Pharmacy Interview Writing Sample and Math Test

Pharmacy Interview Writing Sample and Math Test

Every accredited PharmD program must assess your written and oral communication "in a standardized manner" during admission. Some do it on interview day: Touro University California gives a 45-minute passage essay and a five-question calculations quiz, and WesternU's 2024–25 guidebook gave 40 minutes on paper.

This page quotes the accreditation rule behind both, what four programs actually publish, a timed plan with a constructed essay, and five constructed calculation items with worked answers. For the spoken part of the day, see the sibling guide to pharmacy school interview questions.

Every school and accreditor page quoted below was checked on November 7, 2026. Pitt and Touro state no cycle year on their pages; WesternU's guidebook is labelled for the 2024–25 cycle. Your interview invitation is the document that sets your format, so read it against this table.

The rule behind the essay

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) sets the standards every US PharmD program is accredited against. ACPE Standards 2025 (released July 1, 2024, updated June 12, 2025) contains two admission rules that shape your interview day:

"4.3.g Written and oral communication assessment – Written and oral communication skills are assessed in a standardized manner as part of the admission process."

"4.3.h Candidate interviews – Standardized, synchronous interviews (in-person, telephonic, and/or computer-facilitated) of applicants are conducted as a part of the admission process to assess affective domain characteristics. The interview process must allow for each individual candidate to be interviewed separately from other applicants."

The University of Pittsburgh cites this accreditation rule on its PharmD application process page as the reason for its writing assessment.

Two things follow. First, the writing sample is a required measurement, not a warm-up. Second, the standard says "standardized", not "on interview day". A school can meet 4.3.g in other ways, and ACPE does not tell applicants which method each school uses. Rule 4.3.h's word "synchronous" fits a pattern you will see: Texas Southern's PharmD interview page runs an "Asynchronous Online Video Assessment" as Part I and then a "Live Virtual Interview" as Part II; a recorded screen on its own would not be synchronous.

What four programs publish

What the rows say in the schools' own words:

• Pitt: "During the prerequisite review meeting, the instructions will be reviewed and the link and password to the writing assessment will be shared." The assessment "will be assessed by members of the PharmD Admissions Committee."
• Touro: "you'll be asked to read a passage, define a word used within the passage and respond to a prompt related to the passage. You'll have 45 minutes to craft an essay demonstrating you understand the meaning of the passage and how it relates to specific, current situations." Its admissions page adds that the panel "will evaluate your verbal, non-verbal, and written communication skills."
• WesternU: "You are not required to fill all three sheets of paper. Topics may range from questions regarding your application (for clarification) to current issues in pharmacy. Essay topics will be general in nature, not necessarily pharmacy related." (Interview Day Guidebook)
• UT Tyler: the interview day page lists "Multiple Mini-Interviews (MMIs)" from 8:30 to 10:10 a.m. and "Math & Writing Assessments" from 10:50 to 11:30 a.m. The page gives no prompt or item count, and its title dates it to Spring 2015.

Only two of these four publish a math component, and only Touro gives a count. Nothing here supports a claim that most PharmD programs test math. The interview formats of the same schools, and TSU's two-stage process, are in the pharmacy school interview questions table.

Our view: it is a second personal statement, written without an editor

Our view: prepare the interview-day essay as seriously as your PharmCAS statement. The basis: ACPE requires a standardized written assessment, Pitt has committee members score it, and Touro's panel names written communication next to verbal and non-verbal skills. Your PharmCAS statement went through drafts. The timed essay shows the committee how you write when there are no drafts.

The countercase: if your school's invitation and website describe no writing task, do not burn your last week on timed essays. Spend it on the spoken interview and on your answers to "why pharmacy". A school can meet 4.3.g in a way it does not publish, and that part is unknown to applicants.

A 40-minute plan for the essay

This plan fits WesternU's 40 minutes and Touro's 45. The split is ours.

Total: 40 minutes, or 45 with the Touro reading step (our arithmetic). WesternU says you need not fill all three sheets, so a complete, organized essay beats a long one.

Constructed example: a passage response, weak and revised

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant statement or a real school prompt. The format copies Touro's description: a passage, a word to define, a prompt.

Context (invented): Passage: "In many communities a patient can ask a pharmacist a question without an appointment. That accessibility carries a duty: the pharmacist must notice when a routine refill is not routine." Word to define: accessibility. Prompt: What does the passage mean, and how does it apply to a current situation?

Weak opening:

Pharmacy is a very important field and pharmacists help a lot of people. Accessibility is important. In today's world there are many challenges in healthcare and pharmacists play a key role in solving them.

The weak version never defines the word, never says what the passage means and names no situation. It could answer any prompt.

Revised response (constructed; 204 words):

In this passage, accessibility means that a patient can reach a pharmacist without an appointment, a referral or a fee. The author's point is that this ease of contact is also a responsibility. Because a patient can stop by without an appointment, the pharmacist may see them between every other visit, and so can notice a change.

A current example is a patient who refills a rescue inhaler every two weeks instead of every two months. The refill itself is routine. The pattern is not: it can mean the patient's asthma is poorly controlled. An accessible pharmacist can ask one question at the counter, such as how often the patient is using the inhaler, and suggest that the patient see their prescriber. The refill dates are already in front of the pharmacist.

The passage also implies a limit. Accessibility is only useful if the pharmacist has time to look at the pattern and the patient trusts the pharmacist enough to answer honestly. That means the duty belongs to the whole pharmacy team, not only to the pharmacist on shift.

I agree with the author. Being easy to reach is the pharmacist's advantage, and noticing what does not fit is how that advantage protects patients.

