Pass the exam is easy, you just need to know where to start.
Three months ago I had cleared the Professional Scrum Master (PSM-I) assessment on my first attempt, studying less than 2 weeks. I answered 79 of 80 questions correctly, securing 98.8% and I believe that by sharing my experience maybe I can help someone that is looking to achieve this certification.
1. The exam structure:
- Duration: 1 hour
- Number of questions: 80
- Passing score: 85%
- Provider: scrum.org
- Type of Questions: multiple choice and true/false
- Price: $ 150.00
- Prerequisite: none
I had no prior detailed knowledge on Scrum and I believe that everyone can easily self-prepare and pass the exam. A year and a half ago when I first heard about Scrum I read the book Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland, one of the creators of Scrum, which helped me to give a clear overview about the framework and how to implement some of its aspects in the startup that I was working.
After that, I started studying and checking about it again only 2 weeks before the exam.
When I decided to take the exam I started researching on Google about it and found out that the scrum.org website offers a 30 question sample exam and the Scrum Guide that contains 19 pages that it is very useful and I recommend reading it at least 3 times before the exam. However, as the exam costs $150 and the requirement is to complete it with a passing score of 85% by solving 80 questions under 60 minutes, it is better to study using more tools than just the Scrum Guide and the question sample. It is better to be fully prepared to pass the exam in the first attempt.
2. Studying — Scrum Tester App, LinkedIn, andUdemy
I strongly believe that the best way to study is by doing sample questions where you can obtain knowledge about the topic that you are studying and understand what is covered in the exam. One app that I recommend is the Scrum Tester app where it is possible to solve a lot of different questions and prepare for the exam. In addition to this, I took the preparation course that contains just 1h26min Cert Prep: Certified Scrum Master from LinkedIn Learning.
Additionally, it is possible to find some preparation courses or sample questions on https://udemy.com, but I’m not sure which one is the best as I didn’t use it to study for the exam.
3. Topics toStudy
When studying for the exam and reading the Scrum Guide it is important to understand the depth of each sentence and prepare your own notes. I like to use Evernote to take all notes and separate them in topics. The main topics to study are:
- Scrum Definition
- Scrum Usage
- Scrum Theory
- Transparency
- Inspection
- Adaption
- Scrum Values
- Scrum Team
- Product Owner
- Development Team
- Scrum Master
- Scrum Events
- Sprint
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
- Scrum Artifacts
- Product Backlog
- Sprint Backlog
- Increment
- Definition of Done
- Measuring Progress
- Progress towards the project goal
- Progress towards the sprint goal
- Artifact Transparency
- Scaled Scrum
- Burn Down Charts
- Sprint Zero (doesn't exist)
- Velocity
- Technical Debt
- Cone of Uncertainty
- Who can participate in the Daily Scrum
Beyond that, pay attention when reading the Scrum Guide at all times when it mentions questions with “must”, “should”, “could” and “can”, you will need to remember these situations in the exam. Sometimes you don’t pay enough attention to some words, so it is necessary to be careful. Always read the question carefully, word by word and make sure you have read all the answers before choosing the desired one. Besides that, be careful with questions containing “NOT”, because many people just forget about the “NOT” and pick the wrong answer.
Last but not least, be careful and double-check the multiple answer questions. Sometimes they ask you to choose multiple answers, and some people just pick one of them, because they don’t pay enough attention to it. My tip is to verify if the answer has check-boxes or radio-buttons, that differs one from another.
4. Doing theExam
In the 60 questions, the first 40–45 questions are very easy if you really know about the scrum framework and roles. However, there were some questions about Scaled Scrum that sounded a little bit difficult, still, if you’ve fully prepared yourself for the exam, you will figure out the right answer. The exam is not difficult. If you are attentive, it can become very simple and easy to pass.
It is important to note that only the exam is easy, not Scrum itself. Scrum, if you really understand it, might be more complex than it may seem at first and you need to fully understand it to implement it properly. Still, it’s possible to see that people and companies often forget to follow the basics of a 19 pages manual.
So, having a thorough understanding of the Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland is mandatory.
During the exam, you can review previous questions, but the interface is not that good, so it can take you some time to click through to get to the questions you are looking for. Very important, remember that you do not need to do the exam fast, you just need to pass it, so don’t race with time, just take your time and you will be seeing the timer running on the page itself. The exam is easy.
5. After theExam
Right after finishing the exam, you will check your score and discover if you got it or not. You won’t be able to check which questions you answered wrongly, you will just get your score and a congratulations message (if you passed, obviously).
I hope all these tips are helpful and best of luck on the assessment if you choose to take it. If you want to talk about the exam, you can just send me a message and I will be happy to help. Success to all!
