I just passed the PSM1 for my selft... How to prepare

Hi Pablo!

Congratulations!
I followed your notes and I passed certification on the first try!

Thanks a lot for this information
Diego

Pretty much what I did as well and passed PSM1, PSPO1, and PSD1. Any thoughts on how to prepare for the level 2 assessments?

I would definitely suggest going for the PSD1, many of the questions are similar to the scrum master certification.

jeff

Thanks Pablo Inchausti I passed  passed PSM1 with one score of 91.3% on the first try, studying for my self with your recommandations.

Where's the The Scrum Master Training Manual? It links to an Exam simulator that cost 27$ and no manual available. It's against the recomendation of scrumcrazy number 7 (third party companies). Do you think it's worth the price? Thanks.

Hi, 

first of all congratulations with your achievement. I would like to ask a question. I have studied Scrum Guide several times and I made my own notes from it. I watched several videos and making tests my results are really good like %93-%95 but I am so scared to take exam. Many people made me scared that real exam questions are not even similar to those practice tests and they are much harder. Do you think so or they are almost in the same level?

thank you.

Hi Beyza, 

I was in the same boat till yesterday and then finally i decided to take the exam. I was able to pass the PSM1 exam with 100% marks. Few of the things i did to prepare,

1.  Read the Scrum Guide whenever you get time. Its very easy and you can read the entire guide in 30 min, once you know what they are talking about. I read it like 4-5 times. Try to write key points in a notepad and then you can just go through it in like 5-10 min. 
2.  Did all the available mock exams both free and paid. One thing, you need to make sure, dont focus on score 100% instead focus on what you did wrong and why. Add those to you notes which you can refer later when you do your 5-10 min read.
3. Some mock exams i took, 
   • https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-real-mode/
   • https://www.volkerdon.com/ (Paid $15 for this)
   • PSM1/Product Owner Open Assessment.

Before the exam, i just took 2 full mock test to see if i remember the concepts and then i went for it and i scored 100%. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Prankul

Hi All,

I hope everyone is "Healthy & Safe" at your places. I also have fear of going to the exam like bayeza. Let me explain.

My Name is Siva Ram, i am preparing for my PSM1 Certification from past 2 weeks and i am consistently able to get 98 to 100% in Opem Scrum Assessments in 15 to 20 times when i attempted. Also, I am able to get the same percentage in "Mikhail Lapsin" sample test in 10 to 15 times i attempted them in Real time mode. Also, i spent some money to buy 6 practice tests (80 Questions each) in which 2 practice tests blowed away all my confidence ( Ended up with 72% & 78% respectively) , so ultimately i need to hold the actual test which i planned take on this Sunday. 

So, based on that Note, let ask you all some queries based on my experience from the Practice tests.

   1. The practice test have some questions, so long which took around a minute and half to read and all the four options are also so long to read and understand. Is this the same case with the real time exam also ? Please provide me some inputs who already attempted and passed as well ?

   2. How many questions can we expect on scenario based kind and is it coming from Agile and Nexus Scrum Frame work ?

   3. Most of the big questions in Practice tests are based on Scrum Transperancy, Scrum Integration, these are scenario based, these are big questions and big answers, my %'s on these topics are 70% and 68% and varied in the 2 practice tests which i have taken. But, i had read the scrum guide 5 to 6 times till date and understood it and its implementations in different scenarios. Basically my point is to know how big is the questions and answers in actual exam ?

   4. I am actually dedicated myself to pass in first attempt. I read nexus scrum guide, Agile Manifesto, Agile Iterative approaches and Scrum Guide mainly.

Can Someone provide your insights on my queries, meanwhile i will continue to prepare for the certification by the time u all give me your advises as many as possible which can help me finding way to pass.

Thanks to one all and eagerly waiting for all your responses...

Regards,

Siva Ram.

Hi All,

FI just passed my PSM I exam yesterday. I scored 98.8%. It was complete self study.

Here is how I prepared:

1. Attempted the PSM Open Assessments and scored around 75% the first time.Following that I read the Scrum Guide atleast 4 to 5 times(including noting down important points for later revision).

