PRINCE2 Pass Secrets

Fast-tracking to Your PRINCE2 Practitioner Pass!

First up, please remember that the typical questions and indeed the syllabus, that covers the foundation exam, also applies to the practitioner exam.

So if you are preparing for your Practitioner exam, or are preparing for the re-registration exam - you must also revise those syllabus aspects covered in the Foundation exam.

My second point, is that the practitioner exam, being multiple choice style objective questions, will require considerably more reading of the question and back ground material.  So to bring into the exam with you a highlight marker pen so that you can emphasize any key points within the scenario, the extra information, and the background description for each question.

The PRINCE2 Practitioner open book exam

The only book you are allowed to take into the exam itself is the official or PRINCE2 Manual.  No other reference material is allowed.

But I do have some advice for you:

It is important to know your way around the official Manual so that you can easily locate information as part of a answering a particular question.

You cannot write notes on sheets of paper and includes those within your Manual.  Neither can you cut out any other paper information and slip these into the Manual.

Remember only to use your page markers to reference points within the Manual, do not be tempted to add extra information to those tabs.

Answering the Practitioner questions

Your practitioner exam will use the same approach to answer sheets as it did within the foundation exam.  You will have pre-printed answer sheets with ovals for each answer, and you will put a thick pencil bar to the shape or fill it in completely.

PRINCE2 Appendix A

This is a vital section of the official Manual as many questions are asked upon it.  Make sure that you understand not just what each section of each management product contains, but the type of information you would expect to see within each section.

An example here is the business case.

You must remember that there are sections within the business case such as reasons, and benefits.  But what type of information would go into one and not the other?

Again as an example, the reasons section will be based on past history (the situation that cause the need for the project in the first place), whereas the benefits section relates to future information (the benefits you will expect to be realized as a result of passing the projects products into an operational area (Business As Usual).

Practitioner Exam Time Management

There are eight sections within the practitioner exam and each carry 10 marks, so you will need to divide up your time evenly during the exam.

It is an easy mistake to spend too much time on early sections only to find that you run out of time as the exam draws to a close.  Rushing and losing marks on the final sections maybe the difference between a pass or a fail!

Here is my advice for planning the best time management:

You will need to have time to read the project scenario as well as understanding it, so allow around 25 minutes to read the various parts of the scenario information.

The exam duration is 2 ½ hours, which is 150 minutes

So having read the scenario that will leave you with 125 minutes – I recommend holding back 5 minutes as an emergency, so assume 120 minutes which gives you 15 minutes for answering each set of 10 questions for each of the eight sections.

Although the project scenario covers the whole exam, there are some additional sections that provide further information for some of the eight topic sections.  Your 25 minutes scenario allocation will have included some time to read the specific sections.

My advice is to spend the first 10 minutes reading, understanding and highlighting the scenario itself, and then reading the additional information as you come to answer each of the eight sections.

The length of the scenario information is typically between half and a full page.

As you answer each of the eight sections, I recommend that when you read and understand the additional information, you then quickly flick back to the main scenario to put that into context.

You are quite at liberty to remove the staple from the paper if you wish, so that you can have the scenario always open on your desk for quick and easy reference.

One of the key causes of exam failure is not lack of knowledge but misreading the question - so do highlight or underline key actions within each question.

As an example, is the question asking when a product is created, or when it is updated? – your answer would be different in both cases.

This is another good reason to carefully manage your time so that you don’t rush as you approach the end of the exam and misinterpret what question is asking.

There is no negative marking in the exam, so as a last minute emergency strategy, if it looks like you are running out of time, you have got nothing to lose just simply to guess the answers to any remaining questions and shade them in on your answer sheet.  You never know, a few vital marks may be picked up this way that make the difference between a fail grade or a pass grade.

PRINCE2 Practitioner question styles

Because the practitioner exam is an objective one, then expect several different question styles that need to be answered.  This differs from the foundation exam, which has a standard for choices of potential answers for you to choose.

Classic style

Having said that, there are some practitioner exam questions that have the same format as the foundation.  But be careful to read the question, as some of these multi-choice style questions ask you to choose two options from the list rather than just one.

In such a case you will need to get both answer is correct in order to score the mark, so it is a good idea to highlight the word “two” in the question so you don’t forget!

Critique style

This type of question is where a, say, a management product, such as an issue or a risk register entry may have one or more errors, and the question is asking you to try and identify them.

