How I passed the PSM I exam

0. Disclaimer

– This is my own personal experience.

– Hope it works for you as well 😉

1. Understanding

– Be a test taker!

– Though you can search it yourself, here’re some links I found useful

• PSM-1 Certification: Self Study along with my experience & tips for the actual exam

• https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/14789/passed-psm-i-exam-first-time-963-using-only-freely-available-resources

• https://medium.com/@sanjeev.ramani/how-to-pass-psm-1-self-study-thoughts-tactics-60ae51d0fbb1

• Passed PSM I with 97,5% experiences | Scrum.org http://nghialuong.com/Toi-da-chinh-phuc-PSM-1-nhu-the-nao/

2. Learning

– Absorb Scrum Guide – Study LinkedIn/Learning courses

• https://www.linkedin.com/learning/scrum-the-basics/assess-the-team?u=2182809 https://www.linkedin.com/learning/cert-prep-certified-scrum-master/next-steps?u=2182809

– Follow Scrum Master Learning Path (It WILL appear in your actual test. See the picture below)

• https://www.scrum.org/pathway/scrum-master

– Read Scrum Guide again!

– Well. Read Scrum Guide again!!

– Huhm. Read Scrum Guide again!!!

3. Practice

– Scrum Master Open Assessments until you remember every single question. Trust me, you won’t regret.

– Scrum quizzes from Mikhail Lapshin to verify your understanding of Scrum Guide. Although none of these questions may be in the real test, it’s worth.

• https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-learning-mode/

– Other resources are available on the internet. Please be aware that they are not 100% correct!

• https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mjewody3nqmy0o https://internet80.com/psm-i-exam-simulator-1/ https://www.thescrummaster.co.uk/scrum-org-practice-assessments/

4. Actual test

– Testing environment

• Be alone and quite! Good internet connection. Use your PERSONAL computer.

• Should have a pen and paper to take note

• To load questions is fairly slow. Keep calm!

• Web UI/UX of an actual test is nearly as same as Open Assessments.

– Top secrets of questions (from my case)

• 20% from Open Assessments. Do you hear that? Exactly the same!

• 50% can be easily inferred from Scrum Guide ONLY if you understand it. Remember: You have to infer, cannot find direct answers from the book.

• 20% would confuse you with what describes in Scrum Guide (ex: Sprint 0, work remotely, …). So, follow Scrum Guide, you can argue after you get PSM I 😉

• 10% are extremely difficult and required working experience (what I haven’t had much :)). And, there’re many inconsistent answers on the internet. So, nobody knows for sure :))

– Don’t blow your mind

• As you might already see, questions are hundres times harder than Open Assessments and even NOT mentioned in Scrum Guide. Be ready!

• A good news: If you really ABSORB Scrum Guide, you already can achieve around 90% correct answers.

Good luck!