MPlaza PRINCE2® Practitioner exam simulator review

Are you looking at the Mplaza PRINCE2® Practitioner exam simulator? The right exam simulator can boost your confidence on test day and help you focus your study time on the topics where you need the most revision.

I’ve spent several hours reviewing the exam simulator from Management Plaza (MPlaza) and I can confidently say that it’s great.

In this PRINCE2 Practitioner Mplaza exam simulator review, I’ll tell you:

• Whether the software is worth the hype (spoiler: definitely!)
• Why it’s a good choice for project management students
• How long you’ll need to spend on practice exams before taking the real thing.

There really aren’t that many sources of PRINCE2 sample questions, and you do have to be careful about the quality. The Practitioner exam questions are not written to trip you up, but they are tricky.

Exam practice was the thing that helped me pass my exam, and I recommend you spend some of your study time going through mock exams and past question papers to get a feel for how the questions are written and how the answer mechanism works.

Who is the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam simulator for?

This simulator is for project management students working towards the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam. You will have taken the Foundation exam already or you might be working towards doing them both in a similar timeframe, which is what I did. I took them both in the same week.

The simulator is a good choice for people who have the time and discipline to self-study.

Note: If you are studying for Foundation as well as Practitioner, I recommend you get the PRINCE2 Foundation Exam Simulator as well. The questions are fundamentally different in structure and content, so it is worth making sure you are ready for both tests.

How the simulator works

The questions are designed to test your knowledge of PRINCE2 and prepare you for the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam.

The software includes:

• 270 root questions, equivalent to 4 exam papers
• Infinite Exam Simulator^TM formats those into 320 variations so you have to pay attention to the detail as each time you see a question it could be slightly different!
• Explanations for each question so you can learn from what you got wrong
• 15 sections per test that mirror the structure you will find on the real exam.
• Access to a trainer via email if you have any questions.

You get access to the simulator for 12 months. In my experience, that will be more than long enough, and it’s comparable with other project management exam simulators. The deadline helps focus the mind… otherwise you might never get round to taking the test!

All the questions are aligned to the latest edition so are fully up-to-date.

Features

Feature	Demo version	Full version
Number of questions	12	270 root questions, 320 variations
Duration	25 minutes	Full exam is 2.5 hours but you can also review sections for a shorter test
Structure	Nothing specific	15 sections
Results saved	No	Yes
Pass mark	60%	60%
Flag for review	Yes	Yes
Timer	Yes, counts down	Yes, counts down
Explanations	Yes	Yes
Penalty for wrong answers	No	No
Coaching available	No	Yes

How to use the simulator for exam practice

I suggest you practice each section until you consistently get marks around 80-85%. You only need 60% to pass the test, but it’s good to have a really solid grounding in the topic. This is the best approach for learning the course content and testing yourself.

When you are ready, move on to taking full exams, again aiming for 80%+ as a pass mark.

Use the PRINCE2 exam simulator in the weeks leading up to your test. Expect to do at least 4, preferably 6 full exams.

The PRINCE2 exam has 68 scenario-based questions, so you need to be able to quickly read the scenario and draw conclusions from the text. You have 150 minutes to complete the test.

If you do 6 full exams, that’s 15 hours of exam practice, which sounds a lot. It sounds like a huge amount, to be honest, but it’s worth it to know you are massively increasing your chances of success on your first attempt.

If you have bought the tool, you might as well use it to the max!

Free exam simulator trial: test before you buy

I think it’s important to know what you are buying.

The Practitioner simulator is not a standalone software tool. It’s accessed via the Mplaza website. Many other simulators are ‘separate’ software that you log into and use, but that isn’t the case here. I’m indifferent to the set up, to be honest. It’s handy to have it all in the browser, but it does feel less like the experience you get on test day because it’s not the same look and feel as you get on the exam.

On the Mplaza website you can take a free trial of the simulator to see what you are getting before you buy.

It only has 12 questions but it’s enough to give you a feel for what the product is like and whether it will be suitable for your needs.

Practice answering the questions without referring to the PRINCE2 manual. You can take the (printed) manual into the exam with you, but there is not a lot of time. I wasted time looking for answers when I could probably have managed to answer them from my brain without checking.

Pros

The main advantage of prepping for your exam with this particular set of test questions is that you get a detailed explanation of the answer. The straightforward language gives you exactly what you need to understand why the response you chose was wrong (or right, if you just guessed!).

Some other simulators just give you a page reference to their training material or the PRINCE2 manual, which is not as helpful. Even knowing the reference doesn’t mean you’ll get why you were wrong. Explanations take the mock exams to the next level.

You do also get the reference to the lesson to review and the relevant section of the manual.

The other advantages of the MPlaza PRINCE2 Practitioner exam simulator are:

• Access from anywhere. There’s no software required, you just use it in a browser window.
• See where you are going wrong and learn from your mistakes, so you can revise only the topics where you need additional time.
• The exam is online so you get used to using a similar interface.
• The access to a real trainer. OMG, that is game-changing!

There is a lot to learn with PRINCE2 so the simulator is perfect for getting going and structuring your self-paced study time.

Cons

I don’t think you can pass the exam with the simulator alone. You also need a PRINCE2 Practitioner training course (I recommend this training, also from MPlaza).

You’ll need to make time to get the best out of it, which means putting together a study plan and being disciplined. If you can’t do that, you’ll never get round to using it.

Recommendation: Should you buy this simulator?

I recommend this PRINCE2 Practitioner exam simulator.

Of all the PRINCE2 simulators I have looked at, it is by far the most robust. It’s backed by a great time of experts, gets you access to real humans for help if you need it and it’s hard to find a negative review.

Students love it, and I do too. Let me know how you get on!

I should let you know that I am so impressed with Frank that I’m an affiliate for the Mplaza products, but I only recommend products I have tested out and am confident in.

More PRINCE2® Resources

• PRINCE2: The project management method explained
• How to choose a PRINCE2 course online
• The Best PRINCE2 exam simulators
• MPlaza PRINCE2® Practitioner exam simulator review
• MPlaza PRINCE® Foundation exam simulator review
• PRINCE2® and PMBOK®: How they compare
• 7 Best PRINCE2 books (Including PRINCE2 Agile books)
• What PRINCE2 certification should you get?
• The Best PRINCE2 course for beginners
• 12 Tips for PRINCE2 Practitioner exam success