Frequently Asked Questions

PEBC will send an application receipt acknowledgement email to you within 6 weeks of receiving your application. PEBC will NOT respond to requests from applicants for application receipt confirmation. You can choose to send your application with a tracking number so you can confirm delivery of your document with a courier. Please make sure your email settings will allow PEBC emails to reach your inbox.

If PEBC receives documents before your application we will hold them and add them to your file once your application is received. Transcripts are kept on file for one year from the day we receive them, licensing statements are kept for six months from their issue date and all other documents are kept for six months from the day we receive them.

You will need to submit an original, official translation of the document, as well as a certified copy of the original language document. If the document is a transcript or licensing statement you will need to request that the issuing authority send an original language version directly to PEBC and then request one for yourself to be used for the translation. You can send the original translation to PEBC yourself. PEBC does not accept copies of official translations, even if they are certified.

If you require a letter for visa purposes, it will be emailed to you once your application has been processed (within 6 weeks of PEBC receiving your application). This will confirm your acceptance to write the exam.

If you do not require a letter for visa purposes for the Evaluating Exam (pharmacists) or Part I – MCQ Exam (pharmacists or pharmacy technicians), you will receive confirmation in the form of an emailed invitation to schedule, which you will receive 8 weeks prior to the exam.

If you do not require a letter for visa purposes for Part II – OSCE/OSPE Exam, you will receive confirmation in the form of emailed exam information and your PEBC Admission Card, which you will receive 3 weeks prior to the exam.

Email your updated contact information to pebcinfo@pebc.ca.

Send an email to pebcinfo@pebc.ca stating you wish to withdraw, the exam you are withdrawing from and the reason why. If you are eligible for a refund as per PEBC Refund Policies, please include your address and the currency preferred for the refund.

If you are writing a computer-based exam – you will also need to cancel on the Prometric website or call Prometric to request a cancellation of your exam.

No, you must attend the examination in order for it to count as an attempt.

No. You must withdraw from the examination you are currently accepted for and submit a new application and fee for the next examination you wish to write.

Computer-based exam – To reschedule your exam, change your exam centre or exam method, visit www.prometric.com.  Do not cancel your exam. Select ‘Rescheduling’ under ‘Test Centre’ to complete any of these actions.
Deadline: You may reschedule, change your exam centre or your exam method up to 48 hours prior to the first day of the exam window.

Part II OSCE/OSPE – Make your site selections carefully. You cannot change your sites once you have completed your application. If you move residence after submitting your application, you can email pebcinfo@pebc.ca the details of your situation for consideration.

Unsuccessful Qualifying Examination (pharmacists or pharmacy technicians) candidates will receive a feedback report with information about their performance on the exam. These reports will be emailed to candidates within approximately eight weeks following the release of exam results. Feedback reports are not available for candidates who have passed the Qualifying exam. Please contact pebcinfo@pebc.ca if you have not been emailed your feedback report within eight weeks following the release of the exam results.

All Pharmacist Evaluating Examination candidates will receive a feedback report emailed with their results letter. Please contact pebcinfo@pebc.ca if you have not been emailed your feedback report with your exam results.

If you would like to have a discussion with a PEBC staff member about your feedback report, please email PEBC and provide us with a block of time over a two-week period along with a daytime telephone number where you can receive a call during business hours. It is important to understand that the purpose of the discussion is to clarify the information in the feedback report.  To maintain the security of PEBC examination content, PEBC staff cannot advise candidates regarding what they did wrong on a given examination, nor they can provide advice on what to do differently on a future examination.

Candidates are permitted three attempts at a PEBC examination, after which they are required to complete remediation prior to a fourth (final) attempt. The only situation in which candidates may be allowed an additional attempt at an examination is if they are granted a “No Standing” status on an examination sitting on the basis of medical conditions or compassionate grounds (such as bereavement). However, petitions for consideration of a “No Standing” status are only considered if they are received within 7 calendar days after the examination, accompanied by appropriate, official supporting documentation. Petitions received more than 7 calendar days after an examination (e.g., upon receipt of an unsuccessful examination result) are NOT considered.

The Registrar is not available for telephone discussions or in-person meetings with candidates. Matters requiring the Registrar’s consideration must be documented in writing and sent to the attention of the Registrar either by mail, fax or email (to the general PEBC email – pebcinfo@pebc.ca).

You will need to make a statutory declaration stating your complete name, current address and why you require a replacement and the fee. Have the statutory declaration witnessed by a notary public, commissioner for oaths or lawyer.

Before applying to PEBC for STEP 1 (Document Evaluation), you are required to register on the Pharmacists’ Gateway Canada and receive a National Identifier Number.

STEP 1 – DOCUMENT EVALUATION: You must pass this evaluation of your educational and professional credentials to be eligible to take the Pharmacist Evaluating Examination.