2. Having read the Scrum Guide multiple times, I started attempting the PSM Open Assessments as well as the PO Open Assessments and consistently scored 100%.

3. Also attempted https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/ LM and RM quizzes for Scrum Master and PO and consistently scored between 95 to 100%.

4. For topics like Burn-Down and Burn-Up charts and Cone of Uncertainty, I googled them and made quick notes for myself.

5. For relationship between scrum teams I read the Nexus Guide which really helped understand how multiple scrum teams work on a single product.

6. Last but not the least I attempted the free questions on https://www.volkerdon.com/ which helped me understand how to answer certain questions that were not really direct from the Scrum guide.

I had in total put around 2 weeks of study (2 full days of attempting questions and going through the scrum guide etc.) before giving the exam.

Last but not the least a big thank you to this awesome forum for sharing their experiences and tips for self-study.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

Sutapa

I’m happy to have passed the PSM I with only two wrong questions on April 17, 2020.

How I got this high mark with only 3 weeks preparations, without prior experience with scrum and without attending a class:

1. Using digital flashcards to learn the Scrum and Nexus Guide by heart, https://apps.ankiweb.net/
2. Taking Mikhail Lapshin’s quiz and VolkerDon’s exam simulator; https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/ and https://www.volkerdon.com/bundles/scrum-certifications
3. Participating on meetup.com with Agile Co:Learning MeetUp, Agile Support Circle, Liberating Structures Lab Berlin and Mayflower Meetup Berlin

Specific practical tools and expressions, like burn-up and burn-down charts as well as the cone of uncertainty, I also learned by looking up their meaning on scrum sites and then turning them into digital flashcards.

Wishing you all well on your scrum and further agile journey!

Theresa

Hello Everyone,

I passed my PSM1 in my first try with 91.3% with my self study and as mentioned above , mainly reading the scrum guide multiple times like reading a book that you love and taking the open assessments on PSM,PSPO and PSD. Also invested some money to buy some practices tests from udemy which helped me a lot as well. Thanks a lot to all those helped providing your inputs and sharing your experiences. ALL THE BEST , who are going take the certification. I wish all to be healthy,Safe and Successful.

I passed the exam today with 96.3% score in first attempt.

I am not sure it is the best idea to recommend here the site of scrum alliance, but they have a relatively good free online scrum training (based on the Scrum Guide) which includes lots of test questions. Some of them are relatively advanced. So, the point is not the training (anyone who can read should prefer doing so) but the tests included.

Hola Pablo, felicidades, es bueno saber que el auto aprendizaje es la clave, esa semana que dedicaste a estudiar cuántas horas de estudio implicó que le dediques diariamente?

Quiero empezar desde hoy y me estoy organizando

Saludos

Hi, I am preparing for taking the PSMI exam soon but i am a bit afraid that i didn't do all the study i should do. I am doing a self-study. So far:

1) I take open assessments for (Scrum Open) and scoring 90-100% 

2) Read Scrum.org guide several times and took my own notes

3) Read Mikhail Lapshin’s quizguide and took his free assessment online as well

Shall i be confident enough to take the exam now?

Also, do i need to take all the open assessments (Like developer, Agile, Nexus) before entering PSMI or the (Scrum Open) is enough?

Thank you

Hello, I am preparing for the PSM1 exam does anyone know where to find free tests online apart from these I found online.

1) https://www.thescrumexperts.com/

2) Free assessment test by Scrum

Thank You.

RB

Hello, I passed the PSM 1 assessment with a 96.3% score on the first try a few days back and I can confirm that it really demands a thorough understanding of the Scrum framework.

What I did was:

1. Read the Scrum Guide
2. Listened to the Scrum Guide Audio
3. Made notes on the key parts of the Scrum Guide for review
4. Tested my knowledge using Scrum.org's Scrum Open Assessment
5. Tested my knowledge using my own PSM I Review Test

You may want to read my blog to understand my methods in complete detail.
 

Thank you and I sincerely hope it can help those who are planning to take the assessment!

