Passes PSM1 with 93.8% First Attempt (Experience Share + Tips)

Thank you for your feedback Kuntesh! 

I am currently preparing to take the PSMI and it seems I am doing exactly what you did in terms of reading and mock test taking even before reading your post. So it's good to know that this level of preparation may lead to success on a first attempt. 

Thanks again!  

Just passed exam form the first attempt with similar score 92.5  total (83.3% in Coaching & Facilitation). I think this section is rather tricky because everyone is having problem with it.

I would agree that the interface is slow.

My 5 cents, during preparation I used https://www.volkerdon.com/, its 10$ for 1 month of practicing and mock exam.

Lots of questions from all the different sources were here in exam, like word-to-word questions... so to answer them was no-brainer, because you memorize everything during mock exams. But a few questions were rather challenging. Somehow I managed to nail most of them. I guess you just start thinking logically and apply common sense in such cases. I prepared lots of notes in advance, but oddly enough I didn't use them. Everything is my notes I remembered by heart, and for every "puzzling question" i could't find clear answer on the internet.

in this situation the best strategy to investigate your choices and look for the obvious "no way!" answers and exclude them. Then re-examine your choices.

I fount that you save a time if you practice a lot and know your answers immediately for the most questions.

Best of luck! and thanks to contributors :-)

Ella, my congratulations :) 

"My 5 cents, during preparation I used https://www.volkerdon.com/, its 10$ for 1 month of practicing and mock exam"

Agree, cheap and what is more important very useful mocks

"in this situation the best strategy to investigate your choices and look for the obvious "no way!" answers and exclude them. Then re-examine your choices."

perfect. this is really true. I guess I had maybe 10-15 such questions

Hello, All,

I've been studing for the test since last week: read the Scrum Guide many, many times, took my own notes and done the free mock tests (open assessments in scrum.org and michael). I started getting very good grades in a row (more tham 95% in average in both) and decided to buy the password for the certification.

Then I read your tips in the forum, and went in volkerdon.com as well. Harder mock tests, failed in the first one (40 test questions), barely passed in the second and third mocks. As you mentioned, `trickier` questions (attend x participate) , detailed questions not in the Scrum Guide (cone of uncertainty, scrum poker, technical debt, sucess metrics for PO, automated builds, scrum of scrums, integrated Increment) - though one can guess after a while.

Moreover, in the recent posts you mentioned the actual certification interface is slow. :-(

Consequently, I'm not confident anymore to go for the actual exam yet.

So, before I panic, would you please share some more advice for the preparation. For example:

- do you recommend me to dig dipper in the Nexus guide as well, in order to get more knowledge on Scaled Scrum?

- what do you think about Scrum - a Pocket  Guide (recommended reading by scrum.org)?

- would you say that the actual exam is 'more` similar to the mocks in volkerdon? 

Thanks a lot for your help!

Adriana

Hi, Adriana

Regarding your questions:

1 - I think you have to read Nexus Guide 1-2 times. it is not required  to dig dipper to Nexus Guide in case you want to pass psm 1 or pspo 1.

2 - Scrum Pocket Guide is very good book. At least you will  not lose something if you read this book. I recommend you to read Scrum Pocket Guide 

3 - I don't  know about similarity, but at least too close to real. personally I am very satisfied  with volkerdon.com. about 70-80% were very close to real exams. so I recommend you to use this site.

this is my mind so if you do not agree , sorry. and of course good luck :)))

Hi, All,

  Very happy to share with you that I passed the exam (95% grade in the first attempt!) thanks for your tips and recommendations in this forum. 

  For Kuntesh Rathod, thanks for the tips about training for Scrum Master also by doing the other open assessments (PSPO, PSD), mastering in http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/ and not over-reading. 

  For ELLA WODZINSKA, thanks for the suggestion of investing (not spending!) USD 10,00 in https://www.volkerdon.com. It was really worth for me. In my opinion their questions are the more similar ones to the real exam. Thanks also for the tip to "look for the obvious "no way!" answers and exclude them."  Not so obvious if you only practice with the open assessments. Important tip for non-native speakers, like me. 

  And finally, thanks to Orkhan Efendiev for answering my previous questions. At that moment I was really panicking (could not find any other Brazilian which passed the test recently), so your answers gave me the confidence I needed to keep going, that I was in the right path. 

  And, sharing my personal experience: 

  1) I did the assessment from home, on a Friday EOD, and I made sure there were absolutely no distractions for me (no maid, no children, no husband, no phones (yes, I really turned them off for 1 hour!). 

