This guide to passing the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam provides you with some great hints and tips to make you well prepared to sit your PRINCE2 Practitioner exam (2017 version). Read on for the details.

Practitioner exam purpose
The purpose of the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam is to assess whether you can apply and tailor PRINCE2 in context. If you pass the exam you should, with suitable direction, be able to start applying the method to a real project. However, you but may not be sufficiently skilled to do this appropriately in all situations. Some factors which may affect your ability to apply PRINCE2 on a real project includes your project management expertise, the complexity of the project and the support provided to you in the use of PRINCE2 in your work environment.Assessment criteria
The PRINCE2 Practitioner exam assesses whether you are able to:- apply the PRINCE2 principles in context
- apply and tailor relevant aspects of PRINCE2 themes and processes in context
- assess whether an approach to applying the themes or processes is effective and fit for purpose in a given context
- apply the PRINCE2 requirements for a theme, demonstrating an understanding of the management products and recommended roles and responsibilities of the theme
- carry out the activities of the processes and their recommended actions, demonstrate an understanding of the recommended roles and responsibilities, and how the themes may be applied within the processes.
Syllabus areas examined
- The 7 principles
- The 7 themes (business case, organization, quality, plans, risk, change, progress)
- The 7 processes (starting up a project, directing a project, initiating a project, controlling a stage, managing product delivery, managing a stage boundary, closing a project)
Pre-requisites
You are required to have any one of the following:- PRINCE2 Foundation
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
- IPMA Level A® (Certified Projects Director)
- IPMA Level B® (Certified Senior Project Manager)
- IPMA Level C® (Certified Project Manager)
- IPMA Level D® (Certified Project Management Associate)
What's in the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam?




- a scenario booklet containing information about a fictional project;
- a question booklet containing all the questions;
- an answer sheet where you mark your answers.
Scenario booklet
This contains a fictional project scenario which describes an organization investing in a project and is normally about 1 page of A4 text. It is this scenario upon which all the questions are based.Question booklet
This contains all 68 questions, divided into 17 topics. Each topic will be clearly labelled e.g. PRINCIPLES, ORGANIZATION, DIRECTING A PROJECT etc.. The sequence of questions follows the chapters in the PRINCE2 manual i.e. first the principles, then the themes, then the processes.Answer sheet

Question styles
After attending a PRINCE 2 course, or studying a PRINCE2 course online, practice papers are the best way to prepare for the types of questions used during the exam. Even when the training day is over, you should practice at home to fully ensure you get to grips with the type of questions used.




How to prepare
Sample exams
Trying the 2 sample exams which comes as part of the course will help you enormously. Timing yourself whilst completing practice papers is also crucial so that you become used to working at a speed required to pass all questions. We’ll talk about exam time-management a little later.Tabbing the manual

Highlighting the manual
Highlighting key parts of the manual will help you as well. Too much highlighting will hinder you, however, so make intelligent decisions when deciding which parts to bring to your attention. Your trainer will advise you on the best sections to highlight.Mindmaps
Learning about a new subject requires you to engage your brain with the material. Having to think about the different elements forces your brain to process the information and make connections between them. A good way to do this is to draw mind-maps – one for each theme and process. Within our pre-course study we already have mind-maps, but if you draw your own on a blank piece of paper it will help you enormously. After you finish you can compare yours against ours. Just remember, there is no ‘perfect’ mind-map so although yours might not look the same as ours it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.Sleep
Ensure you get a good night’s sleep the night before your exam. You want to arrive at the exam venue bright and alert, not sleepy after a late night.Time management
The exam lasts for 2.5 hours (or 3 hours 8 minutes if you’re a non-native English speaker).Read the scenario first
When the exam starts, spend 5 minutes reading the scenario booklet. Underline or highlight things which appear significant. For example, if it tells you the reason why the project is happening, write “reason” next to the sentence. This will help you when answering the questions later. It will usually explain the number of management stages in the project and will probably say which products are delivered in each stage. There will then be a further 145 minutes left. There are 2 time management strategies you can consider.Strategy 1: equal time per question

Strategy 2: two pass approach
Starting at the beginning go through the entire exam paper twice. The first time through you will answer the easy questions and you will fill in your answer sheet with those answers. “Easy” questions might be the ones which take little time to answer, or the ones which you are confident that you know the answer for. Skip any questions which you think are too difficult or take a lot of time to read.
What to bring with you

- Photo ID (such as a passport or driving license) otherwise you cannot sit the exam
- Note: you will be provided with a pencil and eraser

- Water, to keep your concentration levels high
- Highlighter to highlight important details in the scenario booklet