Pharmacist Prometric Exam Preparation in the GCC: DHA, SPLE, Qatar and Oman Pass Marks

Pharmacists in the Gulf sit different exams in each country, and the title you apply for decides the paper. At DHA, Pharmacist is 60%, Clinical Pharmacy is 70% and Pharmacy Technician is 55%. Saudi Arabia uses the SPLE, with a pass score of 536 on a 200-800 scale. Qatar sets 60% for pharmacists. Oman sets 60% for pharmacists and 55% for assistant pharmacists. Kuwait publishes no pharmacist exam specification, and Abu Dhabi, the Northern Emirates and Sharjah publish no pass mark.

For a quick check of where you stand, take the free Pharmacist mock test . It scores you against the 60% DHA pass mark.

DHA runs three pharmacy exams, all with 150 questions in 3 hours and a USD 240 fee, plus a AED 200 credentialing fee in Sheryan. The 3 hours include registration, so the real testing time is less. DHA shows Pass or Fail only and does not share your score.

The step from 60% to 70% matters. Clinical Pharmacy has the same question count but the highest pass mark of any DHA allied exam, so you need strong therapeutics, dosing in renal and hepatic impairment, and drug monitoring. Think of it as a different paper, not a harder Pharmacist paper.

There are 16 further pharmacist specialty titles in the Unified PQR list, such as Oncology, Cardiology, Critical Care, Geriatric and Nuclear Pharmacist, plus "Specialized Pharmacist". They are not in DHA's CBT list, so DHA's rule maps them to an oral assessment. The source list marks all 17 as "confirm", so check your route on Sheryan. See which titles get a DHA oral .

On the day, arrive 30 minutes before your Prometric appointment with the passport you registered. Results are posted to Sheryan, normally within 2 working days. Exam fees are not refunded if you reschedule late, cancel or do not attend. Our Prometric booking guide walks through each step.

Book in Sheryan (Eligibility ID, AED 200 credentialing fee) and then Prometric (USD 240, card payment). Reschedule or cancel up to 5 calendar days before; exam fees are not refunded and a no-show is not a failed attempt. See the DHA exam overview and DHA pass marks for every title.

DOH: the PQR list shows Pharmacist and Clinical Pharmacist as "CBT - confirmed with DOH", and Pharmacy Technician as a Pearson VUE CBT (reported). DOH publishes no question count, duration or pass mark for any title, so treat any number you see online as an estimate. You book through TAMM and Pearson VUE after DOH approves your application.

MOHAP: the service card places pharmacy under the medical technicians category. MOHAP also runs a separate Licensing of Pharmacists service with an application fee of AED 100 and a licence fee of AED 1,000, and the pharmacist assessment certificate is valid for five years. MOHAP names no test provider and publishes no per-title table. Candidate guides report Prometric.

SHA: Sharjah decides during your professional assessment whether your title needs an exam. The fee for pharmacists is AED 300. SHA publishes no format, pass mark or booking route.

Across all four UAE authorities you have 3 attempts in total (PQR clause 1.5.4). One final attempt with a different authority is possible after three failures (clause 1.5.5). Read our full pharmacist licence guide .

Saudi Arabia (SPLE). The Saudi Pharmacist Licensure Examination has 200 MCQs, with up to 10% unscored pilot items. The pass score is 536 on a 200-800 scale. SCFHS gives a scaled score and a feedback report that compares you with other candidates. You may sit up to four times a year. Pharmacy Technician is a separate classification exam: 150 questions, 3 hours, 55%.

Qatar. The Pharmacist exam is 150 questions in 3 hours at 60%. You get five attempts in your scope, and a pass is valid for 3 years. Pharmacists are exempt with NAPLEX, PEBC, OSPAP, OPRA or CAOP, or with a clinical master's or PhD in the field. Qatar needs a verification report for the equivalent exam from 1 January 2026.

Bahrain. All pharmacy professionals must pass the Bahrain Pharmacy Licensure Examination, except Bahraini or GCC nationals with a valid GCC licence. A pass is valid for five years. You have four consecutive attempts within three years of your first. NHRA publishes no pass mark in the documents we checked.