  2) I was really afraid about the site performance issues that were mentioned in many forums, but I didn't have any (maybe because it was Friday!). My tip is: try to select a time for the real exam where there are (probably) less users logged in. 

  3) I finalized the test in 45min, so I had time to go over all my bookmarked questions. In order words: manage time. Practice the other assesments (open, quizzes, mock) much as possible to finalize early, very early. It can be tough, because in real life, after all hours studying and knowing that you have only one attempt to pass, it's really tempting to submit the test and get the final results asap. By taking time to carefully review your bookmarked questions, for sure you will improve your score.

I hope this helps.  

Regards,

Adriana 

 For ELLA WODZINSKA, thanks for the suggestion of investing (not spending!) USD 10,00 in https://www.volkerdon.com. It was really worth for me. In my opinion their questions are the more similar ones to the real exam. Thanks also for the tip to "look for the obvious "no way!" answers and exclude them."  Not so obvious if you only practice with the open assessments. Important tip for non-native speakers, like me. And finally, thanks to Orkhan Efendiev for answering my previous questions. At that moment I was really panicking (could not find any other Brazilian which passed the test recently), so your answers gave me the confidence I needed to keep going, that I was in the right path. 

Appreciated for your comments and congratulations :)

Hi Adriana and all,

Above you wrote that real exam on scrum.org was slow. How do you think (or maybe somebody else), is it enough 45 seconds per question or maybe due to slow the user will have only 35-40 seconds per question?

Hi Alfredo

I just cleared PSPO I yesterday with 88.8% score. I think you would have sufficient time to answer all the questions and come back to bookmarked questions if you have gone through the open assessment practice tests and those on other free practice sites mentioned above with attention and prepared well.

In my case, I was able to go through all the questions in first 30 mins of exam and then come back to bookmarked questions for review.

For general info, this link -  http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/ is no longer a 'free' test. The site has recently updated and you need to pay for the course etc. 

Hello Everyone, 

I cleared the PSM1 certification today with a score of 96.3%. It was my first attempt and I must confess I was really nervous before clicking that 'Start Assessment' button. I would like to thank people in this forum who have shared their experiences and preparation strategies which worked tremendously for me. I have been practicing scrum since many years as part of the Development team and that really helped me in understanding the concepts of the Scrum Guide. My prep strategy:

1.Invested a good 2 weeks of time for preparation.

2. Read, understood and revised concepts of the Scrum guide. I read it around 5 times.

3. Gave the open assessments for PSM1 until I was getting - 100%

4. Gave the open assessments for PSPO around 2-3 times

5. Practiced the Learning mode and real mode quizzes on Mlapshin.com many times. Really good questions, I must say. 

6.Purchased the mock tests from www.volkerdon.com for 12$. A lot of their questions are really helpful and tricky and would clear a lot of your concepts which are not covered in the Open Assessments. 

Thanks, 

Arpita

My congratulations, Arpita. Great result)))

Hello all,

Just passed the PSM I exam with 97,5%. 

My main conclusion of this is that you don't need to have previous practical experience as Scrum Master. Currently I am working as Project Manager following PRINCE 2 methodology. This fact didn't impact my preparation for PSM I exam at all.

For this exam I studied for approximately 2 full weeks. My only previous experience with Agile and Scrum was from school where it was touched very lightly. 

To prepare for this exam I used lot of recommendations described in these forum posts. So million thanks to everyone who shared their experience and tips.

What actually I did:

1. Read Scrum Guide (3 times, but very slow and repeating in my head all important details to understand them completely);
2. Completed Open Assessments over and over until I got constant 100% (in the it was like no-brainer);
3. Completed MLapshin training test (did it 4 times until got constant 95-100%);
4. Bought Volkerdon mock exams for 12$. And without doubt I can say this was the key-factor of my successful result. All these tests guided me think in the way, that also this exam asks from you. 

Thank you all and hope this will encourage all people who also are going to pass this exam!

Congrats Oskars, great result

Hi All,

Just gave the exam and passed with 98.8% score in the first attempt : ). I was a  bit slow and thought I would not be able to finish the exam and fail as I had finished just 40 questions in 40 mins but then I powered thru it. 

First would like to thank everyone for all the tips and suggestions on how to go about the exam in the posts and messages above.

2-3 weeks is a good time to study and don't bank on searching for answers online during the exam, you will just end up wasting time.

