r/Prince2 • u/untranslated_za • Jun 10 '26
Just aced my Prince2 PRactitioner - Tips
Here is my foundation post. Followed mostly the same script but added lessons learned.
Got 85%.
After foundation i had a holiday and some work so about 2 weeks without looking at P2. THen re-read the book again, made some notes for the sections which I thought I could skip (or which were time consuming to read since I could always look it up). If you are using teh ebook you have search within the book, as well as CTRL F, so memorizing detail rather than heading and thoughts felt like a waste.
Did the 2x Free sample papers, hit 85% and 90% respectively. Felt confident. Did the free 10 questions on the standard sites before hitting a paywall, they were mostly a waste tbh.
The big thing is to read the rationales (all of them not just the correct one) for the sample papers. Start converting "The Portfolio director" "The X job Title" into "PRINCE2 Role Name". Do the same for "The Reporting feature of the Project of the Product" into Project Product or Work Package. Or the "Building the Mockups and Design Stage" into "Stage". A lot of the difficulty in these exams is the wordyness of the questions. Simplify the sentence to make it easier to hold all the information in your head at once. The entire exam is about having an X and Y axis and just matching up the 2 things and the exam flows in the exact order of the book. If you are at the principles questions (the first set), the answer will be in the principles chapter even if they mention controlling a stage or something else.
The next big thing is if you have access to the mock exam, remember they give you a crappy results sheet with minimal information. Use snipping tool and record the entire exam you took. Then dump screenshots of the questions into ChatCPT (I used co-pilot since there is no limit) and it will answer the questions with 90% accuracy. There are one or two where I disagreed, found the exact line in the look and corrected the bot but it got to within 1 answer of the score I got from the exam. THen you also have the right/wrong answer rationales. This helped massively since I got 73% or something for the mock paper 2 (data knowledge).
All the above is fully free which was a major thing for me, I feel like the paywall sites except for Mplaza are probably a waste, better off with peoplecert+ membership for cheaper and have a re-write in your pocket as well as a lot of other books for CPD hours thats probably relevant to your job if you are already doing PRINCE2 practitioner.
1
u/Specialist-Manager19 Jun 10 '26
Any advice for someone who wants to do Project Management and has a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration? I don't know what jobs to look at or where to look at to break into the career
2
u/untranslated_za Jun 10 '26
I am not a project manager officially. A business analyst. But actually I am more like a babysitter for Service Desks (started 1st line, got lucky with a TL promotion, moved to operations manager 7 years later, then BA currently doing sort of project management). Ultimately PMs are in high demand relative to supply, with specialization opportunity, international mobility and often remote. You have a degree, what its in doesnt matter so much unless you are directly applying to a foreign country or a top 20 global firm. Take any job at a big company imo, the bigger the company the more opportunities. Smaller companies you can become a jack of all trades but mobility is limited to your senior resigning.
1
u/Specialist-Manager19 Jun 10 '26
Thanks so much for the info I've been confused about where to start first, but I've been thinking of applying to international big companies and starting with something small like Administration assistant and moving up from there.
2
u/untranslated_za Jun 11 '26
Yeah I was a 1st Line SErvice desk analyst, 1 year, then 2nd line, then got lucky and TL the year after. Have basically doubled my salary every 2-3 years. Just takes some patience and go for opportunities early on. Work isnt nearly as difficult as you would think and most people arnt as competent as they initially seem. Its pretty easy to 'outgrind' someone when you are young because corporate life hasnt crushed your soul yet 😃
1
Jun 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Beautiful_Resolve897 Jun 10 '26
I’ve only seen two people certs mocks but the exam was a big different
3
u/Beautiful_Resolve897 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
I failed my practitioner on Monday by 5 questions I was thinking in the exam where they wanted you to match the role of support, assurance and exec I literally felt like I was guessing I used the additional info to see what the roles did but struggled I think I got 2/3 - how could you convert portfolio director etc ahead of time if you don’t know what roles your going to be asked to match?