PSM I and PSPO I Exam Tips

Hi Paul!

Thank you for your feedback and congratulations. I use almost the same materials except management plaza (I use volkerdon)

I have a question:were there many questions at PSPO regarding product value?

Recently I cleared the PSM I exam and would recommend the following in order to prepare:

Scrum guide is the most important reference guide you need to master.

Take Open Assessment (Scrum Master as well as Product Owner) tests on Scrum.org and ensure you score 100% consistently.

Complete Mikhail Lapshin exam simulators. The scores need to be consistently 97% or above

Hi Paul,

I am currently preparing for the PSPO I exams, do you recommend buying the 'The Professional Scrum Product Owner: Guide to Pass PSPO 1 Certification by Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali book?

Is it a must as part of the preparation? Are the materials and questions for PSPO I in the book really useful?

Dear Paul,

Congratulations to you. I am also very happy to have passed both exams of PSM-I and PSPO-I. Although I used to be part of a Scrum Basic Training 10 years ago and I also worked as a (today I would say: ...) “Fake Product Owner” with multiple Scrum teams I would like to point out that the deep understanding of what Scrum really is took some more effort from me. Because I am very thankful for the great support and the huge knowledge here in the forum I also like to share my experience with you and the Scrum community. So, here are my tips, most are similar to yours.

• My preparation took maybe 100-150 hours with reading and doing multiple choice quizzes (I felt well prepared, but of course you can do it faster)
• Both exams of PSM-I and PSPO-I are similar (they each have another focus but both always come from the perspective of the Scrum Guide) – after passing the PSM-I exam I spontaneously decided to also do the PSPO-I exam which I did three days later
• Begin with the PSM-I exam, it´s easier than the PSPO-I exam
• Repeat to read the Scrum Guide again and again, but don‘t just read it, understand and assimilate the core of it – that´s key!
• Read Nexus Guide for Multiple Scrum Teams
• Read Scrum Glossary
• Do Open Assessments of scrum.org as often as possible (until you reach 100% permanenently within 10 minutes or faster)
• Do “Mikhail Lapshin” quizzes (PSM-I and PSPO-I), they are very helpful (... and don´t forget to donate!)
• Do “Volkerdon” 320 question quizzes (PSM-I)
• Read both books of Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali (“Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide” and “Guide to pass PSPO-I”) because they are short, to the point and contain most relevant information - although some passages are a little bit confusing I recommend the reading. Do all quizzes within! 
• I also read some of the scrum.org recommended articles and books and I took part of an online course for Scrum (Udemy) which really helped me understand Scrum in a holistic way
• There must have been 19 questions about the Product Backlog (I must have answered only 15 correctly because I reached 78,9% in this section) about the Product Backlog in my PSPO-I-exam, so know everything about the Product Backlog
• If english is not your native language use the Google Translate plug-in of Chrome, maybe only as a backup (sometimes I switched to German just to understand the content in an original way which really worked well

Be well prepared but always keep in mind that everything is possible with some effort :-) (I passed both exams with percentages of 96,3 and 91,3).

Good luck to you all,

Nils

Congratulations! I passed too, both PSM I and PSPO I. For PSPO, my main sources were the Scrum Guide, Glossary, EBM Guide and scrum.org blogs (searching for "product" keywords). I haven't paid for any test, just did the free ones found on the Internet and open assessments. I passed with 96.3%. 

Hello,

Good day!

Just want to check if there is someone here who can help to lend this book The Professional Scrum Product Owner: Guide to Pass PSPO 1 Certification by Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali .

Thank you so much in advance!

Sheryl

Just passed PSM 1 with not such a great score, but passed nevertheless on first attempt so relieved.

• Preparation time: roughly 3-4 days = (30-32 hours)

My reading sources were 

• Scrum Guide, a couple of times skim reading.
• Scrum Blogs
• Mikhail Lapshin real quiz (two attempts, failed yesterday 70%+, passed today with 96%+)
• Udemy Course, not very useful so wouldn't recommend as they are for absolute beginners. But, since they are only £10.99 and comes with 200+ mock test questions I thought it wasn't a bad deal. However, today I realised that there are plenty of places that offer better quality free mock tests and/or more questions so again another reason I'd not recommend them.
• 4 Mock tests I took from above mentioned udemy course, and yesterday I failed, while today I passed them.
• I found Mikhail Quiz questions harder and more closer to actual exam questions. And they are FREE and they are always changing, yesterday quiz was totally different to today.
• Scrum Open assessment (but I always passed - I think) And, it is not anywhere close to real exam so don't fall for that. Yes a few questions will come, but they are so simple and easy that you are bound to know the answer in any case.