What I did is the following:

1) Since I had no clue about scrum, first I went through the videos at http://scrumtrainingseries.com/. Very useful to get an idea of what scrum is.

2) Read the Scrum Guide a couple of times.

3) Give the Open Assessment Test till you get 95% and above a couple of times.

4) Go through Mikhail Lapshin website for tips on PSM 1, give the LM and RM exams.

5) On Udemy.com buy (about 10 USD) the 'Scrum Master exam simulator - 340 questions from the SM exam'. These are basically the questions from Volkerdon Team.

The exam questions are not that straight forward, some may puzzle you. The best way is to eliminate the wrong answers and choose the best one for such questions.

All the best everyone!

Congratulations, Varun. Great score )))

Hi All and Wanda Coustas (https://www.scrum.org/user/364781),

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

It is available. I used this site for PSM 1 and PSPO 1 Preparation.

It is good.

Hi Kuntesh Rathod (https://www.scrum.org/user/195305),

Congratulations. All the best.

Cheers.

Hi everyone! Thanks for the invaluable tips.

I Just scored 95% in PSM I in my first attempt and would like to share my experience with those interested in taking the exam.

Since it is a $150, one-shot-only exam, many people tend to feel they need to prepare a lot before taking it. In my experience, if you really understand the Scrum Guide (every single sentence of it) and do the open assessments, you will be in a good shape to take the exam. Here's what I did:

• Read the Scrum Guide three times: read, took notes, summarized it and applied some of the concepts that I was doing wrong in my Scrum Team (You learn a lot more when you really implement what you've learned!)
• Took the Scrum Open assessment and the Product Owner Assessment. The Open Assessments are very helpful. Some questions are very similar to the ones in the real exam, so make sure you understand all of them and you'll gain some easy points in the real test:
  • https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/scrum-open
  • https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/product-owner-open
• Here is a summary of the Scrum Guide that I have created and you might find useful to take a look before taking the test:
  • https://www.slideshare.net/DanielArajo52/scrum-scrum-guide-summary

For me, that was enough to feel confident in the test without overpreparing for it

Best of luck to all of you!

Hello Everyone,

Just passed the PSM1 (87.5%) today first attempt and I am excited.

1st - Took a 2-day weekend class at the University in November.  It has been almost 3 weeks since the course.

2nd - Read the Scrum Guide last month and today.  The book below covers a lot and explains in great length what is the scrum guide and more.

3rd - Read "The Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide by Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali".  This book is awesome easy reading and very detailed.  It provided me with quizzes after each chapter as well as 5 mini test and one model assessment that mirrored the 80 questions. I took all of them in one day and re-read the scrum guide.

4th - Took the assessments at scrum.org about four times until I got 100% (1.) 90%, (2.) 93.3% (3.) 100% (4.) 100% and then I took the exam.

Wishing everyone currently preparing the best of luck and to make sure to take a look at the book I suggested.

Regards,

LaToya

I just took and passed the PSM 1 with a 92.5% (74 out of 80 questions). A lot of the tips presented here I fully agree with but I will go over what I did to prepare for the exam:

Let me first start off with there are a lot of sites out there that provide study material and sample questions. BECAREFUL OF YOUR SOURCES. I checkout other sites that had sample question answers marked as correct that the Scrum guide clearly indicated were wrong, what affected me is I started looking at these sites and sample questions a few days before I was planning to take the exam. Thankfully I realized my mistake and refocused my energy.

1. The Scrum Guide. You cannot pass the exam without knowing this. Read it over and over till you understand it. Then read it again!
   
    
2. Open Assessments. Scrum.org provide a 30 question open assessment test. Take it as a gauge to see how you are doing in your scrum knowledge. Unfortunately, the questions sometimes repeat so it can become repetitive. But still keep using this. I actually did the open assessment, right before I took the certification...So I could get in the right frame of mind. Tip: Questions from the open assessment may also show up in the Exam. 
   
    
3. Mikhail Lapshin’s blog - https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-learning-mode/ - Mikhail’s blog offered some good exam simulators (there is a learning mode and practice mode) for additional exam prep questions.

Don’t get sidetracked with other sites. The above reference material is more than enough to pass this exam.

