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Dear scrum.org!

I did greatly benefit from preparing for PSM I certification a lot. There were some tricky questions, but i would like to know which questions I did not answer correctly - I just would like to learn from my mistakes, but it is currently not possible.

Please send me my result on my profile email if possible.

Thanks!

Hi Qasim,
The PSM I is a hard test. The support team will contact you regarding your feedback. In the mean time, there's always great information on these forums that may help you in your further study of Scrum.
Patricia

I also would like to see which answers I did not get right. Fortunately it is not a long list (I scored 94%) so you could just send me any time. :-) I understand that you do not want to share the correct answers, but at least indicate which one we missed.

I think the test is not hard, I have not seen questions that were focused on the real hard stuff that I face in real life, like what you do if people do not attend meetings, come late, etc.

There were some questions that actually made me laugh, like "Sprint retrospectives should be held at the beginning of each sprint"...come on, it is a _retro_spective meeting. Or the "Scrum Master should act as a scribe" or "answer 3 questions in order of seniority". I think these questions or funny options deteriorate the seriousness of the test. If it was meant to be funny, than it worked. :-)

On the other hand, there are some questions that are very hard to answer, even if you know how things work. This is the opinion of all of my colleagues (5) who passed the exam, as we discussed the answers afterwards. "What is the maximum length of a Sprint" or is the "Scrum Master a management role" are not hard, but misleading. You could formulate these in a way that it is actually harder to answer, but the choice is clear. The above is especially true for non native English speakers.

I still do not get why does changing the terminology makes management feel less anxious. :-)

> I still do not get why does changing the terminology makes management feel less anxious

I think this question refers to management wanting to change Scrum's terminology to fit an organisation's terminology.

If this was permitted, management would indeed probably feel "less anxious". This is because it would be less obvious to them that Scrum involves significant change. Language is important, especially when defining the terms of reference that people use to circumscribe their thoughts and subsequent actions.

Using Scrum's terminology underscores the changes Scrum brings. It also allows practitioners to discuss Scrum with a somewhat reduced likelihood of ambiguity.

You see, you wrote "would indeed _probably_ feel less anxious". But this is a test, you can not score someone based on _probably_. This is what I was talking about. When I first answered this (in the open assessment), I missed it, because I did not think using a different terminology would make management less anxious. At the same time, I am well aware of the fact that changing the lingo is just a symptom of rejecting real change.

I have just taken the PSPO exam, too. That one had cool stuff, too. Let me give an example. "Why is it important that there is only one Product Owner per product?" This is an important question, many people asked me why the need for a single person. The test gives you 5 options (I am not quoting them), and you have to choose three. This would be a hard question, but then there are 2 really stupid answers, so this is more of an IQ test, than a PO test. One of the stupid ones are "It helps the economy by increasing employment". You could have added things that would really mislead bad POs, such as "Architecture has to be defined by one person" or anything that seemingly makes sense. This economy thing and the other is too easy to spot.

Although I passed both PSM and PSPO, I do not like this test. It is not hard, it is just evil. With all due respect, this test reminds me of my college years, where exams were evil to show "how hard" my college was to graduate from.

And most of these questions were not covered by Ken's SM and PO courses either.

@Biro,

Allow me to share some of my thoughts...

During recent gathering at our Organization, we had a visiting instructor presenting on Agile practices.

While discussing Scrum, someone raised a question --
"Why not just call it "lessons learned?" instead of a "Retrospective?""

This told me 2 things --
A) The person was comparing an existing term to a new one,which they weren't completely familiar with
B) They were missing the essence of a Retrospective, and more information was needed on how or why this term was different.

This may not be the best of examples, but here I saw how 1 person found comfort in an existing term they were comparing it to.

Hope some of this helps.

Same here. I want to have my result in the Test. I made 84% and the Second time 82%.
I dont know wich Qeustion i answer wrong.

I have one course and 2 Books.

I made Itil v3 and Prince 2 in first dry without a Problem.
But Scrum i missed two times.

Cu

@Patricia,

I think BiroTom hit a good point. "Funny" options like "increase employment" or "level of seniority" actually harm the test. Fortunately there are very few of them, so they'll be easy to fix. FYI, I took the test today.

Thanks!

BTW, I took the PSD open assesment and found another "funny" option:

What's code coverage?
An insurance policy that covers the code for defects.

That's what BiroTom and I mean.

I think many of you would be surprised to find out that, in my Scrum/Technical coaching engagements, I hear weird stuff like this all of the time from alleged professionals. I think part of putting the "weird" answers in, is to communicate to the test taker what a certain concept is NOT. I think you might be undervaluing how the tests can be a communication tool to describe the weird views that often exist in the industry.

The insurance policy one, I never interpreted it as a real insurance product -- more of a metaphor for how someone views code coverage.

Let's also not forget -- work, even work done highly professionally, can still be fun. The most efficient and effective teams learn how to "whistle while they work."

I do concede that some of this humor might be lost on non native English speakers.

Either way, I understand all of your concerns, and I'm kind of on the fence in terms of my opinion on whether these answers should be removed. I don't have a lot of influence on the outcome either, but I just wanted to state a contrary opinion that might have merit.

@Charles:

I understand and agree completely on "whistling while working" but I wasn't whistling during the test! I mean, twists like those are out of place in settings like exams. They're welcome and very valuable in training and day-to-day tasks, but not in certifications.

That's just my opinion.

What makes tests of this nature challenging is that you can be asked to select the "best" answer, not the "right" answer. The questions are only misleading in so far as more than one answer might conceivably be right. The best answer is determined by understanding probabilities based on a sound theoretical knowledge and practical experience.