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PSM 1 Test Passed

Last post 05:39 pm February 27, 2017 by Ganesh Raja Munuswamy
22 replies
04:15 am April 19, 2016

Hi All,
I passed the PSM 1 test with 99%. Got 1 question wrong and I have no idea which one, which is quite a bummer.

My preparation included:
- Reading the Scrum Guide and understanding the concepts
- Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber
- This forum, on and off
- Taking the Scrum Open assessments.

I prepared for about 2 weeks, reading the Guide mostly and understanding the concepts, more than anything else.

The questions were relatively harder than the Open Assessments, although there were a few questions from the Open Assessment on there. You really do need to understand the fundamentals to do well in the test. There were also a few questions on Burn down charts, so you may want to read up and understand what they are and why they are used.

All the best to anyone else considering taking the test.

Thank you,
Chandini Paterson


11:48 am April 19, 2016

Did you practice only the "open assessment" or did you do the Product Owner, and Developer as well for PSM 1. I am getting ready for PSM 1 and I want to know if I am investing well my time.



04:38 am April 20, 2016

Hi Chandini,

Good news for you, well done! Me I also tried it and unfortunately I have 83.8. I am planning to do it again maybe in about a week. Regarding what you study. I can honestly say that the Scrum Guide and the open assessment are definitely not enough(I also work as a SM in one small and one big team), and still found the exam bit harder. There were questions which if you didnt have enough commercial experience is either luck to answer them or you read them somewhere. My lowest mark is on Self-Organizing and Cross Functional and this is where I am going to study now. I hope second time will be better for me :) because I really like Scrum and I want to learn as much as possible and continue my professional life in this area.(I used to be BA for 6 years around the world before I started with Scrum)

Good luck to all!


03:07 am April 21, 2016

Hi Daniel,
I mostly did the Scrum Open assessment, although I did try the PO, Developer and Nexus ones a couple of times for completeness as well as to improve my knowledge. Hope this helps. All the best for your exam

Chandini


03:10 am April 21, 2016

Hi Lyubomir,
Yes, the questions on the exam did need you to go beyond what is in the Scrum Guide and the assessment. However, IMHO I think if you understand the fundamentals, you can answer them without any problem. Do look up the book by Ken Schwaber I mentioned. It has a few real-world examples that are very useful to understand how you would use Scrum principles in the read world.

All the best for your second trial.

Chandini


04:55 am May 2, 2016

Well done, I got 83.5% so need to go again.
Personally I found the exam itself ok, I realise that sounds weird after not passing but it was. The biggest thing I'd say is read question and go with instinct. If you are not sure bookmark and move on. The majority of the questions were common sense from experience, the ones where I think I fell down were based around 2 answers being similar. In effect a correct answer and REALLY correct answer.
The breakdown you get is interesting but I'd like a little more detail, I guess they can't give a you got this one wrong type of response.
Back to re-read Guide, and try and look for slightly trickier example questions.


12:13 pm June 24, 2016

Hi Chandini. Well I passed it this time around with 98%(2 wrong answers). Well I read also some books(if somebody needs them I can provide the whole name), done a lot more exams online and everything that I could find and study some more. I think in general is better first to practice Scrum in real world before you attending the exams. In my case is helping at least :).


05:03 am June 26, 2016

Congrats Lyubomir on passing.

Andrew, all the best for your next attempt


12:52 pm June 27, 2016

Hello Lyubomir

I am also preparing for PSM1 - will appreciate if you can share complete names of the book(s) you referred.

R/Pankaj


12:35 pm June 28, 2016

Hi Pankaj,

Well the main one that I read(and particularly the things that I messed up first time) was Essential scrum Kenneth Rubin. For me it helps. Also as everybody mention Mikhail Lapshin prep exam is good. I also found online Open Practice Exam., which included more difficult questions. In general those were the main sources of information that I used. If you need more info let me know on private message and I will try to answer you thoroughly. Good Luck!!


04:20 pm June 28, 2016

Andrew mentioned a thing called "bookmark and move on". Can someone please share the exam pattern? meaning, I know it is 80 questions in 60 mins, but can I skip a question and come back to it later? if I've some time left after attempting all questions, is it possible to review the answers?

Any assistance will be helpful.


08:15 am June 30, 2016

Hi Kshitij,

Yes you can either answer the questions or bookmark them and return later to review/answer them. It is a bit confusing at the beginning, but I hope you will manage. Do not forget, when you bookmark a question and return to answer to remove the bookmark tick, otherwise will stay as bookmarked. :) Good Luck on your exam!


07:00 pm June 30, 2016

Hi Lyubomir

I am new this community and I am really focused reading only on the guide and the open assessment. Will you provide your guidelines to get through the certification ?


12:57 pm July 1, 2016

Hi Karthikeyan ,

As I mentioned before you need to study and UNDERSTAND the Scrum guide. I failed the firs time, so study a lot. Also do the Lapshin exam(more than 50+ times, until you pass 100% on each time), do the Scrum Practitioner exam, the open Scrum assessment and whatever you find on the internet on top of this things. Also read about Scale Agile..it will hep you. Mandatory is to read all the forums here. There is at least 20+ questions answered here, so pay attention :).

Good Luck!


11:45 pm July 7, 2016

Can someone please help me with the correct answer for this question:

Does Scrum optimize the predictability or risk?

As per my understanding from scrum guide, scrum optimizes the predictability.

Please confirm.

Thank you


11:50 pm July 7, 2016

Also please help understand this question:

The Product Backlog management includes

1. Clearly expressing the different Product Backlog items

2. Authoring the various Product Backlog items

3. Ordering Product Backlog items by size and risk Only


My understanding is option 1.

Please correct me


04:38 pm July 13, 2016

Please can someone confirm because I am planning to take the exam soon. Thanks


11:22 pm July 13, 2016

According to my understanding:

Product Backlog management includes:
- Clearly expressing product backlog items
- Ordering items in the product backlog to best achieve goals and missions
- optimize the value pf work the development team performs.
- ensures the product backlog is visible, transparent and clear to all, and shows what the scrum team will work on next.


07:08 am July 14, 2016

From Scrum Guide you can see the next one


incremental approach to optimize predictability and control risk.



I'll bet as you for predictability.

About the Product Backlog question:

Product Backlog Items have the next attributes: description, order, estimation and value.
Product Backlog Items order is done to maximize value and to best achieve goals and missions
So, the first one is correct


Clearly expressing Product Backlog items;


09:28 pm February 23, 2017

If you bookmark a question in the PSM test, and later do not remove the bookmark will those questions not be considered for the final score ?


09:41 pm February 23, 2017

Hello Bharat,

Thank you for your interest in Scrum.org and for your inquiry.

Bookmarking questions has no effect whatsoever on the way assessments are scored, but are rather a feature designed to aid those who wish to review their answers before the time limit expires. If your assessment session ends when you still have questions flagged with a bookmark, those questions will be graded according to the last answers you selected and saved.


04:33 am February 26, 2017

Hi All,

I passed the PSM 1 with 86%. I did self study for 3 weeks. I studied the scrum guide also took several online assessments which helped me pass the test. Good luck everyone!!!


05:39 pm February 27, 2017

Congratulations Rajni and chandini


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