Some people have mentioned that the exam takes time to load the questions. I did not face this issue when I took the assessment. However, be smart about taking your test:

1. Try and take it around the same time you do your practice assessments.
2. Use an environment free from distractions.
3. Make sure your internet connection is solid (last thing you want to be doing is troubleshooting a network issue when you’re on the clock).
4. Don’t waste time on questions, it is better you finish the exam and go back and review ones you are not sure about than trying to rush and finish the exam because you spent too much time on a question.
5. Pace yourself.

The exam is more than just testing if you know definitions. In order to do well you need to understand the theory of scrum and how to put it into practice.

Thanks for the useful advice.

Hi  Mark Young,

i'm not passed the exam, 67% :(

I noticed that it is not enough just to study the scrum guides and take the quizzes; for example I have a 25-30 questions about typical situations that can happen to a scrum master. Obviously they are questions to reasoning and this has impacted on the time available. Obviously the quiz and the scrum guide are enough for most of the questions

Hi All,

Today i am happy to share i cleared PSM 1 exam with 91.3 %( 73/80 points).

Key to my success was reading Scrum Guide many times over and practice Open assessment from Scrum.org till you consistently score in region of 95-100%.

Also, i took exam simulators from http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/.These i found really useful towards exam preparation.Thanks

Hello everyone,

I did as others said and read the scrum master multiple times, did the open assessment and scored100 for a few days and did http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/ and scored 90 for a few days but did not pass. Score: 76.3% (61 points scored out of 80 maximum points)

Hi Everyone, Thanks for the invaluable tips! Passed the exam in first attempt.

#90% #2weeksreading #excited

Must say  http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/ is quite helpful.

But make sure your concepts are clear enough as you don't get replica questions (as someone people have quoted!).

Thanks Again.

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for sharing your advice.

I successfully passed the PSM I exam on my first attempt with only 3 days preparation. I learned about Agile 5 years ago when I took my master degree and haven't got a chance to test my knowledge since then.

Last week, I challenged myself to get the PSM I certification and I only had 3 days left before finishing my paternity leave. It turned out I could get 88.8% result by doing these things:

1. Read and read and read multiple times of Scrum Guide and Nexus Guide.
2. Take Scrum open assessment multiple times until you get 100% score.
3. Test your knowledge in here until you get 100% score: https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-learning-mode/
4. and here: https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-real-mode/
5. Take a deep breath and find a comfortable place to start the exam.

Good luck! :)

Cheers,

Rhezandra

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all the valuable information in this forum which helped me with the exam.

I cleared the PSM1 with 87.5% in the 1st attempt.

Here is how I prepared for the assessment :

I used iterative approach with some basic resources like :

Scrum Guide - > Open PSM -> Open PSPO -> mLapsin PSM Quiz (LM) -> mLapsin PSM Quiz (RM) -> Scrum Guide, till I got 100% in all of them.

Understanding the scrum guide is very essential, before you attempt even the open assessment.

Apart from all these, I also referred this amazing youtube video, which clearly explains the scrum guide in a visual manner, which help me as well, and I recommend to watch during the preparations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAOTrBsJsoU

Please make sure that you understand the scrum really well and try to get 100% in practice exam at least 2-3 times, to get good confidence before attempting the real assessment.

Thanks,

Bharat

Hello All,

Thank you very mush for sharing your experiences while going through study and exam process!

Your invaluable suggestions are really inspiring me to start studying about PSM exam.

Really good forum to start with!! Thanks a ton!

Thanks,

Bhupinder Singh

Hello folks!

I would like to thank each and everyone of you in this group who shared their exam preparation tips and suggestions!

Special thanks to Mark Young for answering my questions through email.

I just scored 92.5% in PSM I in my first attempt and would like to share my experience with those interested in taking the exam.

I prepared for roughly 10 days.

Started as below:

1. Scrum Guide, read is 2 times

2. Gave Scrum Open Assessments on Scrum.org

3. Spent a lot of time here: Mikhail Lapshin’s blog(Hats off to this man!!! A real kind person to share his time, money and effort on educating a lot of people around the globe. You HAVE to go through his free exams if you preparing for PSM I

1. First I gave the exam in Real Mode to test my knowledge and knew I need to improve 
2. Then improved myself by doing learning mode
3. https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-learning-mode/
4. https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-real-mode/

4. Scrum Guide Again, took my time to read it slowly and try to understand every statement (Do this!!) Scrum Guide is your bible!!

