Introduction
Pass marks and pass rates
Some people get confused between the exam pass mark and the pass rate. Here’s the difference.
The exam pass mark is how many marks you need to pass the exam. This can also be written as a percentage of the total marks available. So, for example, the pass mark for the new PRINCE2 Foundation exam (7th edition) is 36 marks out of 60, or 60%.
The exam pass rate reflects the percentage of people who pass the exam. In the UK, the national average of people who pass the PRINCE2 Foundation exam has been around 73% since 2012.
UK national average pass rates
The average PRINCE2 exam pass rate across the whole of the UK across all training companies is 97% for PRINCE2 Foundation exam, and 73% for PRINCE2 Practitioner exam. This has been consistent for several years now.
Knowledge Train’s pass rates
See the table below for details of our exam pass rates since 2012 for PRINCE2. You can see from the figures below that it’s harder to pass the Practitioner exam than the Foundation exam.
| Foundation | Practitioner | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration (minutes) | 60 | 150 |
| Total marks | 60 | 70 |
| Pass mark | 36 | 42 |
| % Pass mark | 60% | 60% |
| UK Average pass rate | 97% | 73% |
| Knowledge Train’s pass rate* | 99% | 83% |
Can you trust a training academy?
Choosing your PRINCE2 training academy can be minefield of conflicting, and outright false claims. Be aware that the less trustworthy companies will blatantly lie about their pass rates. So, how do you separate out the good from the bad? Well, here’s one thing you can do. Read their online PRINCE2 course reviews.
Check out their Google or Facebook page or review web sites. Don’t be fooled by that eye-catching TrustPilot widget on the academy’s web site giving them nothing but 5-star reviews. That’s been filtered to only show you the best ones. Check deep down into the list of reviews to really find out what their customers think about them.
Here’s a few of the things which we’ve read in reviews about one very large PRINCE2 training academy in the UK:
- cancelling a classroom course and making students study online instead of giving them a refund;
- telling students during the course that they must take their exam at home on the last day, when they thought the exam would be taken during the class;
- trainers being unqualified to teach the course;
- trainers complaining about the academy in front of the students;
- claiming its classes were small when it had over 30 students on them;
- pestering in advance to get the student’s money, then providing no subsequent customer service;
- cancelling a course and then making it very difficult for students to get a refund.
So, if you read reviews like these, then don’t trust what the academy says about its PRINCE2 exam pass rates either.
There’s lots more examples we could give but we’ll leave it for you to do your own research. We’re sure you can arm yourself with the knowledge to weed out the false claims of an academy.
Check out this article for a much more detailed look at selecting the best training provider.
Helping you pass your exam
Of course, the best way to help you to pass your PRINCE2 exams is to join us on one a PRINCE2 course. Alternatively, if you cannot afford the time to attend a class then you can always choose a self-paced PRINCE2 course online.
We’ve also put together some great tips to help you with your PRINCE2 exams. The articles below explain the styles of question you will face on the exams and contain some tips to help you both before and during the exams.
