In this tutorial I go through the Pharmacology December 2016 past paper from the Hong Kong Pharmacy Registration Exam. Please note I do not have any affiliations with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board nor did I write the original questions.

I have tried to keep the answers brief and to the point. Sometimes I provide some background information, but my actual answer will be indicated. In some cases you may consider shortening the answers I have provided even further.

For some questions it may be possible for there to be more than one answer which will be acceptable to the examiner, or in some cases where answers can be listed out, not necessarily every item is required to be written out to get full marks.

I will provide a speculated breakdown of mark distribution for each question, and also some comments and discussion as to the complexity of the question and what the examiner is looking for in the answers.

Where side effects are requested, I will cross reference between the BNF and the SPC, and will only put down common specific side effects relevant to the question and the mechanism of action of the drug.

Although I will provide some CPD and notes for the purpose of giving the answers more context, I do not provide full notes for pharmacology topics. In some answers I give some suggested links for further studying.

I have provided references used.

I tend to prefer British nomenclature and brand names.

Bear in mind I have had unlimited time and access to literature resources to help me answer the questions. The exam questions on this paper and on others are difficult, and under exam settings it is unlikely that any candidate would have been able to answer all the questions in their entirety.

If you would like to comment or challenge any of the answers I have provided please contact me via Facebook on the Hong Kong Registration Exam group.

Thank you for reading and I hope you find this tutorial useful.