PSM1 first attempt 80% close but not reached the target 85% any guidance

Hello!
I think, you can read books from here: https://www.scrum.org/Courses/Professional-Scrum-Master/PSM-Subject-Are…
for those Section/Subject Area which you do not have 100% at PSM letter

Looks like you were able to clear those questions that were straight forward. Shallow understanding of the Scrum Guide is enough to answer those types.
For the questions that test your deeper understanding of scrum, you need to discover the meaning of each sentence in the Scrum Guide. Read this helpful article to know more:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-pass-psm-first-attempt-five-steps-ge…

Don't give up! It is a learning experience. All the best next time!

Nafar

Hi
I attempted last saturday and got 82.5% marks. Missed to pass the exam very very narrowly.
:(
I studied the scrum guide. Are there other material that I should study for this exam. Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks
Muthu

Muthu - did you write to scrum.org for the feedback?
Also - please look at my response above

Hi Nafar,
I dropped a note, but have not got back. I felt, there were few areas not covered in scrum guide
1. What is POs roles and steps when a new product gets kicked off.
2. Who determines the sprint length for new product development.
3. Cone of uncertainity concepts.

Please let me know if you have some inputs on these areas, where I answered vaguely.
thanks
Muthu

Hi Nafar,
Is documentation a sprint deliverable if that is what product owner asked for?
Can you please clarify?

Muthu,

Scrum is a framework for product dev. But, the context behind many of the assessment questions is SW development.
Given the Scrum rule that every Sprint must produce a 'potentially releasable working functionality' delivering only a document as a sole Sprint outcome is not Scrum.
However, documents can be produced along with working functionality.
If PO specifically asks for documents, such needs can be added to either PB or DoD as conditions.

As for your questions on PO role, deciding Sprint duration, and many other implementation aspects, I recommend you to take the PSM training scheduled nearer to your place. Please search this site for upcoming training.

A cheaper alternative is to get an excellent book on the topic named Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide.

Nafar.

Thanks Nafar.

Sekhar,

Have you tried mplaza PSM I simulated exams?

https://mplaza.pm/professional-scrum-master-certification-preparation-p…

Passing these help very much.

I had a missed attempt (81.3%) recently, too. But i got my certificate yesterday with a score of 97,5% :)

What really helped me with some topics are:

1. the Scrum Guide http://www.scrumguides.org/
2. the Nexus Guide (handles topics about working with multiple scrum teams) https://www.scrum.org/resources/nexus-guide
3. the eBook https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Scrum-Product-Owner-Certification/d… (reading time about 2h-3h excl. the quizzes)
4.  and for practicing the mock tests @volkerdon.com https://www.volkerdon.com/learn/pspo1 (10$ which is much cheaper than the ones at mplaza.com)

Hi All,

I have attempted PSM-1 and secured 81.35% looks like a good deal but couldn't make for certification but i have really worked on scrum teams acted as scrum Master too and gone through most of the online materials and secured 85 to 100% above each time in all assessments . Looks like the exam has a very quick time line for a 80 number question.

As per above suggestion i will make sure to give one more in coming month by taking time.

I wonder what they do with all the MONEY they are printing with this one attempt thing. What are they funding with all of that MONEY!? I think they should at least give you multiple attempts since it is an automatic online course, or give a huge discount on subsequent tries.

I only did like 80% for PSM I and PSPO I today and I cannot say that any of the materials helped me, especially the open assessment is a huge middle finger combined with that I don't get to know which questions I did wrongly. All the questions of the actual test where way more interesting than the open assessment if you ask me, but with the PSPO I even have the suspicion that certain questions where not evaluated correctly, appearently I have a 0% in Product Vision, how did I score so low?

This whole test was harder than constructional geometry at the university. Or any other exam at the university!. And there you get three tries before you completely failing.

For me the worst part is all the money it eats up from hard working people, I find that disgustingly evil but maybe that is just me because I live in Germany where education is free.

