OPRA Exam Dates 2027: Registration Windows and Eligibility-Check Deadline

The Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) has published three OPRA sittings for 2027: 22 to 24 March, 26 to 28 July and 8 to 10 November 2027. Registration for them closes on 22 February, 28 June and 11 October 2027. APC asks you to lodge your eligibility check at least 8 weeks before registration closes. That puts the recommended lodge-by dates at 28 December 2026 for March, 3 May 2027 for July and 16 August 2027 for November (our arithmetic from APC's advice). They are planning dates, not APC cut-offs, and APC does not guarantee an answer in time even if you meet them.

You can only register once APC has emailed you to say you are eligible, and no late registrations are accepted. If you have not started your eligibility check yet, the recommended lodge-by date for March 2027 is less than two months away. Below you will find the full calendar, the registration times converted to India and UK time, a back-planner, three worked examples, and what happens after the exam.

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APC Knowledge Stream page, read 2 November 2026. Lodge-by date: our arithmetic.

This is APC's 2027 table, with one column added: the recommended lodge-by date for your eligibility check, if you follow APC's 8-week advice. Each date in that column is exactly 56 days before registration closes. It is our arithmetic, not an APC cut-off. The source is the "Dates and locations" step on the APC Knowledge Stream page.

Two patterns hold for every 2027 sitting (our count from APC's table). Registration closes exactly 4 weeks before the exam window starts; APC itself says registrations close "about one month before exam day". Results come out 43 days after the exam window ends, about six weeks (the November 2026 results come sooner, 27 days after). Each sitting is a three-day window; you choose your test centre and appointment when you register. Some centres fill up, so APC suggests booking as soon as registration opens.

Registration for the November 2026 sitting ran from 18 August to 19 October 2026 and is closed. The exam runs from 23 to 25 November 2026 and results are due on 22 December 2026. If you missed it, the next chance is March 2027. The earlier 2026 sitting was 13 to 15 July 2026, with results on 11 August 2026. Check our OPRA exam alerts page for updates, and confirm dates directly with APC.

APC says registrations open at 9am and close at 5pm AEDT/AEST. It does not name a city, so we use Canberra time. Canberra is on daylight saving time (AEDT, UTC+11) from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, and on AEST (UTC+10) the rest of the year, so the time in India and the UK moves between sittings. The conversions below are ours; check them with a time-zone converter, as APC suggests.

Note the closing day. For a candidate in India, registration closes at 11:30am IST (March and November) or 12:30pm IST (July) on the listed closing Monday, not at the end of that day. In the UK, March registration opens at 10pm on the previous calendar day, and July and November registration open at midnight at the start of the published date.

The eligibility check is the first step of the Knowledge Stream, and you cannot register for OPRA without it. To register you must have completed your eligibility check and received an email from APC telling you that you are eligible to sit the exam. APC states the timing in two places on the Knowledge Stream page:

APC's document checklist asks for a passport (or an accepted Australian or New Zealand ID), an official photo-bearing document, a birth certificate (or a second photo-bearing document), your pharmacy qualification certificate showing its issue date (or a letter of completion if the certificate has not been issued), and an academic transcript showing every subject and result for every semester, with all pages in one document. If your name has changed, add proof of the change. A document that needs translating must be uploaded with a full English translation by a NAATI-accredited translator; APC accepts an extract translation only if it comes from an Australian Government department such as Home Affairs. For your syllabus, APC wants the original in full without translation and, if you can, a NAATI translation of the complete subject list and brief subject summaries. Check the current checklist in the portal and gather everything before you start the application.

The planner uses the same APC dates as the calendar table above, so the table works as a printed version of it.

1. Aiming for March 2027, documents ready in December. A pharmacist in Hyderabad has the degree certificate and full transcript scanned by 15 December 2026. The 8-week date for March is Monday 28 December 2026, so lodging on 15 December is 13 days before the recommended lodge-by date. If APC replies within its target of 5 working days and confirms eligibility, the answer arrives before registration opens on 19 January 2027. That leaves time to book a seat in India on day one.

2. Lodging on 1 February 2027. This is 35 days later than the recommended lodge-by date for March, leaving only 21 days before registration closes on 22 February. That is less than the 4 weeks APC asks you to allow. APC may still answer within 5 working days, and if you are found eligible in time you can register. But APC cannot guarantee that, so treat July 2027 as the fallback: its recommended lodge-by date is 3 May 2027. Do not assume approval by any particular date. If APC confirms your eligibility, it does not expire and covers the later sitting.

3. A re-sit within the same year. A candidate sits on 22 to 24 March 2027 and gets an unsuccessful result on 6 May. July registration opens on 11 May and closes on 28 June, so they can register for July from 11 May, subject to seat availability. The eligibility check carries over, but the full exam fee is paid again for each attempt. The same chain works from July to November: July results come out on 9 September and November registration opens on 14 September. November 2027 results come out on 23 December 2027, and 2028 dates have not been published yet.

The weeks spent waiting for the eligibility check are good study weeks. OPRA has 120 multiple-choice questions in 2.5 hours, and each question has one correct answer and three incorrect options. Start the short free sample below. It plays in our timed practice player and explains every answer. For the topic weights and what each area covers, see our OPRA syllabus guide. For explained example questions by topic, see the OPRA sample questions guide.

Dates also matter once you have registered. You can reschedule to another date and time in the Candidate Portal, but only during the registration period. (APC notes that an appointment may also move to fit an approved special accommodation request.) You can cancel for any reason, subject to APC approval and a cancellation fee. The refund depends on timing. APC's exact wording on the Fees page:

The two first rows meet at the 5-day point, so if your date is close to it, confirm the amount with APC before you cancel. Only exam fees can be refunded; the eligibility check fee cannot. You cancel in the Candidate Portal and give a reason; APC asks for supporting documents if you cancel on or after the scheduled exam date.

APC emails you when results are available, and you download them from the Candidate Portal. The result says whether you passed or were unsuccessful. APC's two pages word the detail differently. The Knowledge Stream page says APC does not provide exam scores. The APC exam guide says the result report also gives feedback on your performance in each content area, and that those area scores do not decide the result. OPRA uses a scaled score with a passing standard set by subject-matter experts, so there is no fixed number of correct answers that guarantees a pass. You may re-sit as many times as you need, registering in the next exam period and paying the full fee again. After a pass you can request a Skills Assessment Outcome in the portal, which APC says supports a visa application with the Department of Home Affairs. Passing is also the step before provisional registration: APC says you apply to the Pharmacy Board of Australia through Ahpra for provisional registration and supervised practice.

The exam is delivered by computer at test centres in Australia and abroad. APC's test-centre list on the Knowledge Stream page includes, among others, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Noida in India; Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan; Colombo; Itahari in Nepal; Dubai; Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam; Kuala Lumpur; Manila; Singapore; and London. Seat availability varies by centre and venues can change at short notice. Seats may come free through cancellations, and you can move to a better centre in the portal during the registration period.

APC's Knowledge Stream page showed no 2028 dates on 2 November 2026. Its 2027 calendar has three sittings, in March, July and November. Do not plan on any 2028 date until it appears on the APC Knowledge Stream page. We will add it here and on our OPRA alerts page when it does.

More on OPRA: sample questions with answers · KAPS and OPRA: what changed · OPRA syllabus and topic weights · OPRA exam alerts and updates.