A little about my experience: I have worked in managerial positions across sectors, I also have worked as a php developer almost a decade ago. I then started working for myself in a consultant/self employed capacity. Ran some of my own projects as well.

Recently due to life changes I decided to get back into job market. So I became a Prince2 Certified PM last month (Self study). And, then decided to go for most sought after agile certification. So here I am! 

And now on January 7th 2021!!

• I passed PSM1 - self study (3 full time days equivalent)

Upcoming plans:

• Job Hunting :) wish me luck ...
• Reading all the books I have ordered :D
• PSPO 1 exam (unless I have secured job already)
• PSM 2  exam (as above)
• and a couple of other non-scrum certifications

When I passed, Scrum.org sent me a brief breakdown of performance by Focus Area, this I think is particularly helpful for my plans towards PSM2. However, it can also assist us realising our weaker areas with regards to Work place etc

Exam itself, isn't difficult. 

Half of the questions I got were all new to me. Rest half were word by word same. I finished test in 30 minutes and then just kept checking my flagged questions. I was totally convinced I have failed as some of the questions had too many good options to choose from. You can imagine how annoyed I was with myself for lack of preparation! But, then I clicked Finish now, and I passed! Yeaaaaah! 

Good luck every one. I hope this forum entry gives you some insight and is of benefit to the reader. 

Have a lovely 2021.

Hi everyone,

I just pasted my PSPO I exam and wanted to share!

Here is what helped me. Like many others, the scrum guide, readings on this very same site, EBM guide and various articles on the web. Though they tend to say the same in the end.

I picked up a class on Udemy. It was, let's say, informative more than educative. But given the very low cost, it's not a loss to be fair. But one could definitely make it without it.

The best exam simulators was Mikhail Lapshin's. The closest to the real exam. The open assessment on this site is useful and great to practice/review knowledge you've learned but it's also normal the level of complexity of questions is different. It would otherwise devalue the certification. 

The one advice I would give is to practice a lot, even if questions are not exactly the same during the exam, you should be able to answer fairly quickly. You only have 60mn to answer 80 questions.

Also, always read carefully questions. Since you have only 60mn, you don't have much time to come back on every questions.

Otherwise, I would say that if you understand well the principles of Scrum, one should be able to pass the exam.

You'll see, it's fun. Good luck.

Hi @julien, did you clear the PSPO1 exam based on new scrum guide 2020 I mean did you give the exam after 9th jan, 2021 ?

Also which Udemy course did you take as mostly all courses including Mikhail Lapshin questions are based on scrum guide v2017 till now. 

Hi Julien, Congratulations for passing PSPO I. Did you clear the PSPO I exam after Jan 9th 2021 or before? I am planning to give PSPO I in the near future. Can you suggest what extra references did you use for scrum 2020 preparation? Thanks in advance and good luck for future!

Hι all from Greece!

I would like to thank this forum as it provided me great direction on how to approach my study for PSM I.

I am very happy to pass successfully the exam, a couple of days ago.

Referring to the Scrum Guide is really very important to dive in to its study. Read it carefully and when you think you you are done, read it once more as in every single time you identify something new.

Also, I confirm on the great importance of the open assessment questions. You will meet a number of them during the exam and you will gain both time and confidence as you will be sure and quick about the answer. So you should go for the exam only after being able to achieve 100% in the open assessment questions.

I suggest additionally the questions of Mikhail Lapshin as they have valid answers and are close to the Scrum Guide. There are also free!!

Last bt not least I found more than helpful the discussions in the forum regarding the changes between the last and the new version of Scrum Guide!! Highly recommended both for the exam, but also to follow the new approach/ terms.

Looking forward to my next challenge :) either Kanban or PSPO.