Hi @Maximilian,

Thank you for you feedback and the information.

We provide thousands for free resources that most organizations would likely hide behind a login that you pay for.  We donate training to charities and much more.  If you give away multiple attempts, then people do not take the test seriously.  Also, we have approximately an 80% passing rate.  If the materials didn't help you, then maybe a class is a better fit to help you learn beyond written materials. 

I have reviewed your test and all questions were graded correctly and can assure you that we are always reviewing our questions and improving them based on difficulty that test takers have when taking the tests.

The Scrum Open is a free assessment of basic Scrum knowledge and can be used as a learning tool when preparing for any other Scrum assessments. Passing the Scrum Open assessment is an indication that you are aware of some of the basics of Scrum. A consistent high score (95% or above) is an indication that you are aware of many of the basics and may indicate that you are ready to deepen your knowledge and take further assessments.

Please be aware that the Scrum Open Assessment is a study tool, and does not have the same level of difficulty as the professional-level assessments. This is expressed on our Open Assessments page.

Having just reviewed your PSM I exam, there are content directly from the Scrum Guide that you missed and must not have understood well when reading it.  Below are some examples from the Scrum Guide that are directly related to questions you didn't get correct on your test.

• Scrum Teams are cross-functional, meaning the members have all the skills necessary to create value each Sprint. They are also self-managing, meaning they internally decide who does what, when, and how.

• The Developers are required to conform to the Definition of Done. If there are multiple Scrum Teams working together on a product, they must mutually define and comply with the same Definition of Done.

• During the Sprint Review, the Scrum Team and stakeholders review what was accomplished in the Sprint and what has changed in their environment. Based on this information, attendees collaborate on what to do next. The Product Backlog may also be adjusted to meet new opportunities. The Sprint Review is a working session and the Scrum Team should avoid limiting it to a presentation.

• The Sprint Backlog is composed of the Sprint Goal (why), the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint (what), as well as an actionable plan for delivering the Increment (how).

• The Developers can select whatever structure and techniques they want, as long as their Daily Scrum focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal and produces an actionable plan for the next day of work. This creates focus and improves self-management.

Feel free to reach out to me or our support team directly as we take your feedback very seriously and are happy to discuss further and learn.

Hey thanks for the detailed report. Sadly I am to inform you that I usually tend to compare most companies with the Blender Foundation, in which regard you look kinda money hungry.

At least my money goes partially to charity.

I had taken two classes, scrum master and product owner, but allot of the questions that came up in the test where not properly answered there or sometimes not even mentioned.

Making a free test easier than the actual test is counter productive, it should be harder! Way harder!. Otherwise it just leaves the people with a wrong sense of understanding. I actually did both open assesments consistently with 100% 20 times reach before taking any of the actual exams.

I actually remembering to answered that muliiple teams must conform to the same definition of done. So maybe some of the questions are to convoluted? I also knew the other stuff but I can see me misunderstanding the questions there even if you wrote them correctly.

The whole give away attempts and taking the test seriously is kinda dumb, especially at that price point for an entry level certificate, I get the higher certificates, but the entry level? It is even harder to do than to do the theorethical exam for the drivers license over here (which is more difficult in germany than in most other countries) and after that they let me handle a murder machine on my own (okay there is the practical exsam which costs much more, but I would compar that to the second certificate of yours, much harder and more expensive indeed).

But still really cool response of you, I've gained allot of respect for you and Scrom.org for taking criticism so chill and try to help constructively.

So now I just need to know when I can take the test again, probably in a year or so. At least it is not currently important to me. Still would have helped.

We do give a lot of money and free training to charities.  As a matter of fact, we taught several hundred students this year so far for free that are members of an organization call YearUp.  https://www.yearup.org/

I am not sure what classes you took as they weren't from Scrum.org so that could be part of the problem as we are unable to know there quality of education.

That all said, thank you for your response and input and feel free to reach out directly if you need anything else.