Illinois changed which box you tick, and the MPJE is no longer the box the statute names. HB4154 was signed on June 1, 2026. IDFPR describes it as legislation that replaces the pharmacy jurisprudence examination requirement with an ACPE-approved education and assessment program developed by the Illinois Pharmacists Association. That program is the ILPRO, and it is now the requirement the statute names.
The MPJE has not disappeared. IDFPR's own notice says that "presently" it will continue to accept the MPJE as a method of examination for licensure under 68 Ill. Admin. Code 1330.330. Read that as a default with a retained alternative rather than a menu of two equal options. Note the word "presently". The Department has said what it accepts today, and it has not said how long that lasts. Neither will anyone honest.
What are the ILPRO and the MPJE, side by side?
Comparing these two as rival exams misleads, because only one of them is an exam. The ILPRO is a course. The MPJE is a proctored sitting at a test center.
| ILPRO | MPJE | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Illinois Pharmacists Association, with IDFPR | NABP, at Pearson Professional Centers |
| What it is | Online, self-paced, over ten modules, 2.0 contact hours of ACPE CE | 120 questions in 2.5 hours, proctored |
| What you pay | $125 to IPhA | $100 NABP eligibility application, $170 exam purchase, $107 to CTS |
| How you pass | 75% or better on one end-of-course assessment | Pass or Fail, with no scaled score reported |
| Attempts | One per registration | Five per jurisdiction, 30 days between |
| Getting the result | Certificate downloadable immediately | From CTS, usually 7 to 10 business days |
Look at the fee row. The ILPRO is $125, paid once, to one organization. The MPJE route is $377 across three payments to two organizations: NABP takes the $100 eligibility application and the $170 exam purchase, and CTS takes $107. That last one is Illinois' own registration fee through Continental Testing Services rather than anything NABP charges. Illinois does not use NABP's $85 Eligibility Service, so no fourth payment appears.
Illinois is also one of three jurisdictions, with Guam and Minnesota, where NABP does not release your MPJE result to you. It goes to the state, and CTS sends you an official results letter. Plan on the 7 to 10 business days CTS quotes. NABP's usual 14-business-day timeline is not the one that applies to you.
Two things about the ILPRO are unpublished, and anyone who quotes them is guessing. IPhA states neither a question count nor a time limit for the assessment, because the course is self-paced. It also says nothing about what happens after a failure beyond the single attempt each registration buys. Check the fee and the terms at ipha.org/ilpro before you register; that is the page IDFPR's notice sends applicants to.
Does choosing the ILPRO cost you portability?
No. NABP's candidate bulletin says score transfers pertain to NAPLEX or UMPJE results only, and that MPJE results cannot be transferred, because the MPJE is unique to the jurisdiction you are seeking licensure in. Illinois is not a UMPJE jurisdiction either. Thirteen jurisdictions had adopted the UMPJE as of September 2026 and Illinois was not among them; NABP maintains the current list on its participating-states page.
So neither Illinois route produces a transferable law-exam score. A state-specific MPJE pass does not carry across to another state's law requirement, and NABP's own licensure-transfer table shows why: each receiving jurisdiction states its own condition. Alabama asks you to pass the MPJE. Alaska asks for a non-MPJE law examination. Whatever you did in Illinois, the next state sets its own terms and you meet them there.
People asking this are usually worried that the cheaper route costs them something in five years. It does not. Choosing the ILPRO forfeits nothing you could have carried out of Illinois, because there was nothing to carry.
Will NABP's paperwork accept an ILPRO completion?
Two official sources currently say different things about what Illinois requires of an incoming pharmacist. That is worth knowing before a licensing clerk raises it halfway through your application.
IDFPR, the regulator that issues the license, published a notice after HB4154 was signed on June 1, 2026 saying it will accept the ILPRO, and that notice explicitly names the Endorsement route as an ILPRO path. IPhA puts it more directly still: completing the ILPRO satisfies Illinois' pharmacist jurisprudence education requirement for licensure. NABP's licensure-transfer general-requirements table still gives Illinois' requirement as "Pass the MPJE." That table's footer is dated "Last updated 8/26/2026", so it was refreshed after HB4154 was signed and after the ILPRO launched.
The regulator governs. IDFPR issues Illinois licenses and NABP does not, so an ILPRO completion is sufficient for Illinois whichever way the transfer table reads. That leaves friction. If someone in a transfer chain tells you Illinois needs the MPJE, they are reading a current NABP document rather than an outdated one, and you will be the one pointing them at IDFPR's notice. Keep a copy. Then check both documents again before you pay for anything, because either could move.
