When is the pharmacy intern oral exam?
The Pharmacy Board publishes oral examination periods, and the dates applications open and close, on its Registration Examination page. Use that table for the sitting you will book. This guide explains how to read it. It does not replace it. Written exam dates are published separately by the Australian Pharmacy Council.
Where to look
Open the Pharmacy Board Registration Examination page and find the schedule of oral examinations. When this page was last reviewed on 4 October 2026, that Board page listed an October 2026 examination period and the 2027 periods, and it said the schedule can vary from year to year. Copy the row for your period from the Board, not from a blog or from this site.
A few rules on that page are easy to miss:
- Exams are not held on every day of the published period, or on the same days in every city.
- After applications close, candidates are randomly allocated a date and time. Ahpra emails that allocation about two weeks before the period starts, so your contact details need to be current.
- The application is form APOE-60. It has to be received between the open and close dates. The Board says late applications are not accepted. Post early, or use the upload method the Board describes, so the closing date is not the day it arrives.
- Sittings are held in each state and territory. The Board page lists the city for each.
The oral exam is usually face to face. The same page lists when an online sitting may be offered. If you think you need one, the Board asks you to email the examinations team when you apply.
Written exam dates
APC publishes Intern Written Exam windows on the Intern Written Exam page. Those dates are not the oral dates. Book from the APC page. The written exam guide on this site describes the paper, not the calendar.
What has to be true before you apply
The Board’s eligibility wording, as published on the Registration Examination page when this guide was reviewed, is:
- Interns with provisional registration need 75 percent of the supervised practice hours required for general registration before they can sit the written and oral exams. Only hours during provisional registration, from the date the Board approved them, count toward that threshold.
- The Board says the current modified requirement for general registration is 1,575 hours of Board-approved supervised practice, until a revised registration standard is implemented. If that figure changes, the Board page changes with it. Do not calculate your own cutoff from an old handbook.
- You must pass both exams within 18 months. Failing one means resitting it inside that window.
There is a separate pathway note on the same page for some graduates of programs approved for general registration. If that is you, read that column rather than the intern column.
When to start practising
Pick the period from the Board table first, then count backwards. A practical block is about three months of structured oral practice before the sitting, described in how to prepare, on top of the work you already do. If the application close date is inside that three months, the application is the deadline that cannot slip. Practice can continue after you have lodged APOE-60. The form cannot.
For oral exam email, the Board lists pharmacyoralexam@ahpra.gov.au. Questions about this website go to support@theinternpharmacist.com, not to Ahpra.
Common questions
Where are pharmacy intern oral exam dates published?
On the Pharmacy Board of Australia Registration Examination page. That table is the one to use for application open and close dates. This guide does not copy it, because the dates change.
How do you apply for the oral exam?
With the APOE-60 application, received by Ahpra between the open and close dates on the Board page. The Board says late applications are not accepted.
How many supervised hours are needed before the exams?
The Board requires 75 percent of the supervised practice hours required for general registration. It also says the current modified requirement for general registration is 1,575 hours until a revised standard is implemented. Read the Board page for the figure that applies to you.
Practise while you wait for a date
This is exam-preparation guidance for Australian pharmacy interns. It is not legal advice, clinical advice, or a Pharmacy Board or APC publication. Exam rules change. Confirm dates, eligibility, and what you may take into the exam on the Pharmacy Board and Australian Pharmacy Council websites.