PRINCE2 PRACTITIONER QUESTION PAPER PATTERNS

If you have  PRINCE2 Foundation certification, then the calling is to commit to the next level and complete - The PRINCE2 Practitioner certification.

As a PRINCE2 Practitioner certified professional, you are empowered with the knowledge and understanding in applying your learning to a real-time situation or scenario, and expected to lead and manage projects in an environment that supports PRINCE2.

Prerequisites

The prerequisite to appear for the PRINCE2 Practitioner examination, as stated by the governing body Axelos, is to possess a ‘proof of passing’ from 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) 

Exam Format

The exam format is as follows:

• Objective testing
• 8 questions - 10 question items per question, each worth one mark
• 44 marks or more required to pass (out of 80 available) - 55%
• Two-and-a-half hours (150 minutes) duration, no additional reading time
• Open book exam (official PRINCE2 manual only).

 PRINCE2 PRACTITIONER QUESTION PAPER PATTERNS

Please note that this exam is available for participants registered Accredited Training Organization.

Sample Paper

Having completed the certification course, it is strongly recommended that you try the ‘free Sample PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam’, offered by Axelos. This will present an overview and help you become familiar with the exam pattern, type of questions, severity of questions and so on. It arms with you awareness and helps you to prepare with a sense of anticipation. You have the option to take the test soon after completing the course to assess you own level of understanding and knowledge transfer or you can prepare prior to the test to get a first-hand evaluation of your own competence in cracking the exam.

Objective Test

The objective test will vary slightly from the usual objective answers, wherein, one correct answer needs to be selected. PRINCE2 Foundation follows this pattern of answering. However, in PRINCE2 Practitioner, there might be questions that may have more than 1 correct answer, and hence be informed about this departure from the tradition ‘objective answers’.

Knowledge Areas

There will be eighty questions in all and each carry 1 mark. You have to score a minimum 44 to clear the certification exam, which is 55%.  The question will be posed from knowledge areas and hence it’s imperative that you cover all topics and become conversant with the syllabus areas.

The PRINCE2 Syllabus contains 15 defined syllabus areas covering each of the seven themes, each of the seven processes and an overview area also covering the principles and tailoring PRINCE2 to a project environment.

Within the Practitioner Examination, there will be 6 “theme” questions, each testing one of the 7 themes, and 2 “process group” questions, which will test 2 of the 3 groups of processes as identified below.

Each of the eight questions will test a minimum of 2 syllabus topics from within the syllabus area.

Syllabus Area

• Business Case theme
• Organization theme
• Quality theme
• Plans theme
• Risk theme
• Change theme
• Progress theme
• Starting up a Project and Initiating a Project Processes
• Directing a Project, Managing a Stage Boundary and Closing a Project Processes
• Controlling a Stage and Managing Product Delivery Processes

Open Book

Within each question the syllabus area to which the question refers is clearly stated.
The exam is to be taken with the support of the PRINCE2 Manual only. Remember, you cannot use any other book or resource, that is i.e. no material other than the Question Booklet, the Scenario Booklet, the Answer Booklet and the PRINCE2 Manual is to be used and ‘Open Book’ conditions as have to be complied. We will discuss about open book more in detail as a blog post.

Types of Questions

You can expect the 80 question posed in the certification exam. And they are presented in 5 different formats as detailed below.

Classic Multiple Choice Questions: the typical objective-type question wherein you need to select a right answer from the given choices

Multiple Response: you have to select 2 options from the list of 5 options. This marks the exception in the pattern by prompting for more than 1 answer.

Matching: the options on the left column need to be mapped to the correct answer in the right. Please note that there is only one match and there are possibilities of multiple matches. Meaning for 5 options on the left column, it is entirely possible that option 1, 2 and 3 can have the same mapping on the right column.

Sequencing: ‘position events in a sequence’. You need to answer the options like stacking in a sequence.

Assertion/Reason:  You need to evaluate two statements a (an assertion and a reason) and confirm if they either, or both or neither with the help of reasons detailed in the question.

Capturing the Answer

In the answer leaflet, make sure the oval shapes are completely filled with PENCIL only. You have 150 minutes to answer questions. Hence your time management and answering ways should be 100% fill. Its an electronic submission and correction and hence filling the oval shapes that you find as the correct answer should be neatly and completely is the compelling factor. Failure in doing so may result in the making the answer null and void as system will be unable to ‘read’.