5. Scrum Open Assessment, Product Owner Assessment - until I got 100% on these 2 assessments

6. Read Nexus Guide once and did Nexus Open Assessment(really weird that I was not getting a summary of wrong answers at the end of the assessment so really could study much but I still gave assessment twice

7. Scrum Glossary - 1 time

During the exam:

1. Try to pace yourself and keep a track of time, time is of the essence because there are 80 questions and you only have 60 mins to answer them. I took my time to read big questions and try to think and then answer but short questions and questions I know are easy & straight forward were answered in less than 10 seconds!

2. I didn't face any network issues and exam was loading time was good.

3. You need full one hour of strong concentration during the exam which is equally important as studying for the exam

4. I applied this strategy which some of you can apply if you like - I never went back to check any of my previous questions because you have to keep clicking until you reach your answer and that is time consuming. I rather spent those few vital seconds on the question when I first came across and took my time to answer it!

5. If you not sure about the answer then get rid of obvious once and give your best guess on remaining ones

Best of luck to all of you!

Hi All

I am happy to share that I just completed PSM 1 certification with 87.5 %  in my 1st attempt.

Thanks to all who provided PSM 1 study tips.

This is how i prepared.

1. Read Scrum guide few times before taking any mock test.
2. Open assessments(Scrum Open, Product Owner Open on scrum.org)- Tried to understand the question and why the specific answer was correct as per scrum guide. Don’t try to memorize the questions.
3. Took multiple test in on https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-learning-mode/- This provided large set of questions where you can test your understanding on scrum guide.

Thanks,

Amit

Hi All,

Does https://www.volkerdon.com exam simulator matches with the actual PSM1 exam questions? I have seen many of my friends here have found it to be helpful.

I have heard the scrum.org open assessments and Lapshin quiz does not exactly have similar pattern with the PSM1 exam.

Is it worthwhile to spend $17 to buy the https://www.volkerdon.com quiz?

Any information/ suggestions will be really helpful.

Hi, Samrat

I guess they all are the same (mplaza, volkerdon and so on). They are helpful but if you want to prepare for psm or pspo cert you have first to read good articles at scrum.org and the scrum guide. good luck!

Hi All,

I am happy to share that I completed PSM 1 certification with 93.8 %  in my 2nd attempt.

In my 1st attempt I had 80%. 

For the 1st attempt I was preparing myself just with Open assessment PSM1, Scrum Guide and mlapshin tests. It was not enough for me. 

I have read here about the PSM 1 study tips and volkerdon site. And the results in my 2nd attempt are very good. 

This is how I prepared.

1. Read Scrum guide few times 
2. Open assessments (Scrum Open and Product Owner Open on scrum.org)  
3. Took multiple test on mlapshin.com
4. Took test for PSM and PSPO on volkerdon.com

Thanks!

Good luck to all!

Took the exam on 23rd June. That's right, a Sunday. Just so happened that could not find a better and focussed time :)

Score 93.8%. Was hoping to score 95% so as to satisfy one of the many basic requirements to be a PST (which has very stringent requirements by the way).

Below was my preparation road may (around 2 weeks). I have experience as a Scrum Master for around 4 years with a strong software engineering background (recently passed an AWS certification as well)

1. Completed a course on Plural Sight by William Davis. It covers "Scrum" from the point of view of PSM1 exam. This is a good way to get introduced to the exam and helped me choose PSM1 over CSM.

2. 1st Read of Scrum Guide. Felt very abstract

3. Read blogs on how to prepare for the exam. Scrum.org has few posts on this, which are sufficient and have links to other blog posts. Read all of them. There was something or the other that I memorized/learned from each of the blog posts, reading from other test taker's experiences

4. Took the Demo PSM1 Test from Management Plaza. Scored 80% (which is a fail).

5. Took the PSM1 Open-Assessment on Scrum.org. Score 83.6% (which was a fail again)

6. 2nd Read of Scrum Guide

7. Took the PSM1 Open-Assessment on Scrum.org. Score 96.7% (which was a PASS)

8. Continued, reading blogs on how to prepare for the exam, learning from other test taker's experiences.

9. 3rd Read of Scrum Guide

10. Took the Demo PSM1 Test from www.scrummaster.co.uk . Scored 85% (which is a PASS).

11. Took the PSM1 Open-Assessment on Scrum.org. Score 100% 

12. Completed this book; Scrum Insights for Practitioners: The Scrum Guide Companion by Hiren Doshi. My review of the book https://www.amazon.in/gp/customer-reviews/R2S388XLVKSU2O/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01MYSIYPT

13. 4th Read of Scrum Guide. It started to make a lot of sense now.