Why the revision works: the first sentence defines the word, the second states the passage's meaning, the second paragraph applies it to one concrete case, and the third adds a limit, which shows thinking rather than agreement. The example makes no statistical claim, so nothing in it needs a source you cannot cite in a timed room.

The calculations quiz: what to review

Touro is the only program above that names a count: "a short, five-question calculations assessment". It publishes no sample items. Prepare the arithmetic that sits under any first pharmacy calculation: unit conversion, dose by weight, percent strength, dilution and rates.

Five constructed practice items, written by us. They are not Touro's or any school's questions.

1. Unit conversion. A patient weighs 154 lb. Using 1 kg = 2.2 lb, what is the weight in kg? Answer: 154 ÷ 2.2 = 70 kg.
2. Dose by weight. A drug is dosed at 5 mg/kg. How many mg does the 70 kg patient receive, and how many 175 mg tablets is that? Answer: 5 × 70 = 350 mg; 350 ÷ 175 = 2 tablets.
3. Percent strength. How many grams of drug are in 250 mL of a 2% w/v solution? Answer: 2% w/v = 2 g per 100 mL; 2 × 250 ÷ 100 = 5 g.
4. Dilution. How many mL of a 10% stock solution make 500 mL of a 2% solution? Answer: C1V1 = C2V2, so 10 × V1 = 2 × 500; V1 = 100 mL of stock, plus 400 mL of diluent.
5. Rate. 1,000 mL of fluid runs over 8 hours. What is the rate in mL per hour? Answer: 1,000 ÷ 8 = 125 mL/hour.

Write the units on every line. Units let you check each answer in the last minute: if the result comes out in mg/kg when the question asked for mg, the setup is wrong.

The originality attestation

Pitt states its rule directly: "Applicants will be asked to attest that they will abide by the code of conduct and that the essay is their own original work." That is the whole published rule on Pitt's page. Pitt shares the assessment's link and password only at the pre-interview meeting, so the essay shows your writing under the school's conditions. Prepare by practicing timed writing on your own, not by preparing text to bring in. The sibling page on PharmCAS AI rules for the personal essay covers what PharmCAS itself asks you to certify.

Interview-day writing checklist

1. Find your school's writing and math task in the invitation or on the admissions page. If neither mentions one, use the countercase above.
2. Write three timed essays this week: 40 minutes each, prompt chosen at random from a list you write in advance (one on a current pharmacy issue, one on your own application, one general).
3. For each, check: did the first two sentences answer the prompt's verbs?
4. If your school gives a passage, practice defining a word in one sentence, in your own words.
5. If your school lists a math component, work the five items above without a calculator, then with one, and write units on every line.
6. Reread your PharmCAS statement. WesternU says topics "may range from questions regarding your application (for clarification)", so know what you wrote.

Questions about the pharmacy writing sample and math test

Do all pharmacy schools have a writing sample on interview day?

No published source says so. ACPE requires every accredited program to assess written communication "in a standardized manner" during admission, but the standard does not require the assessment to happen on interview day. Pitt, Touro, WesternU and UT Tyler publish an interview-stage writing task.

What is on the pharmacy school interview math test?

Touro calls its version "a short, five-question calculations assessment" and publishes no items. UT Tyler's example schedule shows a combined "Math & Writing Assessments" block. Review unit conversion, dose by weight, percent strength, dilution and rates, as in the constructed items above.

How long is the pharmacy interview essay?

Touro gives 45 minutes, including reading the passage. WesternU's 2024–25 guidebook gave 40 minutes and three sheets of paper, and said you are not required to fill all three. Pitt does not state a time on its page.

Who reads the writing sample?

At Pitt, "members of the PharmD Admissions Committee." The other pages do not say who scores it.

Can I write the essay in advance?

No school above publishes its prompt. WesternU says topics are chosen by its admissions committee and "will be general in nature, not necessarily pharmacy related." Practice the method, not a script.

Review the writing you send next

After interview day, the next thing you write is either a letter to a program that put you on its alternate list or, if this cycle does not work out, a new PharmCAS statement. Get a free Quick Review of your PharmCAS personal statement against GradPilot's PharmCAS personal statement rubric: it reads whether you explain why you chose pharmacy, show how your background prepared you, and connect the PharmD to your goals. The full rubric catalog lists every other document GradPilot reviews.

More pharmacy guides:

• Pharmacy school interview questions: the spoken part of the same day.
• PharmCAS personal statement examples: the essay your interviewers may ask about.
• Pharmacy school waitlist letter: what to send if you land on an alternate list.
• Thank-you email after a PT, OT or pharmacy interview: the short note after the day.
• The medical and health essays hub. PT and OT programs run timed essays too; see the DPT on-site essay plan.

Sources

Retrieved November 7, 2026, except where noted.

• Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, ACPE Standards 2025 (approved June 14, 2024; updated June 12, 2025): Standards 4.3.g and 4.3.h, quoted.
• University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, PharmD Application Process (no year stated): interview months, Zoom, 30-minute interview, writing assessment, attestation, committee scoring.
• Touro University California College of Pharmacy, Admissions (no year stated): 45-minute passage essay, five-question calculations assessment, interview months.
• Western University of Health Sciences College of Pharmacy, PharmD Interview Day Guidebook (2024–25 cycle): Writing Skills Evaluation, 40 minutes, three sheets, topic rules.
• UT Tyler Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy, Interview Day (page title says Spring 2015): example schedule with MMIs and a Math & Writing Assessments block.
• Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, PharmD Interviews (Fall 2025 schedule shown): two-part process, asynchronous video then live virtual interview.