Oman. OEP (Pharmacists) is 100 questions in 150 minutes, 60%, USD 200. OEAP (Assistant Pharmacists) is 55%, USD 200. Pearson VUE emails your score report within 24 hours.

Kuwait. Kuwait's published specification covers nine exams, and pharmacists are not among them. Confirm your exam with the Medical Licensing Department before you book.

Attempts, waiting periods and results by regulator

The rules below come from each regulator's own published documents. Where nothing is published, we say so.

Fees are published only for DHA (USD 240) and Oman (USD 200 for the pharmacist exams). DOH, SCFHS, QCHP and NHRA do not publish an exam fee in the documents we checked, so the amount is shown at booking. Confirm with the regulator before you budget. For the regulators' own pages, see DOH, MOHAP, SHA, SCFHS, QCHP, NHRA and OMSB.

Before you pay any exam fee, find out where you stand. Take the free Pharmacist mock. It is timed and scored against the 60% DHA pass mark, and it breaks your result down by domain. If your score is below 70%, the Pharmacist question bank gives you 549 original questions in 4 papers, each with a rationale.

Not sure which title or route applies to you? Request a free eligibility assessment and we will check your qualification, experience and exemption options against the Unified PQR. You can also use the Prometric exam checker.

An exemption covers the exam only. Primary source verification, experience and good standing still apply. In the UAE, a gap in practice of more than three years needs CME/CPD credits and supervised training, and for pharmacists the PQR table sets 20 credits for a gap of three to under four years and 30 credits for four to under five years. Read the exemptions guide for the full tables.

The only published pharmacist weights we can verify are for the SPLE. We could not verify domain weights for the other regulators, so we do not give any. The SPLE blueprint allows each area to vary by up to 5%.

Our Pharmacist bank has 549 questions in 4 papers covering therapeutics, calculations, compounding, law and pharmacovigilance. The Pharmacy Technician bank has 460 questions in 3 papers. You can read sample Pharmacist questions before you buy.

Weights in our blueprint

Our Pharmacist bank follows a 13-domain blueprint with 183 subtopics. The percentages are our harmonised estimates, built from the SCFHS SPLE guideline and DHA's published topic weights. They are guides for planning your time, not an official DHA weighting. DHA can change a blueprint without notice, so check your candidate bulletin.

Use this section after your first mock and start with the domains where you lost most marks.

Clinical therapeutics (about 30%)

This is the largest block, so it decides most results. Learn first-line choices and compelling indications for hypertension, dyslipidaemia, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, asthma and COPD, infections and pain.

Traps: choosing a drug that is correct in general but wrong for the patient's comorbidity (for example a beta-blocker in severe asthma, or an NSAID in heart failure). Warfarin questions often hide an interaction or an INR value. Read the whole stem before you choose.

Pharmacology, adverse reactions and interactions (about 12%)

Know mechanisms, receptor effects, therapeutic index, enzyme inducers and inhibitors, and the classic adverse reaction for each class.

Traps: mixing up an inhibitor and an inducer.

Calculations and compounding (about 12%)

Practise percentage strengths (w/w, w/v, v/v), ratio strength, dilution, alligation, weight and body-surface-area dosing, paediatric doses, and infusion and drip rates. Do 20 a day until the steps are automatic.

Traps: unit errors (mg and mcg, mL and L), using total weight when the question gives dose per kilogram per day divided into several doses, and forgetting to round to the question's requested unit.

Pharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics (about 8%)

Dosage forms, modified release, excipients, stability, half-life, clearance, volume of distribution, steady state and loading dose.

Traps: assuming steady state is reached after one half-life (it takes about 4 to 5), and applying a first-order formula to a drug with saturable kinetics.

Medicinal chemistry, biomedical sciences and supplements (about 12% together)

Structure-activity ideas, phase I and phase II metabolism, enzymes, physiology and biochemistry basics, and common herbal products and their interactions.