14. Took the PSM1 Quiz on https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/ in Real Mode. Score 97.5%

15. Took the PSM1 Open-Assessment on Scrum.org. Scored 100%

16. Read some of the "resources" on scrum.org covering the topics on PSM1 exam

16. 5th Read of Scrum Guide

17. Started reading this book in parallel: Scrum, A Pocket Guide-Gunther Verheyen.       Review  https://www.amazon.in/review/R248BPZPBFAA0L/ref=pe_1640331_66412301_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

18. Took the PSPO Open-Assessment on Scrum.org, scored 100%. Took the PSD Open-Assessment couple of times on Scrum.org, scored 83.3% and 96.7%. Took the PSM1 Open-Assessment on Scrum.org, scored 100%

18. Took the open assessments: PSM1 (scored 100%), PSPO (scored 100%), PSD (Scored 100%). Took PSPO exam from Mlapshin in real mode (scored 85%)

19. 6th read of Scrum Guide. Purchased the Real Exam, scored 93.8%. got 75 right of 80 questions. You get a detailed score report on email. I scored 100% in all. But scored less in Facilitation (66.7%), Values (50%), Self Organizing Teams (72.7%). The 5 questions that answered wrong were very tricky in terms of "right" versus "best" answer as they had a scenario in them.

There were gaps in my preparation and had difficulty connecting back what I read earlier, so had to be rigorous with the open assessments. I did not really have a pressure of completing the certification just like that, so took time to go beyond and read a couple of books and feel satisfied with the preparation, instead of focussing only on questions and complete the exam. I skipped reading the Scaled Scrum Guide (Nexus), had heard from other test takers that there are 1 or 2 questions from that, but I did not get any in my exam. Doing PSPO and PSD open assessments helps in terms of the reinforcing the roles of PO and Development Team for the PSM1 exam. Reading books helps you give "form" and "life" to the Scrum Guide in your mind, otherwise, the Scrum Guide might end up being just a golden source of information for doing Scrum (which should not be the case). Books elaborate the Scrum Guide so you appreciate it more, and you get talking points in terms of "why"

I did not google for anything during the exam, nor did I look up the scrum guide, perhaps because most of it was memorized by the time I took the real exam. LOL

Hope this helps on your preparation journey. Will be happy to help on any questions.

Hi Everone,

I passed the PSM 1 exam in the first attempt with 95% score and wanted to share my journey about “How I prepared and cleared the exam” so that it can help as many aspirants as possible.

Assessment Preparation

I think 2-3 weeks preparation is enough to clear the exam. This is how I prepared:

• Start with Scrum Open assessment to check your Scrum understanding (It is okay if you get a low score in the first attempt). This score will drive you for clearing the certification exam. https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/scrum-open

• Start reading The Scrum Guide on a daily basis. Read it, re-read and re-read until you get an in-depth understanding of every sentence and every word.
  
   
• The scrum guide can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.scrumguides.org/

• It is better to take a print out of the Scrum Guide and start making your own notes in the form of questions. For example, “What is the duration of Sprint Planning event?”

• Go for the Scrum Open assessment again and compare the result with the previous one which you attempted before reading Scrum Guide. Along with Scrum Open, you must attempt the Product Owner Open assessment as well.

• Go for Mikhail Lapshin assessment. They have prepared a good quiz for PSM1 exam. It’s a long quiz with 80 questions and you will get the real feel of PSM1 exam in Mlapshin assessment.  https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-real-mode/

• Try to complete Scrum Open in like 5 mins and Mlapshin assessment in 20 mins.

• If you want to go 1 step further to prepare for the exam, then you must purchase the Volkerdon Scrum Master Mock Test. It is paid and will cost you around $15. They have a pool of 320 questions which will play a vital role in your PSM1 exam. Their questions are similar to the ones that appear in the certification exam. These questions are really helpful and would clear a lot of your concepts which are not covered in the Open Assessments. (It is recommended by many and I have used it for my preparation as well.) https://www.volkerdon.com/

• Repeat these assessments until you consistently get 95-100% marks.

Reading Material

• Scrum Guide
  
   
• Suggested Reading for Professional Scrum Master ™: https://www.scrum.org/resources/suggested-reading-professional-scrum-master
  
   
• Scrum Master Learning Path: https://www.scrum.org/pathway/scrum-master
  
   
• This assessment will also test some of the topics that are not covered in the Scrum Guide. For example, Scalable Scrum (Reference: Nexus Guide), Burn Down Charts, Scrum Feedback Loop, Cone of Uncertainty, Sprint Zero, Velocity, and Technical Debt. You can Google these topics to learn about them.
  