Hello All, 

I finally cleared the PSM1 Certification Exam yesterday with 95% (It was my 2nd attempt )

First of All , it is not only the free assessments that you do to pass this exam. The assessments listed on scrum.org is just 10-15% what is on the real Exam . I did only that and I failed the exam. 

Tips on how to pass the Exam:

- I read the scrum guide as many times as possible and read each and every word clearly because each and every word in this book is so much important and it's only 19 pages and I listed out all the important things. 

- I did all the assessments many times it was possible including PSM1 , PSPO. Try to do it quicker before the time expires. Try to get 100% in both of the assessments. 

- I also did Mikhail Lapshin quizzes for both Scrum master and product owner many times possible until i did it in 20 mins because the exam is 1 hour long and it has 80 questions. Try to get 95- 100 % on both of the quizzes. They are very helpful. 

-  I also did  free mock tests on https://www.volkerdon.com/ and it's very helpful to get some ideas on how tricky the questions can get and it's also gives you explanations on how this answer makes sense. 

- Most important, in the practice exams try to look at which answers are not making sense to the particular question , that is the only way to figure out which are the correct answers. 

Please don't be too confident with yourself, the real exam is much trickier and you need to have enough focus because there are 80 questions and you get only an hour. If possible try to sit with someone , who can help you to find the answers because you won't be able to search because it needs more time. 

Good Luck!!!!

Your post and responses were very helpful !!

I religiously followed your experience and successfully completed PSM1 yesterday, that is 03/17/2021.

Thank you so much for sharing Pablo Inchausti , Theresa Lankes ,  Francis Job Barcelo , Sutapa Sarkar , Prankul Agarwal .

Hello everybody.

I managed to pass the PSM-I certification exam this week! It was my first attempt and I achieved a score of 96.3%.

My strategy:

1. I read the "Scrum Guide (2020)" 3 times.
    - Just reading, then making appointments and finally revising.
2. I read the "Agile Manifesto" and "Scrum Glossary".
3. I read the text "Professional Scrum Competences".
4. I did the open assessments until I got between 100% in each one repeatedly.
    - Scrum Open, Producto Owner Open and Nexus Open.
    - It helped a lot to get used to the layout of the race (yes, it helps).
5. I bought the Volkerdon simulations.
    - Helped to reflect on the knowledge of Scrum.
    - Mock tests have questions that require a level of interpretation (no big deal, but different).
6. I looked for preparation tips and guidance on this forum and on YouTube channels.

I studied in a 40-minute time-box (2 time-boxes on weekends) for 4 weeks. 

The test is not simple, but it is not difficult. Some questions from open assessments may be present.

I hope this post helps those who are preparing, in the same way that other posts in this community helped me.

Thank you and good performance to all!

Pablo, from the bottom of my heart: "Thank you!"

It was a huuuge difference when reading the Scrum guide from a physical source (paper), instead of reading it from a screen.

That was key #1, and key #2 for passing the exam studying by yourself, it's to have a 15 to 20min spare time for reviewing some answers after finish; that time can be achieved by practicing and completing the mock assesment from Scrum.org once and again with 100% everytime.

que Dios te bendiga Pablo, bendiciones

luis
 

Just passed with 97.5% at first attempt, thanks for the tips from all the above posters. 

I spent around 8 hours preparing over 3 days, but I do have experience as a developer on scrum teams.

Key for me was printing, reading and making notes on the Scrum Guide, and doing the Scrum Open, Product Owner Open and Developer Open tests here https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments to raise my initial 80% score up to 100%.

Marking which questions you are not quite sure of so you don't waste getting stuck on one question is important. You can then review the tricky ones at the end, I had over 15 minutes spare to review the ones I had marked.

Hi All,

Thanks everyone for sharing you experience with PSM 1 assessment.

I have passed PSM1 with 90% in first attempt.

My Prep:

Took 3 weeks for preparing.