Endorsement is the shorter route into Illinois, and it does not shorten the law requirement. Transferring pharmacists get that wrong constantly. IPhA names licensure by endorsement or reciprocity, alongside licensure by examination, when it says who the ILPRO is for. Twenty years behind a counter in another state is evidence about your practice, and Illinois is asking about Illinois law. Every applicant shows it, however long they have been licensed elsewhere.
The reading is the same whichever route you pick. Illinois Pharmacy Law: A Jurisprudence and ILPRO Study Guide 2026-2027 is built around the Illinois and federal material itself rather than around one route's format. That is the only sensible way to build it while the routes are still moving.
How do you tell Illinois which route you are taking?
Examination-route candidates opt out of the MPJE by email. Applicants who completed the NAPLEX through CTS, or who are using a NAPLEX score transfer, write to pharmacy@continentaltesting.net with their full name, the last four digits of their SSN, their date of birth, and one prescribed sentence. IDFPR's notice supplies the wording: "I would like to waive the IL MPJE exam."
No reply is coming. IDFPR says plainly that the address is unresponsive, and that CTS keeps your message to help match your NAPLEX score to your record when the score reaches the Department. Silence there is not a problem to chase.
Endorsement applicants licensed more than a year in another state skip CTS altogether. IPhA forwards your completion to IDFPR directly, and IDFPR's notice asks you to allow two to three weeks for the application record to update.
That prescribed sentence is the only place an official Illinois document uses the phrase "IL MPJE", and it names the exam you are declining. The ILPRO is not a state edition of the MPJE. A different organization runs it, and it is a course rather than an exam.
ILPRO vs MPJE: which one should you take?
If you are licensing into Illinois and expect to practice there, the ILPRO is cheaper and faster, and it is the route the statute names. The argument against it is administrative friction with a transfer table that has not caught up, and that friction is survivable.
The MPJE still has a use if you are licensing in more than one state and one of the others requires it anyway, since your preparation covers both at once. Sitting it for Illinois alone buys you a slower and more expensive version of a requirement you can meet another way.
The honest limit on all of this is the word "presently". IDFPR retains the MPJE at its own discretion under 1330.330 and has announced nothing about changing that. Nobody outside the Department knows what happens next. So before you register for either, open IDFPR's pharmacy page and read the ILPRO notice there yourself. IDFPR prints no date on the face of it, so compare the wording against what you read here rather than hunting for a version number.
Our Illinois licensure steps post walks the rest of the application sequence, and the ILPRO explained covers the program in detail. If you are weighing a second state, state MPJE or Uniform MPJE covers how that choice works where it exists.
FAQ
Is the ILPRO an exam, or is it a course?
It is a course, and the distinction matters. The ILPRO is an ACPE-accredited continuing education course, delivered online and self-paced over ten modules for 2.0 contact hours, with one end-of-course assessment you pass at 75% or better. There is no test center and no proctor, and IPhA publishes neither a question count nor a time limit.
Can I still sit the MPJE for an Illinois license?
Presently, yes. IDFPR's notice says it will continue to accept the MPJE as a method of examination for licensure under 68 Ill. Admin. Code 1330.330, and "presently" is the Department's own word. No date has been announced for that changing, and no date should be inferred.
What is the ILPRO pass rate?
Nobody publishes one. IPhA, IDFPR and CTS all publish nothing of the kind, and the only ILPRO performance figure any official source states is the 75% passing standard. A single-attempt CE assessment has no body whose job it is to compute a pass rate, so treat any figure you see quoted as invented.
Does an ILPRO completion count in another state?
No, and neither would a pass on the MPJE you sat for Illinois. NABP says score transfers pertain to NAPLEX or UMPJE results only, and that MPJE results cannot be transferred because each MPJE is unique to its jurisdiction. Illinois is not a UMPJE jurisdiction, so neither Illinois route produces a transferable law-exam score. Every receiving state sets its own law requirement and you satisfy it there.
What does each route cost?
The ILPRO is $125, paid to IPhA. The MPJE route is $100 for NABP's eligibility application, $170 for the exam purchase, and $107 to CTS for the Illinois registration. Confirm all four figures on ipha.org/ilpro, NABP's candidate bulletin and the CTS Registered Pharmacist page before you pay, because published fees change without notice.
Preparing for Illinois licensure? Illinois Pharmacy Law: A Jurisprudence and ILPRO Study Guide 2026-2027 covers the state and federal material with 150 checkpoint questions, every answer explained. Not sure yet? Try 12 of its questions free and we'll email you the sampler PDF.
Mortar & Law is an independent publisher. MPJE and NABP are trademarks of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. CPJE is administered by the California State Board of Pharmacy. Our books are independent study material and are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of them.
Nothing here is legal advice. Exam and licensure requirements change; verify anything you plan to act on with your state board of pharmacy.