Nonprescription, special populations and toxicology (about 16% together)

Know when to treat and when to refer for OTC cases. Learn drug safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding, paediatric weight-based dosing, and the Beers Criteria for older adults. For poisoning, memorise the antidote for each common toxin, such as N-acetylcysteine for paracetamol, naloxone for opioids and atropine for organophosphates.

Traps: recommending an OTC product that interacts with the patient's regular medicine, and forgetting renal dose changes in older adults.

Law, ethics, counselling, public health and practice management (about 21% together)

Study controlled medicine rules, prescription validity, storage and cold chain, medication safety systems, counselling steps, evidence-based practice and basic biostatistics.

Traps: answering with a rule from your home country. Also revise basic biostatistics: confidence intervals, relative risk and number needed to treat.

Use eight weeks at 10 to 12 hours a week, or six if you study full time. Sort each missed mock question into knowledge gaps, calculation errors and reading errors, and fix each type differently. DHA shows Pass or Fail only, so aim for 70% (Clinical Pharmacy 80%) on two full papers in a row before you book.

Keep a short sheet of formulas, unit conversions, antidotes and interactions, and test yourself on it each day. Mistakes with units, such as mg and mcg, are the cheapest marks to lose. For Clinical Pharmacy, add therapeutic drug monitoring and renal and hepatic dosing in weeks 4 to 6, and aim for 80% on mocks. Our guide to passing the DHA exam on the first attempt adds study habits that work.

The week before

Confirm your appointment email and check that your passport name matches your registration exactly. Our Prometric centres guide and booking guide cover each step.

At the centre

Arrive 30 minutes early with your valid passport. At DHA, the passport must match the details you registered. For SCFHS, bring your scheduling permit and unexpired ID; arriving more than 30 minutes late counts as an attempt unless SCFHS accepts a documented reason. The 3 hours at DHA include registration, so the real testing time is shorter.

Time per question

These are gross averages. Plan on about 60 seconds for a recall question and up to 2 minutes for a calculation. Flag any question that takes more than 2 minutes, choose your best answer and move on. Keep 15 minutes at the end to review flagged items. Do not change an answer unless you find a clear reason.

Results

DHA posts Pass or Fail to Sheryan, normally within 2 working days, and you also get a Prometric Learning Outcome letter that describes strengths and weaknesses but does not state your result. Oman emails a score report within 24 hours. SCFHS announces scores 2 to 6 weeks after the testing window closes. DOH, MOHAP and SHA publish no result timing, so ask the regulator.

These are Neelim practice examples written for revision. They are not real exam questions and they are not recalled from any exam.

Question 1. A prescriber orders 500 mL of normal saline over 4 hours. The giving set delivers 15 drops per mL. What is the drip rate in drops per minute?

A. 21   B. 31   C. 42   D. 52

Answer: B. Total drops = 500 x 15 = 7,500. Time = 240 minutes. 7,500 / 240 = 31.25, so about 31 drops per minute.

Question 2. How many millilitres of a 10% w/v solution are needed to prepare 500 mL of a 2% w/v solution?

A. 50 mL   B. 80 mL   C. 100 mL   D. 250 mL

Answer: C. C1V1 = C2V2, so 10 x V1 = 2 x 500, V1 = 100 mL. Add diluent to make 500 mL.

Question 3. A patient stable on warfarin is started on metronidazole for an infection. What is the most appropriate pharmacist action?

A. No action needed   B. Warn the prescriber that INR is likely to rise and arrange closer INR monitoring   C. Increase the warfarin dose   D. Stop warfarin for the full antibiotic course

Answer: B. Metronidazole inhibits warfarin metabolism and increases INR and bleeding risk. The safe action is to alert the prescriber and monitor INR, not to change the dose without evidence.

Question 4. A 28-year-old woman at 20 weeks of pregnancy has hypertension and takes enalapril. What should the pharmacist recommend?

