IN Psych Juris

It is set under the Professional Board for Psychology, one of the 12 Professional Boards under the ambit of the HPCSA, which is established to provide for control over the education, training and registration for practising of health professions registered under the Health Professions Act. The Board, not an independent testing company, controls the examination. Confirm sitting dates and venue arrangements with the Board directly.

Your ability to apply the regulatory framework, not just recall it. Core material includes the Health Professions Act, the scope of professions defined in terms of section 33, the CPD programme implemented under section 26, ethical rules and patient rights, and the complaint and inquiry process under sections 41 and 42(1). Expect scenario questions asking what you should do next.

We cannot state these. The HPCSA psychology examination pages currently resolve to the Council home page and publish no item count, duration, pass mark or fee, so any figure you see elsewhere may be outdated. Treat numbers from older study material with suspicion and confirm the current format, duration, pass mark and fee in writing with the Board before booking.

The retake policy is not published on the pages we could verify, so we will not guess at waiting periods or a cap on attempts. Ask the Board directly about rewrite eligibility, the next available sitting and whether any additional fee applies. Build your study plan assuming a single attempt, so a rewrite becomes a buffer rather than part of the plan.

Start with the Health Professions Act itself: its structure, the Council and Board framework, and the sections on scope of professions, CPD, complaints and penalties. Then move to the ethical rules and patient rights, and finish with past-style scenarios. Studying scenarios first gives false confidence, because you cannot reason about conduct without knowing which section creates the duty.

Three patterns dominate. First, confusing the Council with a Professional Board, or the inquiry stage under section 41 with the penalty stage under section 42(1). Second, answering what feels ethically right instead of what the Act or rules require. Third, memorising penalties without knowing which conduct triggers an inquiry, which collapses under scenario questions.

The HPCSA site links to a legislation section containing the Acts relevant to the health professions, plus a PAIA and POPIA manual, a complaints and investigation page and a judgements page. Read the primary legislation and the Board's published rules there rather than relying on summaries. Confirm that any document you download is the current amended version.

The HPCSA provides a complaint route for members of the public against a registered practitioner, a judgements page, and a search facility to verify a practitioner's credentials and standing. As a candidate, familiarise yourself with these pathways, since questions on the complaints process and on public protection frequently appear in jurisprudence papers.