PRINCE2® Re-Registration – Which Path to Follow

I regularly get panic phone calls from learners about PRINCE2 Re-Registration and whether or not they are still PRINCE2 qualified. Quite simply, don't panic!! Learners are still PRINCE2 Practitioner qualified - it is just the currency of knowledge that cannot be claimed.

So what to do? Well, all that a learner needs to do is to pass the PRINCE2 Re-Registration exam. That is:

• Objective testing examination (a classification of learning objectives within education based on Bloom's Taxonomy)
• Three questions per paper with ten marks available per question - all question items are worth one mark, making the total number of marks available per paper thirty
• One hour is allowed (no reading time)
• Open-book examination (only the PRINCE2 Manual¹ is allowed
• The pass mark is 55% - candidates need a total of 17/30 marks to pass the exam

Simple really! Or is it? Consider the following scenario. A learner first passed their PRINCE2 Practitioner exam in May 2005. The PRINCE2 official publication¹ has gone through two updates since then and the exam format has changed (back in 2005, the Practitioner exam was essay format three questions in three hours). As exams are based on the most recent version of PRINCE2¹, a learner not only has to get up-to-speed on the changes in PRINCE2, but also in the exam technique (objective testing examination).

Consider a PRINCE2 Practitioner exam:

• Eight questions per paper with ten marks available per question
• Forty-fourmarks required (out of 80 available) to pass - 55%
• Two-and-a-half hours allowed (no extra reading time)
• Open-book examination (only the PRINCE2 Manual¹ is allowed)

Compare this to the PRINCE2 Re-Registration exam (above). A learner who originally studied on two versions of the PRINCE2 Manual-ago and a different exam format, in my experience, will struggle to make the step-change in capability to confidently attempt and pass the PRINCE2 Re-registration exam (two poor questions on a PRINCE2 Re-registration exam and a learner only has one question to 'rescue' themselves with, whereas on a PRINCE2 Practitioner, two poor questions and a learner has six questions to 'rescue' themselves with).

My advice: if a learner needs to keep their 'Registered Practitioner' status up-to-date, attempt the full PRINCE2 Practitioner exam (of course, a learner can still choose to attempt the PRINCE2 Re-Registration exam if they wish).

This doesn't mean that a learner has to go through another five days of training and pass the PRINCE2 Foundation exam again (remember the PRINCE2 Foundation exam has no expiry) as a pre-requisite for attempting PRINCE2 Practitioner again. Far from it! The biggest challenge here is to recency of PRINCE2 and this is what learners need to fundamentally address.

One solution here is to look at an eLearning solution to 'plug this knowledge gap'. Apart from (generally) being more cost-effective, it allows learners to 'get themselves back up-to-speed with PRINCE2' at their own pace ready to attempt an exam.

¹ "Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2", Edition 5, The Stationary Office, Norwich, 2009. ISBN 978-0113310593