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PSM1 exam and the value of Volkerdon

Last post 03:50 pm December 23, 2020 by Armand Tognetti
2 replies
Armand Tognetti
08:20 am December 19, 2020

Hello,

I’m preparing for the PSM certification for a while which I would like to do based on the 2017 “version”. The Open Assessments from scrum.org; the Scrum Open, Product Owner Open and the Nexus Open have been completed several times with a 100% score. All assessments from https://mlapshin.com (the Scrum Master, Product Owner and Scales Scrum) have been studied and completed as well with a 100% score. All documents provide via scrum.org have been carefully studied and are the basis of the study.

I thought to be ready for the exam, until I tried the free assessment from Volkerdon which I failed for with just a 60% score. Based on the answers, I noticed that my biggest issue here is the way the questions are formulated, not my lack of understanding the scrum philosophy.

When the real exam will most likely look like the way the questions are formulated by Volkerdon, then I still have a lot to do.

Do you have similar experiences with the Volkerdon tests and how important is this source in order to be well prepared for the real exam?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Armand.

Andreas Loh
10:36 pm December 19, 2020

Hi Armand,

it's been a while but I remember that I had similar issues with the wording from the volkerdon test. The wording of 3rd party material is often not as precise as in the scrum.org questions and some questions are just prone to create misunderstandings or relate to older practices. So I would not worry about those results. (in fact, i scored only slightly "better" just a few days before passing my PSM)

What really helped me to prepare is to dissect any question that I did not get right in the first place: Trying to grasp what the intention of the question was and to fully understand why answers are considered right or wrong.

In case of 3rd party material please be aware that adapting to it might steer you in a different direction which might not be helpful. So my humble suggestion is to stay close to the scrum.org material and trust your instincts. Good luck to you!

Cheers,

Andreas

Armand Tognetti
01:51 pm December 23, 2020

Hello Andreas,

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

Best regards,

Armand.

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