I got a partial due to my PFL. I picked a field and then was so hung up on all the bits and pieces that I forgot to fly down to it, and ended up much too low. The main problem I had was not admitting it had all gone wrong until too late, when I had no height left.
I think that in the real world all you would do would be to land the plane. You're taught a lot of extra stuff, and I'm not for a minute suggesting this isn't important, but it's easy to think 'Oh no, I haven't warmed the engine' when of course this would be irrelevant in the real thing. I find all these things can be distracting from the job at hand.
It also depends on the examiner - do they assess it as a PFL - that is practice - or do they think this person isn't likely to stall in so would do a reasonable job of landing the plane in an emergency.
I passed on the retake, but was worried because I'd been told that I was being re-examined on the whole flight - I didn't want to mess it up with something I'd done perfectly before!