmacist intern, which they are required to pass to effectively work in an Australian healthcare setting.

First, you have to clear the pharmacy intern oral exam in Australia with overall 65% passing marks to become a pharmacist. The main idea for this exam is to check the pharmacist's skills, knowledge, experience and understanding all well suited to work in the Australian healthcare system.

Eligibility & Fees

To register for this exam, you must have:

  • Bachelor or Masters of Pharmacy from Australia
  • Those who are provisionally registered with PharmBA or registered before
  • For international students, the clearance for the OPRA exam
  • 1,575 hours of internship 

Check the information provided by the Australian Pharmacy Council website  and AHPRA to better understand the requirements, or you can reach out to us if you have doubts regarding your eligibility criteria.

Fees - AU$770 ($494.65 & 65777.17) per attempt

Registration

Go through the website once to better understand the process, familiarize yourself with it, and then start your registration. Here are the following steps:

  • Check the dates and test location.
  • Sign in on the portal or register as a new candidate.
  • Register for the intern written examination in Australia, have all your information ready because the registration has a time limit.
  • Special needs accommodation: if you have selected this option, upload the supporting documents.
  • An exam registration number is generated on top of the home button; make sure to note that, as it will be needed while registering for the exam on the Pearson VUE website.
  • Create a Pearson VUE web account.
  • Sign in to your Pearson VUE web account, and select the exam date, venue, and time.
  • Use your intern-written voucher number to complete the payment process.

And... you've registered successfully! 

Now, let's start to understand the syllabus. 

Exam Format & What to Expect in the Exam ?

The exam consists of 75 questions with a 2-hour duration. The 67 questions have marks assigned, and the rest are pilot questions. 

The exam consists of questions from 6 categories: 

  1. Calculations
  2. Counseling
  3. Dosage forms
  4. First Aid-Competency
  5. Law & Ethics
  6. Therapeutic areas & disease state management. 

The exam is divided into these 6 content areas:

Content Areas

Content Evaluation

Practise within applicable legal framework (Professionalism and ethics)Comply with statute law and standards, follow common law requirements, and respect individuals' rights to privacy and confidentiality.
Develop a patient centred, culturally responsive approach to medication management (Medicines management and patient care)Evaluate medication management practices and needs.
Implement the medication management strategy or plan (Medicines management and patient care)Provide primary care with good judgment to give medicines. Give medicine by understanding the prescription for the patient and proper counseling for safe and effective medication.
Monitor and evaluate medication management (Medicines management and patient care)Systematic examination of clinical data to offer better health solutions
Compound medicines (Medicines management and patient care)Determine the required formulation.
Promote health and well-being (Medicines management and patient care)Encourage health-related activities and services to maintain the good health of your patients.

And in the law and ethics content areas, the pharmacists must comply with the guidelines, standards, legislative instruments, and codes. Your regular work will often require you to exercise your professional judgment, so familiarizing yourself with the law and ethics is a must.

Preparation

To practice for the pharmacy intern written exam, follow the APC official website to get the right information, updates, and syllabus. They have also added the resources for the candidates to take help.

We know understanding the syllabus has already made you overwhelmed, but we are here with you in this journey from beginning to end. 

Learn from the Best

The fees for the intern written examination are high, especially for an Indian. To clear your exam in one attempt is an ideal option, and one must opt for it.

If you're not 100% sure and did not complete your preparation, you better hold out for the next date. But to avoid this happening, let us help you out in your preparation. 

Why Us?

It is important you learn from the best to make that happen. How do you know who is the best? Those who have:

  • Exceptional knowledge,
  • World-class Experience, and
  • Results (most important)

And we checklist almost every point of the above and beyond! Let us introduce you to the founder of Academically Global, the person behind this exceptional idea.

Courses 

Our courses are built with Dr. Akram Ahmad's exceptional guidance. To better suit his students, he started his courses on YouTube and now he has built a mega platform for medical aspirants to open opportunities with world-class faculty and professional networks. More on our courses:

  • We offer a detailed curriculum on an integrated platform like no other, making us a one-stop solution for all the healthcare professionals.
  • A customized study plan for better understanding and learning at your own pace, suited for full-time professionals too.
  • Full support on placement assistance: we will help you build your resume, prepare for interviews, and find the best career opportunities in Australia.
  • Interactive 1-1 sessions
  • Our courses accept easy EMI options to ease your financial burden.

Need Guidance?

That's everything on the Intern Written exam, materials, and course. But if you still feel lost and confused to take the first step, we heard you loud and clear. Let's schedule a doubt-clearing session (it's totally free). Let us help you with any questions you have, and prepare you for your journey.

Intern Written Exam and Intern Oral Exam are conducted by the Pharmacy Board of Australia (PharmBA) to check an individual's skills, understanding, knowledge, and experience. This exam is focused on creating the health professionals who have the best interest for their patients and always follow a thorough medication procedure when it comes to their patients. Making it an open book exam does not change the outcome of understanding the subject matter expertise of an individual, so being mentally prepared is all about this exam.

We at Academically prepare students with the right mindset, the best exam strategies, an understanding of the content, and keeping updated with any changes. Dr. Akram Ahmad has poured his 12+ years of experience into building this platform to help health professionals.

FAQs

Q. Is there any exam for pharmacist abroad?

A. Yes, if you like to work overseas as a pharmacist, you have to clear the exams of the respective countries: OPRA (earlier known as KAPS) for Australia and New Zealand, DHA for Dubai, and so on.

Q. How to prepare for the Australian Intern written exam (IWE)?

A. You have to understand Australian healthcare settings, law & enforcement, monitor and evaluate medication, implement a medication management strategy plan, and compound medicines.

Q. Who is qualified for the pharmacy internship?

A. To be eligible for a pharmacy internship, you have to be in the final year of a bachelor's in pharmacy, or if you are licensed, you want to be a pharmacist. To apply for international opportunities, check their respective pharmacy council.

Q. How to pass the intern pharmacist exam?

A. To pass the pharmacy written exam, understand the syllabus, content format, and exam pattern, and check their previous questions. Make sure you have the required study material available and take courses from the recognized sources.

Q. What are the APC written passing marks?

A. A total of 65% passing mark for the overall pharmacy intern written exam to become permanent pharmacist in Australia.

Q. Do all interns pass the intern pharmacists exam?

A. 90% of our students have passed the OPRA exam and went on for the next steps. Hence it signifies our high passing rates for examinations like this.

Q. What happens after I fail the intern pharmacist exam?

A. You can retake the exams 3 times, each attempt has a waiting time as well. The Australian Pharmacy Board provides a counseling session and one more attempt to give the exam.

Q. How can I reschedule my intern written exam?

A. You have to reschedule your exam within the time duration through your candidate portal. If missed, you cannot reschedule it.

Q. Where can I find pharmacy written exam sample papers?

A. You can find the sample paper on the official APC website.

Q. What is the pharmacist intern salary in Australia?

A. The average salary of a pharmacist intern in Australia is approximately $67,000, which is approximately ₹57,000,000.

Dr. Akram Ahmad
Dr. Akram Ahmad
about the author

Dr. Akram Ahmad is a clinical pharmacist and lecturer with over 10 years of teaching and research experience across various subjects of medicine in India, Malaysia and Australia. He is an educationist and a medpreneur with extensive knowledge of the global healthcare diaspora. Through his articles, videos and engaging sessions, he always aims to impart unexplored knowledge about the healthcare world to interested students and professionals.