   
• Book: Scrum Insights for Practitioners: The Scrum Guide Companion by Hiren Doshi. This book will clear your concepts and it is a good read. (I read it too). https://www.amazon.ca/Scrum-Insights-Practitioners-Guide-Companion/dp/0692807179

Exam Day

• Read the Scrum Guide and give open assessment before the exam to get in the mode of Exam.
  
   
• You must have a stable internet connection. You cannot afford to drop the internet connection during the exam.
  
   
• Choose a quiet place where no one will interrupt you for at least an hour.
  
   
• You must have a pen and paper with you to note down the questions you want to revisit at the end of the exam (There was no bookmark option available for me.)
  
   
• Try to go through the familiar questions quickly so you can get enough time for tricky questions.
  
   
• Do not bookmark more than 10-15 question, as you might not have enough time in the end to revisit them.
  
   
• You must answer all questions in the first go. Do not leave any of question un-answered as you might not get the time to revisit them.
  
   
• If you have tricky/unfamiliar question then in this situation the best strategy is to investigate your choices and look for the obvious "no way!" answers and exclude them. Then re-examine your choices.
  
   
• Be really careful in solving questions with “must”, “can” or “should” statements. For example,

Question: Software dependencies can influence how the Product Owner orders Product Backlog items?

Explanation: Software dependencies may really influence PBI ordering. It doesn't mean the Product Owner must always order the PBI by referring to software dependencies, but the question is "can" instead of "must". Maybe it is not very good practice but it is up to the Product Owner to decide if this factor is important for ordering the items or not. So it can be one of the reasons to re-order the item. This is one of many "confusing" questions you might face in the real exam.

I spent approximately 30 minutes to answer all questions (noted down the ones I was not sure about) and then I had more than enough time to go back to the ones that I was not sure about.

I hope my learnings will help you pass the certification. Stay hungry, stay committed.

Best of luck!

Waqas Sharif

Hello everyone,

I passed the PSM 1 exam on my first attempt and got 90%.

I did not read the scrum guide in its entirety, what I did do to pass the test is take alot of practice exams from a few of the sources listed above.

I also search for keywords and scan the scrum guide..

Practice exams will be the key to this, and the scrum guide of course but questions are asked that will make you think, not difficult at all just not straightforward.

I was able to complete the course using the mlapshkin test, I did buy the volkerdon test, I took a class on pluralsight that summarizes the scrum guide, and also took the scrum mock test on scrum.org. I managed to have 12 minutes left over which I used to go over questions numbers I had jotted down as unsure..

Good luck to all future test takers!

Hi All,

would love to thank all for valid tips, although i think there were about 40% of trick questions plus they were not easy at all. Please read the SCRUM guide, please understand the SCRUM guide otherwise it will be difficult.

I am passed with 96.3% :)

I recently passed PSM1 at first attempt with 98.3%. Thanks to all who posted here. That hugely helped to gude my path to success.

My Preparation::

I completely agree there is no need to over read. The key is to be well aware about the Scrum Guide, consistently practice tests and keep track of the time box. If you have experience working in a project following Scrum framework it immensely helps to score better in this exam. My total prep time was about 4 weeks.

I read Scrum Guide about 4 times. Went through Scrum Glossary and Nexus guide just about couple of times.

Extensively practiced Open assessment and https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-real-mode/ and continued to try the practice tests until I consistently scored 100% win about half the time box. That gave me confidence that I may be ready.

The day before taking final exam went through Scrum Guide one more time as revision.

The Final Exam::

I was confident but like any other student I was a bit nervous before clicking on Start Exam :).

The interface was a bit slow, even though I was connected to good broadband connection.

Once the exam started, I got few easy questions which was exactly from Scrum Guide, but then came up few question which needed to spend time and think. I had to read through the questions very carefully to understand what was being asked. Those questions were really tricky and needs thorough attention. There were questions which you could relate and answer if you have experience and exposure to Scrum framework in day to day work life else may have to spend time to think. Note the answer options very carefully. If you do not note the full answer statement you may be incorrect.

I was running out of time, and then started to expedite by noting down the question numbers I need to revisit. At the end I had 8 minuted to revisit about 9 questions. I reviewed then successfully on time.

Hope this helps.