1. Read Scrum Guide daily till you get belief understanding on the terminology, flow and concepts.

2. Go through https://www.scrum.org/pathway/scrum-master 

2. Take course(I took Udemy - Agile Scrum Master)

3. Take all Open assessments(PSM,PO,Nexus) to understand the interlink between the roles and for better understanding.

4. Take notes and create flowchart/smart chart based on your learning. It will help to grasp the concepts easily.

5. Exam Day - Be Calm and Relax.

•    Read Question thoroughly. Mainly on Keyword No, Not, Should, Must, Select two, three......
•    Review the Answers and exclude the option which is not related to Scrum(ex: Project Manager, HR, COE)
•    Don't give much time for direct questions.
•    Keep Eye on Clock. Try to complete the exam in 30-45 min and give time to review the flagged questions.

Exam is not that difficult. If you are clear with concepts you will crack it!!!!!

Cheers!!!!!

Hello all,

Just passed PSM1 with 100% at first attempt. Thanks for all the tips up there, they are all super helpful. I am basically doing the same ;)

1. Read the Scrum guide 2020 thoroughly for multiple times. My native language is not English, so I did try to read in my mother tongue before, but I honestly don't recommend it since it could confuse you with the translation. (Or maybe just me) I find the audio version very helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8jE3pGfGZE as it helps you to read and absorb at the same time. 

2. Do the open assessment https://www.classmarker.com/online-test/start/?quiz=3qg5fac7589c0416 once you feel confident about the content from the guide. Do it multiple times until you could get 100% in a row for 5 times at least within the timebox of 10 minutes. It could be almost an instant reaction since they are from a 40-question pool for 30 questions presented (I read it from somewhere, don't quote me on this). If you tried it more enough, the questions could be repeated, but don't get too confident that you are 100% ready. Go back to the guide and check all the terms and concepts that aren't clear or you don't fully understand.

I also did these free open exams as above mentioned: Mikhail Lapshin, scrum quiz org, mplaza... 

Mikhail Lapshin is free with the 80 questions exam mode, it's amazing. But at the same time it's not updated to 2020 version yet so it could get confusing sometimes.

3. I paid for the Volkerdon mock exams as I wanted to prepare myself for the real exam situation for full 80 questions in 60 minutes and prefer to pay a little than 2+time for the attempts :P There are many of them and it just happened I chose this one. I actually failed 3/4 for the mock test as it really pushes your knowledge and understanding. You can't get by just by "I think I kind of know/understand this concept..." So I could go back and study harder ;)

4. During the exam, just be calm and read everything thoroughly. Be sure nothing will interrupt you for the next hour. You could flag the questions in between to come back and check again before the time expired, so finish all the questions first and not spend too much time on one. You can definitely do it!

Thanks again and good luck to all!! 

Just passed PSM 1 with 92%.

Thanks to @Sanjeev Ramani for your tips especially taking notes in a question-answer format. It helped me a lot to notice small word differences such as may/should/must and so on. 

Thanks to https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/. I paid $19 to build my confidence. The explanation was amazing and tremendously helped me to save time and find answers in the real exams. 

In my case, I passed PSM 1 with 98.8% after taking the past last week.

What I did was:

- Taking the Udemy course: https://www.udemy.com/course-dashboard-redirect/?course_id=3270848

- Practing with MPlaza simulator and Scrum Open Assessment alternatively.

One week practicing with the simulators after finishing the course was enough for me.

I wrote the exam in 40 minutes and passed with 93.8% score today. If you study the scrum guide, Nexus Guide, practice with the accessment test SCRUM OPEN, PRODUCE OWNER, and NEXUS OPEN. Just add some practice test from udemy. You will pass and if you study well, understand, memorize questions amd answers where necessary to save time, you might pass with 100%. Good luck in your exam. 

Hello,

I  just passed the PSM 1 at my first attempt. Thank you all for you valuable suggestions.

