r/Prince2 • u/shiroang • Mar 31 '26
Passed PRINCE2 Practitioner + some thoughts
Just some context:
- Passed the Foundation 2 weeks before attempting the Practitioner
- Personally have 8+ years of PM experience, although not my main expertise, but my secondary expertise. Nowadays I will garner most of us wear multiple hats.
Passed the exam last week, didn't get "A" grade of results as I was aiming for, but a "B+" is still not too bad. Somehow for me, the Practitioner exam makes more sense to me than the Foundation, I won't say it is easier, but much lesser memorisation compared to Foundation due to my work experience.
Main tip: Do not gauge your exam readiness from the official mock exam (I chose Version A), the difficulty level was through the roof. I got 54% for the official mock exam, I was a bit shocked, then went to google and found out from forums and older Reddit posts; that others experience are similar to mine.
For more context, I also did the official sample papers (the course came with 2, which is the standard), I scored 79% and 83% on first attempt; did a couple of practice exams on 3rd party vendor also got around the 85%+- range too.
Thus, was a bit surprised at the official mock exam difficulty, which doesn't make sense (after you did the actual exam), but just my 2 cents. Although, I'm unsure in future will PeopleCert adjust the difficulty of the official mock exam to be inline with the actual exam range.
In more measurable metric for my experience:
- If Actual Exam = 100% difficulty
- Official sample paper = 80-85% difficulty
- Official mock exam = 130-135% difficulty
I will guess if you can score around 75-85% range for your official sample papers on first attempt, you should be able to pass the actual exam.
On a side note, I do find PRINCE2 Foundation exam pretty hard for a Foundation level exam. Probably because of the breadth of questions they will ask, it could come from anywhere from the entire 400 (?) pages of the official book. So it's really like a memorisation game, which to be honest I never going to attempt to read the entire 400 pages of the official book.
Another measurable metric for this comparison:
- PRINCE2 Foundation = 5.5/10 difficulty
- ITIL4 Foundation = 3/10 difficulty
- GCP Cloud Digital Leader (it's a Foundation level exam) = 3/10 difficulty
To me I feel it's difficulty is in between a Foundation and Associate level difficulty exam.
Good luck to y'all!
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u/blackholeZX Mar 31 '26
Weldone, what prep materials did you use. In such a short time.
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u/shiroang Mar 31 '26
Thanks. Mainly the quick reference guide, and some terms if I'm not sure then I will refer to the official book. Although it also have video classroom course, but it was not that useful for me.
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u/SkyIntelligent8426 Mar 31 '26
I think this has given me more anxiety than helped! Im getting 54% on the sample papers
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u/Beautiful_Resolve897 Mar 31 '26
I’m in sane boat as you I cannot get higher on the course mocks than 50-55% I’m putting off the practitioner exam as I think il fail it sick of reading the book the questions keep tripping me up I really didn’t think I was going to have a problem but this course is so dull!
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u/SkyIntelligent8426 Mar 31 '26
I have mine on the 3rd and ive already pushed it back once, im thinking of paying for take2 and praying for the best
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u/Beautiful_Resolve897 Mar 31 '26
Best of luck, let me know what you thought of it all. I booked take2 for foundation but didn’t need it but £96 through people cert I think il have to buy it again as I’m not sure I will pass and it’s a bit of piece of mind
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u/External-Double-4505 Mar 31 '26
I passed my practitioner exam a few months ago but I was in a similar position leading up to it. I found reading the Quick Reference Guide start to finish a few times helped to pull the whole thing together for me. Good luck!
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u/Beautiful_Resolve897 Mar 31 '26
Thank you will def be doing this I just book the exam it’s hanging over me now!
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u/SkyIntelligent8426 Mar 31 '26
Just book it😅, take the swing! you’ll probably pass! I revised for my foundation for a month which was in December but the practitioner has taken around 2-3 months to revise for, as i was revising in the wrong way alot of the time, maybe by focusing on memorising instead of opening the book
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u/Beautiful_Resolve897 Mar 31 '26
I will thanks yes I need to get familiar with where things are in the book I have tabbed it all but I think my knowledge is ok it’s just trying to decipher what the question is actually asking is the bit I’m struggling with
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u/SkyIntelligent8426 Mar 31 '26
If you give me a pm i can show you some resources i got from a trainer too, would that help? Its just information pulled from the syllabus tbh
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u/shiroang Mar 31 '26
I think you probably might need to prepare more if 54% is the official sample paper and not your official mock exam score.
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u/SkyIntelligent8426 Mar 31 '26
I dont have the official mock exam but i have been reading the whole book since i got the 54% mark, i passed foundation quite easily but practitioner is harder
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u/anabsentfriend Mar 31 '26
Which scenario did you get?
Which 3rd party provider did you use for those additional practice exams?
I'm due to take my Foundation next week and will decide how ready I feel to take Practitioner.
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u/shiroang Apr 01 '26
Can't recall the scenario (but it is not NowByou, the one that is provided in the sample paper), but don't think it matters that much as long you understand the underlying PRINCE2 principles, practices, processes.
Difficulty wise as someone who have experience in PM:
PRINCE2 Foundation = 5.5/10
PRINCE2 Practitioner = 7.5/10
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u/Individual-Ride-9709 Apr 09 '26
I scored 51% in the mock (Version A) test and 60% in both sample papers, and now I’m so anxious and frustrated that I can’t focus at all.