It's great to share that I've just passed the Professional Scrum Master exam,  first attempt with 92.5%.  

Many thanks for everyone the shared tips, were definitely success factors to pass the exam.

My recommended studying plan:

1. Read Scrum Guide;

2. Read All Competencies recommended by Scrum.org - https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies

3. Open Assessment on Scrum.org and REVIEW MISTAKES;

4. Open Assessment on http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/ and REVIEW MISTAKES;

5. Open Assessment on https://www.volkerdon.com/ and REVIEW MISTAKES;

<> I did the above 3 times, consider an iterative and incremental approach where knowledge emerges ;)

Good luck! 

 

Hi, 

I passed PSM I test with 92.5% score (74/80) today.

Thank you all for sharing the preparation tip. I was bit nervous before the exam. But to be honest it was not that tough I was expected. Exam is not not that tough if you prepare well and understand the scrum guide.Few tip for those who are aspiring towards this exam.

Read the scrum guide until you digest the concepts

I did Scum Open and open Produnt owner open test several times.

https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/ is a very good source to practice and learn about the time management

Finally when you redo the test, many of the questions are repetitive..just do not click the right answer but read the question &  all the answer options before you click. That will help you to do a better time management because in real test you need to read all the questions.

Hi, I have also passed the exam of PSM I with a score of 96.3 with the first try

I got the training from mplaza (and the simulation tests) and also some tests from volkerdon

Open assessments for PSM I, PSPO I and SPS,

Also, except from official PSM guide i read the books: The art of doing twice the work in half the time by Jeff Sutherland and The Servant by James Hunter

Now i am preparing for PSPO I reading the book "The Professional Product Owner by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham

and i am also intending to get the training and exam simulation from Mplaza

Next step will be PSM II (maybe get the official training from Scrum.org)

Thanks a lot to all for the useful info and tips

This forum is a great place to start to make a preparation plan. Thanks to everyone who has contributed here.

The scrum guide that I downloaded is a pdf with 19 pages. Is that it ? I was wondering if that is the correct version because I assumed it to be a huge book.

@Sinhuja, Scrum is a framework from which process evolves, not a methodology.  Agile needs to be fluid, allow for changes in process and each team may be different and apply different practices to help you build the right process for what you need to do to succeed.  

Hi Eric,

Thank you for the response. The intention behind my question was to make sure I have the correct version/copy of the scrum guide to start preparing for the PSM1 certification.

Just wanted to ensure the ScrumGuide I downloaded, which is a 19 page PDF is what I need to start reading.

Thanks!

@Eric, thanks for your response. I kind of get that.

The intention behind my original question was to confirm I have the correct version/copy of the Scrum Guide to being my reading preparation for PSM1. 

The copy I downloaded is a PDF Scrum Guide November 2017 with 19 pages to the PDF - is this the correct version to start with ?

Thanks!

@Sindhuja , yes

Thank you!

A lot of questions in the actual exam feel like they are in grey area. That's the reason of failure. Since one attempt is costly both in terms of money and time spent, people overlearn. I did the same mistake, twice. Overlearnt, and then exam questions became confusing. 

I think we should focus on exactly those "subject areas" that are mentioned in the test. Don't read anything else. Just read those subject areas as many times as possible. And do remember, sometimes you might miss things like "must" vs "should". So, don't be afraid of failing. If you failed, no problem. Just carry on reading those subject areas and try again. 

HI @ Cibele Yamanaka Vieira

Thank you for your inputs on how to crack the PSM 1 Exam. Just a question regarding your reference to https://www.volkerdon.com/ . Have you just taken the free preview (40 mock questions) offered by Volkerdon.com or have you purchased the 17$ Mock test package ?

Just checking if it's really useful to spend on Mock test from https://www.volkerdon.com/ ,as I have seen a ton of people recommend it here. I would like to have your  inputs  as you've given the exam recently.

Thank you and Cheers,

Deenaa Bheeman

Hello all

When I started my preparation 4 days ago, I read this forum and made a list of resources that I should read and practice from. 

As suggested,

1. I read till I understood Scrum Guide.

2. Gone through the PSM course-VOLKERDON and attempted the simulator and all the quizzes.

3. Practiced Mlapshin(learning and real modes).

I repeatedly did the above three steps and now am scoring 95% and above in all these tests.

Now my question is: Am I ready to give the test? Is this preparation enough to clear the 'actual test'? How similar are these tests to the real ones?

Thanks

M