STEP 2 – THE PHARMACIST EVALUATING EXAMINATION: You must pass this examination to be eligible for the Pharmacist Qualifying Examination – Parts I (MCQ) and II (OSCE). Please follow this link for the application and instructions.

STEP 3 – THE PHARMACIST QUALIFYING EXAMINATION PART I (MCQ) and PART II (OSCE): Your final step to qualifying for certification with PEBC.  When you have passed both Parts of the examination you will be certified and registered with PEBC. Please follow this link for the application and instructions.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TESTING: PEBC does not require language proficiency testing, such as TOEFL, TSE or IELTS.  You should contact the provincial licensing authority for the province where you wish to practice to enquire about their language proficiency requirements.

IMMIGRATION: For immigration questions contact your local Canadian Embassy.  You do not need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to undergo Document Evaluation or write PEBC exams.

Your university can send a copy of your transcript as long as there is an original university stamp, date and signature on each page of the transcript. As another option, if you have an affiliated college, you could ask the affiliated college to send an original, currently-dated transcript directly to PEBC.

You can submit a certified copy of a provisional certificate OR a statutory declaration stating your final degree certificate has not been issued and the date it will be issued. Have the statutory declaration witnessed by a notary public, commissioner for oaths, or lawyer.

YES. Starting with the January 2022 Evaluating Examination, candidates will be required to pass Document Evaluation before they are able to apply for the Evaluating Examination.

Once all of the required documents have been correctly submitted, it will take up to 8 weeks for your document evaluation to be completed. Once your document evaluation has been completed a results letter will be emailed to you. This letter may also be used for visa purposes.

You have five years from the date on your Document Evaluation results letter.

If you have any attempts left after five years you will need to apply for document re-evaluation; to do so submit a new Document Evaluation application and fee. You will be informed if any other documentation is required once your application is received and processed. Be sure to apply well in advance of any deadlines because extensions will not be granted for documents submitted late.

There is no deadline. However, both Parts of the Qualifying Examination must be successfully completed within a three-year period of passing one Part. If you do not complete the process within this time period, you will be required to retake and pass the Part that has already been completed.

You will need to mail or courier a written request and the fee per each regulatory authority to whom you would like the copy sent.

On the login screen, click ‘Reset Password’ and you will provide the email address registered with your account. This will provide you with a link to create a new password.

You can make certain changes on your own and other changes require approval by PEBC.

• • Name changes can be requested on the Portal with supporting documentation; however, PEBC must approve the change before it takes effect.
  • Primary email address can be changed; an email is automatically sent to you that contains a link for validation.
  • Address and contact number changes can readily be made by candidates. Please also keep us informed of these changes to your contact information (address, telephone number) by emailing the new information to pebcinfo@pebc.ca.

Review the Candidate Portal User Guide for details about how to make the changes.

• For candidates who have already been progressing through PEBC’s certification process before the launch of the Portal, PEBC created an individualized report to provide a summary of candidates’ historical records with PEBC on assessments that have been completed prior to July 1, 2021.
• This is a one-time report provided for the benefit of candidates who were already progressing through PEBC’s certification process and will not be updated further. Candidates will utilize the Portal for more recent progress through the certification process.

• Any notifications that are generated through the Portal will be emailed from support@pebc.certemy.email.
• Add this email address as a safe sender to your email service to ensure that you receive the automated notifications.

• First make sure that you are trying to log in with the same email that you have on file with PEBC.
• Make sure that you have used the ‘Reset Password’ link correctly and completed account ACTIVATION by clicking on the link sent to your email.
• Contact PEBC with your issue, including your PEBC ID in all correspondence.

• DO NOT apply or complete payment for any application available in your profile.
• Contact PEBC with your issue, including your PEBC ID in all correspondence.

• Try again at a later time. The Portal is unavailable due to daily maintenance between the hours of 3:00 and 5:00 am EST.
• Contact Certemy Support (support@certemy.com) with your issue, including your PEBC ID in all correspondence.

• Currently, the only accepted payment methods are credit cards, namely, VISA and Mastercard.
• Amex, VISA Debit, regular debit or Interac payments are not accepted at this time.

• This is only used by candidates who have money on account with PEBC.
• Candidates who choose the 3^rd party payment option will have to wait for it to be first verified by PEBC before the payment phase is complete.

• Candidates who are required to complete the Document Evaluation (for international or U.S. graduates) will see all the required documents that must be submitted to PEBC. Some documents can be uploaded to the Portal and others should be couriered to the PEBC office either by the candidate or the issuing institution. Specific information can be found on the Portal.
• Each requirement is tracked within the Portal so you can see what you need to submit and PEBC will document when it has been received.

An ECA is an assessment of the authenticity and equivalency of the primary pharmacist qualification – the candidate’s pharmacy degree. It is used by candidates seeking to apply under the “Express Entry for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Canadian Experience Class” for immigration to Canada and for whom Pharmacist would be the primary occupation for their application to immigrate to Canada.

