Passed PSM with 95% - some suggestions

I passed PSM today with 95%. Just sharing experience which may help you.

Exam study material
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I read only scrum guide, for 3-4 times. I took care to read between lines & understand what each line means. I think it is best if you stick to this as main study material.

I didn’t refer any other material. I found the freely available "scrum training material" full of discrepancies & I think it’s best be avoided. You can refer other materials when scrum guide is not clear – but follow the guide when there is ambiguity.

Open assessment & the Mikhail Lapshin mock test (http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/) : Take them till you are getting 100% score consistently. I saw some question repeated as it is in main exam. Tons of other mock test in net, but I think you should take them carefully as many of them are misleading.

Exam Prep
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Take care of time. If you spend too much time on 1 question, you may not have sufficient time left at end. Instead you can always bookmark a doubtful case & revisit at end if you have time.

Though it's a open book exam, you will not have time to open book/net for consultation in case you are in doubt. Don't try it & waste time - at least not untill you have finished answering all questions.


Exam content
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I found 80% questions you can answer from scrum guide – however, rest are tricky and guide won’t have direct answers. It will require your interpretations. In such cases, do not try to follow what you are doing in real life (Real life PO or SM often doesn’t follow the guidelines). Think what you yourself will do in such case/role as per scrum philosophy & answer accordingly.

I got questions on burndown/burnup charts (2-3). They are not part of guide,so you should read about them from a good source

I got some questions on PO role which are not direct. Take the Product owner open assessment test, that will give you some idea.

Similarly, some SM role questions are not direct. For example, we know SM is a "facilitator". How much he facilitates? What is scope of such facilitation?

There was multiple question on multi-team environment. Scrum guide doesn’t talk about multi-team env, but you can still use the same philosophy & answer. Reading Nexus guide once is good idea


That's my 2 cents. At end, if you read scrum guide well & understood the philosophy, you shouldn't face difficulty clearing it. I read peoples's feedback where they said they failed despite memorizing entire guide & getting 100% in mocks consistently. I can't give warranty, but my strong believe is the key for passing is not "memorizing" the guide - but digesting the concept & philosophy by heart.