The exam question will clearly say something along the lines of; “warning.  There may be errors in this extract from the (say) product description”

The question will include answer options offering whether you believe that they particular section of the part of the product is correct or that it needs replacing.  Under exam conditions, it is easy for your brain to turn to jelly so keep a clear head when you come across questions of this type and remember the following:

This type of question can involve significant amounts of reading as the suggested replacements often consist of several sentences of text that you will need to read first to make a decision whether you choose their answer option or not.

It can be confusing when alternative answers look similar and in such case don’t forget Appendix A in the Manual so that you can focus your mind on exactly what the product is and what it is for.  This will help you clarify which answer option to choose.

These critique questions may be applied to diagrams such as the product flow diagram.  Again, such a diagram will use the have some errors contained within it, and one of the questions relating to the diagram will ask you whether such an item is correct or needs to be replaced.

Sequence style

This type of question will provide you with their sequence or list of steps, and the answer options will include those steps in a different order, asking you to choose the answer which gives the correct sequence.

Matching style

This type of question starts with a statement being made followed by two columns of text.  You will be asked for each entry in the first column to identify the appropriate answer from the second column.

It may be that an entry in the second column is the correct answer to more than one of the questions or sections within the first column.  On the other hand, you may find that one or more entries in the second column may not be needed as an answer for any of the entries in the first column.

One of the ways in which a matching style question can be asked is by true or false questions.  In which case there will only be two options in the second column – true, or false.

Another variation on this type of question is where the first column contains a list of events, and the second column is the order or sequence of these events.  You will need to match the event to the right part of the sequence.

Assertion – reason questions

Most delegates find these questions the hardest of all, however I have some great advice for you to make them easier.

Selection             Assertion             Reason

A                             True                       True

B                             True                       True

C                             True                       False

D                             False                      True

E                              False                      False

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This type of question takes the form of a first statement, then the word “because” and then the second statement.  To give you a flavour, here is a simple statement:

“I eat a balanced diet because I live in Spain”

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The trick is to follow a simple three step approach, even though you may not need the third step.

First read both statements shown in bold above.

If either or both of those statements is false then you only need to ask yourself if the first two steps are true:

Is the first statement correct?

Is the second statement correct?

If both statements are correct, is the second statement the reason why the first one is true?

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In the example I have given, yes I do eat a balanced diet, so the first statement, the assertion, is correct.

The second statement is also correct, because I do live in Spain.

Given that both statements are correct, the last step is to ask yourself if the second statement is the reason why the first one is right.  In this case it is not, because my choice to eat a balanced diet has nothing to do with whether I live in Spain or somewhere else.

The simple statement may include a situation where both statements are correct, but the second statement is not the reason for the first one is right.

Again, here is a simple example:

“Critical-path analysis is a vital technique because it is referenced within the PRINCE2 Manual”

Both statements are true, but the “because” link between them is false.

You can see how easy it is to get confused with this style of question if you do not appreciate that the word “because” will never apply unless both statements are true.

Okay here are some more examples:

Configuration Item Records may be passed to the organization at project end BECAUSE some specialist products may need configuration management control in their operational lives

This is a True-True AND the because is correct – so the answer is A

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An issue may be submitted at any time during a project BECAUSE an issue may be handled informally, and if so, it is recording in the Daily Log

This is a true-true, however it is a B answer because the fact that issues can be handled informally is not the reason why anyone can send one in

At the end of the first delivery stage when work costs are clear, the Executive will check the Business Case BECAUSE to remain viable, all projects must have financial benefits greater than project costs

The answer is C. It is a true-false. Projects do not have to show financial benefits (an example would be a compliance project, needed to comply with the law)

The software engineer should develop the Team Plan for the data handling Work Package BECAUSE the engineer has a better detailed knowledge of data protocols coding than the Team Manager

This answer is D - it is a False-True. The Team Manager may draw upon the engineer’s expertise, but is still responsible for owning the plan.

A Checkpoint Report must be produced by the Team Manager when the coding work is complete BECAUSE the Checkpoint Report is used to notify completion of a Work Package and they are now ready to take on further work

This is an E answer – False-False. The Checkpoint Report is a time-driven control, typically produced weekly to notify progress, and is not used as completion notification.

Some exam tips for this style of question would include:

As you check each statement to see whether it’s true or false, write a “T” or an “F” against it on your question paper.  If one or both of them is marked as false then your answer is either a C, D, or E.

If both are true, then your answer will be either A or B, depending upon whether the “because” condition is true or false.

Some years ago, I made a video that gave some examples of the above PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam questions and you can find it HERE!