You are NOT required to apply for it if you do not need it. The application is entirely OPTIONAL.

No, you are not required to submit a paper application to PEBC. The entire process is completed online through the Portal.

Yes, application deadlines are still being enforced in the Candidate Portal.

With PEBC’s new Candidate Portal, candidates are assigned a ‘credential’ to apply for any exam that they are eligible for. If the candidate does not apply and pay for the exam by 12 pm (noon) Eastern Time on the exam deadline day, the credential will be deleted. When it is time for the next round of applications, PEBC will re-assign the exam credentials. Credential deletion does not impact credentials or examinations that candidates have previously completed.

There is no action required for existing credentials, if the candidate does not want to apply.

PEBC no longer requires paper applications for the examinations to be submitted to its office.

You will not receive confirmation that the step is complete UNTIL PEBC processes the applications and you either receive an:

• Invitation to Schedule for the computer-based, multiple-choice exams
  • Emailed no later than 3 weeks before the exam
• Admissions Card for the performance exams (OSCE / OSPE)
  • Emailed and added to Portal Digital Wallet no later than 2 weeks before the exam

• For Evaluating Examination and Qualifying Examination Part I (MCQ)
  • PEBC uses your site selections to estimate capacity requirements. You do not need to change your site selections made through the Portal. When you receive the Invitation to Schedule a few weeks before the exam, you can select whichever site is available.
• For Qualifying Examination Part II (OSCE / OSPE)
  • You cannot make the change on the Candidate Portal. You may request to make a change to your site selections by sending an email to pebcinfo@pebc.ca, specifying the new sites you would like to be considered and the reason for the change. PEBC cannot guarantee this change and will decide whether to approve the request, on a case-by-case basis, for exceptional circumstances.

Linear-on-the-Fly Testing (LOFT) is an automated exam construction model that uses technology to assemble exams to deliver a unique exam to each candidate. The technology selects questions from a large pool of questions using very specific criteria to assemble an exam is a valid and reliable assessment of competence.

As part of its commitment to excellence in the assessment of competence of candidates at entry-to-practice, PEBC continues to find opportunities to evolve its assessment processes. As PEBC invests significant resources into the item development processes, continually enhancing the quality of its questions so that each one would represent an important measure in the determination of competence. LOFT provides the opportunity of using a greater proportion of the Part I (MCQ) item bank.

Also, the use of LOFT will allow PEBC to extend the length of the exam window at each administration which will improve candidate convenience. Using LOFT will allow PEBC to enhance the security of the exam to reduce the impact of offering the exam over multiple days. Also, PEBC continually develops large numbers of new questions for use on its exams and LOFT will allow more of these questions to be utilized, further ensuring that the exam is current and relevant.

The Pharmacist Qualifying Examination Part I (MCQ) is a carefully constructed exam which follows a specific blueprint, to ensure that the exam covers the 9 entry-to-practice competencies established by NAPRA. There are other aspects that make the Part I (MCQ) quite unique which are taken into consideration when configuring the LOFT system. Through these configurations, PEBC ensures that  each exam has:

• an appropriate representation of different themes, such as disease states, calculation questions, and other relevant practice issues;
• a balanced proportion of standalone and case-based questions; and
• levels of difficulty of the exams are comparable to one another.

After configuring the requirements for each exam, PEBC reviewed simulations, as part of its quality assurance processes, to confirm whether each version of the exam met the requirements. PEBC adjusted the configurations until satisfied that the configurations were appropriate and that the assembled exams were representative of what PEBC would routinely administer to candidates at each administration.

PEBC undergoes significant analysis of each individual question to ensure that the questions are valid, reliable, and appropriate for use as scored questions on an exam. With these analyses, and using best practices in the field of psychometrics, PEBC’s measurement consultants assign values relating to the difficulty of the questions so that the overall exams target a specific difficulty level set by PEBC.

It is expected that there will be slight variations to the difficulty level of each exam, which is no different than the variations PEBC sees in the difficulty levels between exams on one administration of the Qualifying Examination and the next. As PEBC’s passing score is mapped to a performance standard, exams that are slightly more difficult will require a lower score to pass, while an easier exam will require a slightly higher score to pass. This ensures a fair comparison between different versions of the exam across candidates. For more information about PEBC’s scoring on the Qualifying Examination, please visit the information here.

The number of questions will remain the same, as each version of the exam will have 150 scored questions and 50 unscored (pretest) questions. The main change is that the exam will be delivered as a single section with all 200 questions being delivered. The amount of time will be unchanged at 252 minutes of total testing time. You will see a combination of standalone questions and case-based questions.

Besides the delivery of all 200 exam questions in a single section, the testing platform will function exactly the same with LOFT as it does with PEBC’s other computer-based MCQ exams.