• Read the scrum guide once, followed with open assessments from scrum.org 
• Read the wrong answers, validated the explanations from the scrum guide.
• Read the scrum guide a second time, (though I was losing patience), followed by practice assessments from Udemy.
• Read the wrong answers carefully, and validated/understood the explanation from scrum guide.
• Didn't have further patience to read the scrum guide, however continually took the open assessments, udemy practice assessments and finally the practice assessment Mikhail Lapshin (both in learning and real mode).  https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/sm-real-mode/ 
• Took 2 days  break.
• The day before the assessment, took the Mlapshin assessment once, a couple of open assessments and also the Udemy practice assessments.
• The following day directly appeared for the assessment  in the evening after a busy day
• Cleared the assessment with 86.3% .

Total time invested from zero to passing the assessment = 7 days (whatever remaining after doing regular office work and household chores, including 2 days break in between.)

Hi, everyone

I passed the PSM 1 exam today with 98.8%, and I want to thank everyone because I took all your advice/ experience and made my own version for preparation, and I would like to share my experience and help other people.

Reading:

• Scrum Guide 2020 version: of course this is a must, and I read it 3 times (practice mock exam in between reading)
• Agile Manifesto: 3 times
• Nexus Guide: 2 times
• Scrum Glossary(https://www.scrum.org/Resources/Scrum-Glossary) : 2 times 
• The Scrum Master Training Manual v.1.6 By Nader K. Rad, Frank Turley: 3 time

Free Practice Exam:

• Scrum.org open assessment: Scrum Open (30 questions): 4 times
• Scrum.org open assessment: Product Owner Open (15 questions): 4 times
• Scrum.org open assessment: Developer Open (30 questions): 4 times
• Scrum.org open assessment: Nexus Open (10 questions): 4 times
• Mikhail Lapshin - SM/ learning mode (87 questions)
• Mikhail Lapshin - SM/ real mode (80 questions)
• Mikhail Lapshin - PO/ learning mode (80 questions)
• Mikhail Lapshin - PO/ learning mode (80 questions)
• Mikhail Lapshin - Scaled/ learning mode (30 questions)
• The Scrum Master Training Manual v.1.0 practice exam (30+20+20=70 questions)
• ScrumQuiz.org - SM (40 questions)
• ScrumQuiz.org - PO (40 questions)

Paid Mock Exam:

• Volkerdon Scrum Master exam simulator (mock test) - 320 questions: $14.99

Note: 

• Mikhail Lapshin exam is based on the previous version of Scrum Guide
• The Scrum Master Training Manual v.1.0 and v1.6 is based on the previous version of Scrum Guide

It took me 2 weeks to prepare, and after all these reading and mock exams, I feel the real exam is not difficult.

Thank you, everyone, and I hope this post helps

Many Thanks  to Pablo Inchausti, Liang Yang Lin, Miguel Valles Lopez!

I have successfully completed PSM1 in first attempt with 96.3% within a week of taking the Udemy course:

https://www.udemy.com/course-dashboard-redirect/?course_id=3270848

Top 4 things I emphasize to the guidance given above:

1. Read Scrum guide min of 3 times.

2. Practice Open Assessments of Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer, Nexus guide until you consistently get 100% in less than 5mins.

3. Work on Simulations from Udemy course & other available free Mock tests.

4.Just before the Certification exam, practice 3 open assessments to set the approach & pace in place. This really helped me.

Thanks again to this forum.

Good Luck :)

Hi, congratulations to everyone! I also have a story to share, my mistakes and tips for passing the PSM1 :)

DISCLAIMER: Long post ahead, it’s more of a story of learning and experience journal than straightforward tips ^_^ 

I was really delaying this for like 7 years since I took on both Scrum Master and Business Analyst roles. I tried to review a couple of times but it’s only now I had the courage to take it. I am not really good at exams but the good thing is there were plenty of reliable resources around which helped me pass at first attempt with flying colors <3. Score doesn’t really matter, what matters is passing the exam. Thanks to all who gave me encouragement. Failing it at the first attempt is like throwing 150USD and I cannot afford that haha! 

I am just sharing things that worked for me because it was ages since I had a real exam and I know myself well. I like reading technical stuff but I do not possess other related certifications like PMP nor CBAP. I am also not in a hurry to take the exam which made me still balance my other priorities in life. In total, it took me 3 weeks reviewing but could have been 2 weeks if not for the mistakes I did ^^,  My preparation is personal, based on my situation, it’s both process and result oriented so just take what you think is helpful for you.

