I passed Professional Scrum Master level I (PSM-I) with 97.5% with 2 wrong answers on 6th November 2018. For me the exam is little stressful. Mainly due to the time limitation and number of questions. The PSM I assessment is available for everyone who wish to enhance their knowledge of scrum frameworks.
I didn’t take any courses for my certification, but along with office colleague, we did a group discussion about the content of Scrum Guide and relate everything with our regular practice. I am agile practitioner scrum master and most of the terms and the way that I learned is from empirical process. However, Scrum guide from scrum.org (https://www.scrum.org ) was very helpful. I thought I am agile practitioner and I can reply to any questions related but that was not true sometimes, Scrum guide helped to understand the definition of Scrum, Scrum’s values, pillars, roles, events, artifacts, and the rules that bind them together and how to apply Scrum within Scrum Teams. Prakash Aryal is our mentor for the preparation of PSM, he helped with the content and all related assessments like Open Scrum Assessment and Mikhail Lapshin materials. Where we can practice for the sample questions, it has 30 questions to answer in 30 minute and pass mark is 85%.
I practiced these open assessments almost 10 times until I got 100% and PSPO around 4 times in the duration of 2 months with the gaps of certain days. Most of the time, I got a mix of random questions. And searching information from different forums was helpful to get deeper understanding of process and materials used. Finally, I took all this information and created a notebook, single page for summary of each topics which I considered important for the exam. I would recommend this exercise to all as it really helped me to understand the meaning behind the content as I needed to consider what is relevant.
For PSM I preparation Fee is $150 USD per attempt and Passing score is 85%, 80 number of questions within time limit of 60 minutes. Test format is Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer and True/False questions. I am not saying exam is easy, half of the questions have the same complexity of the Open Assessments, whereas the other half requires a real understanding of Scrum principles. PSM I test your knowledge and theory of the Scrum framework. Common understanding for Scrum Masters’ job is as an Agile Coach but S/He is not responsible for controlling outcomes and is ultimate servant leader.
During the exam, some questions have multiple answers. When I go confused with the options, I use methods like watch multiple answers then choose from those and then I watch for negative answers as well. After removing negative answers first from the list, then remaining options were clearer and more relatable. I marked for the answers those were doubtful and not sure, but due to tight time schedule I didn’t get the chance to look back again ☹. Questions being asked were repeated sometimes, for me I found 2-3 questions being asked with slightly different way.
Advice for them who are preparing for PSM I is Read, understood and revise the concepts of Scrum guide. Not just read, took notes, summarize it and apply some of the concepts to your work. Try open assessment for PSM and PSPO as many times you can do until 100% score. And Go through Mikhail Lapshin website for tips on PSM 1. Helpful links are listed below.
– Product Owner Open Assessment