A. Continue enalapril   B. Switch to a pregnancy-compatible agent such as labetalol or nifedipine, with prescriber review   C. Double the dose   D. Add an ARB

Answer: B. ACE inhibitors and ARBs can cause fetal kidney damage in the second and third trimesters, so they should be replaced. Trap: adding an ARB, which has the same fetal risk.

Question 5. A patient arrives 6 hours after taking a large amount of paracetamol. Which antidote is indicated?

A. Naloxone   B. Flumazenil   C. N-acetylcysteine   D. Atropine

Answer: C. N-acetylcysteine replaces glutathione and protects the liver. It works best when started early, so the patient needs urgent medical assessment and levels. Naloxone is for opioids, flumazenil for benzodiazepines and atropine for organophosphates.

Want more? Try the free sets on our Pharmacist practice questions page, then see the QCHP syllabus and sample questions guide if you are applying to Qatar.

• Mixing up local law. Pharmacy law differs by country. Study the law of the country you apply to.
• Treating Clinical Pharmacy like Pharmacist. It has a 70% pass mark at DHA. Add therapeutic drug monitoring, renal and hepatic dosing and critical care.
• Weak calculations. Practise dilutions, infusion rates and weight-based dosing until they are automatic.
• Not planning for shared UAE attempts. A fail at DOH or MOHAP counts towards your 3 attempts at DHA.
• Booking the wrong title. Pharmacist and Pharmacy Technician are separate exams with separate pass marks. Check your title in the PQR.
• Booking too early. Fees are not refunded at DHA and DOH, and each attempt counts. Book only after two mocks at 70% or higher.

Failing is common and it is not the end of your application. Decide what to do in three steps.

1. Check your attempt count. In the UAE, attempts at DHA, DOH, MOHAP and SHA are added together, and you must declare earlier attempts (PQR 1.5.6). You have 3 in total.
2. Check the waiting rules. DHA has no minimum wait. DOH lets you re-sit 3 months after a fail. SCFHS allows up to 4 sittings a year, but not twice in one testing window. Qatar allows 5 attempts in your scope with no waiting period. Bahrain allows 4 consecutive attempts within 3 years for pharmacy.
3. Rebuild by domain. DHA gives no score, so take a timed mock, rank your weakest domains and rework them from the rationales. Do not simply repeat the same plan.

After three failures in the UAE, DHA blocks a new DHA application for two years. PQR 1.5.5 may allow one final attempt with a different UAE authority, or a fourth DHA attempt with a declaration that you have not failed elsewhere. PQR 1.5.8 can give three new attempts after an additional recognised qualification or 2 years of licensed experience. Read the failed-exam retake guide and the comeback guide before you rebook.

A pass is one step, not the finish line. In Dubai, DHA issues your registration once your primary source verification (PSV) is positive. DHA says a new PSV report takes 15 working days from payment, while DataFlow's own guidance says 20 to 30 days or longer if there are discrepancies. Start DataFlow early, ideally before you book the exam. Read the complete DataFlow guide.

• Registration is not a licence. At DHA the registration is valid for one year, and a licensed health facility must activate it through its own Sheryan account. You also need medical malpractice insurance.
• Passes expire. Qatar's pass is valid for 3 years and Bahrain's for 5. DHA and DOH publish no expiry for the pass itself, but a long delay or a gap in practice can force a new assessment. See the gap in practice guide.
• Start the job search before the result. Employers sponsor activation, so interviews and exam preparation should overlap. Our guide to what to do after passing lists the steps, and the pharmacist salary guide shows what to expect.

Fresh graduates should also read the fresh pharmacist graduate guide.

Start with the free Pharmacist mock, then use the Pharmacist question bank. For the advanced grade, see the Clinical Pharmacy bank and its free mock. Technicians can use the Pharmacy Technician bank and the free technician mock. Our questions are original. We do not sell recalled or leaked questions, and we cannot promise a pass.

If you are not sure you are eligible, or whether you can skip the exam, request a free eligibility assessment. For every DHA pass mark, see DHA exam pass marks for every title, and compare regulators in our DHA, SCFHS and QCHP comparison. Country guides: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Sharjah.