Set a very high goal

Because I set a very high goal, I did not compromise the quality of my review. My goal is not only to pass the exam but to also learn it by heart so I can apply it. I also had a score in mind that I’d like to achieve. I heard some wisdom from a friend which I still find very fruitful until today. Set your goals very high so in case you won’t reach them exactly, you would still end up reaching a high goal. You may also argue, why set a goal if in the first place you are thinking of not reaching them. Well, all I can say is how life works is very different from how things that we can control work.

Read and re-read the Scrum Guide 2020

Only when I read it multiple times, only then I was able to expound what is being said theoretically. It makes so much more sense everytime I revisit the Scrum Guide 2020. It’s like this is the root and foundation. So, it should be strong and will be easier to connect things together.

Read the Suggested Reading/ Preparations

I already set a date when I would like to take the exam but lo and behold it seemed that I had not read enough and I kept on moving the date further. Few days before my self-imposed date of exam, I learned that there were other suggested materials other than the Scrum Guide 2020. I faithfully read and watched all of the Focus Areas, blogs, articles and white papers (including the links within these articles) as suggested. It seemed I overdid my self-review going through all of it but I think it helped me a lot in my mindset and confidence on how I approached hard questions. Yes, there were hard questions and logically speaking I believe there are no tricky questions. Scrum.org is also the award giving body, so where else can I find materials as reliable as what they suggested. Besides, I also did not have extra money to register in formal trainings nor buy mockups ^^,

Take the Scrum Open Assessment multiple times

Make sure to perfect every single time and interval should be less than 10mins. Based on my experience new questions appeared after 4th or the 5th try. I still went far by perfecting it 10x consecutively. It took me less than an hour. I actually dozed off a couple of times in between because it was kinda draggy to do that haha! But it’s all worth it. There are the same questions that appeared in the actual exam. It seems that the same set of questions just appear if the interval of taking it multiple times is more than 10 mins. I have read this tip somewhere and I tested it. So it seems correct.

It was good that the interface of the actual exam is the same as the Scrum Open which greatly helped in my mental model. It really eliminated the waste of figuring out how it works and making technical mistakes. I was able to focus on answering the exam. There’s an additional feature where you can bookmark questions you would like to go back and it’s very intuitive.

Take all the open assessments in Scrum.org

Yes, all of those (Scrum, PO, Nexus, Kanban, Agile Leadership, EBM and Facilitation Skills). Well, I tried all except the Developer Open. I just tried them so to understand better how they were all complemented by the Scrum Guide 2020. I did not intend to perfect but just to have a passing score on those was fine. 

Take the Mikhail Lapshin PSM1 real mode

If I had more time, I might have also probably taken the other exams there. Just be aware that it’s based on Scrum Guide 2017. That’s why I recommend starting with at least the Scrum Open before taking MLapshin’s so you can also test yourself if you know the updates. I still consider this a valid mock test because of the richness of its content. Surely, you will have wrong answers in taking this exam but obviously should be correct based on Scrum Guide 2020 :)

Aside from the 3 sources (Scrum Guide 2020, Scrum.org and MLapshin) I mentioned above, I don’t think you’ll need more. Having more from different organizations will just make you confused and lose focus and end up not taking the exam anymore.

Print very important reading materials

Writing my notes in printed materials helps me remember things I just read for a long time. After reading a section, I write whatever I can remember. It’s just part of what works best for me.

Read few blogs on preparing for PSM1

I checked 2 or 3 blogs only (from Linkedin and scrum.org) because I do not want to clutter my mind with so many unnecessary things. Knowing the experience of a few is enough. Besides, they basically say the same thing.

Real workplace experience

Though I believe you can still pass the exam without experience, but just because of how I knew myself. My best learning environment is practical, so the things I have learned in taking the suggested materials validated those things that I was doing right and corrected my wrong practices. Lessons learned stick in my core memory well. From what I remember, most of the questions were real life scenarios. So it’s quite helpful to go through all the materials scrum.org suggests in taking the PSM1.

Purchase an assessment password way ahead of time

I tried to purchase a password just a few hours before taking the exam but I kept on receiving errors. I tried all of the payment methods (I mean all except credit card because I do not have one). I was fixing my debit card settings but still not successful. It was almost midnight and this meant I needed to move my exam date further again. I phoned a friend for a credit card. Fortunately, my friend agreed on a certain date. Weekends passed and I was not really comfortable borrowing a credit card so I tried my debit card again. I carefully went through what I might be missing that made the payment errors, so I tried a different process. My payment pushed through! Yay! :) I took it as a Divine intervention because I had more time to review ^^,

Have your assessment password ready way ahead of time. It doesn’t expire and it’s one time use. You’ll need to input this password to access the exam. Click the “Buy” button towards the middle of the reminders page.

Build momentum

Before starting the actual exam, I took the open assessment once just to build momentum, frame my mindset in exam mode, and gain confidence. Preparing my mind allowed me to stay focused all throughout the exam. I just figured this out while doing the open assessments, it might be good to build momentum first. And yeah, I always do the 4-7-8 breathing exercise everytime I do a completely different thing. ^^,

Have a reliable and maybe fiber internet 

In the introduction of the exam, it seemed that others experienced slow loading of the next question. Some said it took around 10 seconds to fully load the next question after clicking the Next button. I did not experience any of those. Maybe the exam page was optimized already or maybe it’s in my internet connection.

Maximize the 1 hour allotted time

I bookmarked around 12 items I’d like to review and spent almost 20 mins reviewing my answers only on these mainly because most of these items were hard questions. With the remaining time of 2mins, I tried to review all my answers but got up to I think item 10. I submitted my answers with only 10 secs remaining. Of course, I’d like to have more time to review all my answers but things need to progress. So, I must say that 1 hour is just perfect to give a good pressure so manage it well.

I forgot that I have scrum guide and glossary open 

I have read on a reliable site that recommends to open these while in the exam so I did in a 2nd monitor before I started. I thought I would encounter fill in the blanks as how it was written in the Scrum Guide 2020 per se, somethings like that. In the exam introduction, it was not mentioned that you cannot check resources while taking the exam so open notes should be fine. Then, after an hour of taking the exam, I got the results immediately. My family who were at home at that time cheered for me. Then, I had a long lunch break and when I got back to my laptop, my 2nd monitor opened and flashed these and I slightly laughed. I never needed these during the exam. I was so focused I completely forgot about it. Lol!

Pessimistic on possible scenarios that are not really likely to happen 

What if there’s a power outage? What if the internet suddenly disconnects? What if it rains hard? Really?! I had some thoughts (or maybe just lame excuses) that these things might happen while taking the exam. To think it’s just an hour long, we have reliable electricity and internet connection. I was told that once disconnected from the exam, you cannot proceed anymore and your payment will not be refunded. Not true anymore. Just before taking the exam, there were reminders and instructions on what to do in case you get disconnected. Phew! 

IN CLOSING, passing the PSM1 motivated me to learn more and get other related certifications that are aligned with my career goals because there are lots of things to learn just by going through the suggested materials. It’s motivating because the real life scenarios mentioned are the real ones I experienced for myself first hand and are very useful in society. The materials are really helpful. Thanks to all the books recommended, I’ll definitely buy some of those! Thank you Scrum.org.

I hope you find this helpful. Thanks also for finishing this long post ^^, May you have the courage to prepare well, take and pass the exam :) Godbless!

Thanks everyone for sharing.

I just passed PSM1 with 98,8% at first attempt. I've been preparing for a week.

- Studying the Scrum Guide multiple times

- Practice Open Assessments of Scrum Master multiple times (first attempt: 70 % after 30 minutes, last attempts: always 100 % in less than 5 minutes)

- Practice 1 Open Assessment of Product Owner

-  Practice the Mock Tests by Mikhail Lapshin, but they confused me a little

- reading Nexus Guide and Agile Manifesto once

- get a good night's sleep and just before the Certification exam, practice 3 open assessments