5 steps (of mine) towards successful PSM II certification

Happy to share that I cleared PSM II this morning on my second attempt..

My first attempt was at 8:20 am this morning where I missed the 85% benchmark by 1 incorrect question. That hurt...for a few mins!

It hurt because I had actually enjoyed the test experience and finished it much ahead of time and was pretty confident (maybe to the point of being complacent)

I could not give up! The confidence that stemmed from my preparation and experience prodded me to take it up again...

So I backed myself to reattempted again around 10:15 am (same day)

The second time I passed with 94.1% 

This time I was more cautious about and took care to reach each and every word with care

Things that worked for me. Prep work started from Jan this year. Had previously cleared PSM 1 last August (with a score of 100%) 

1. Uninstalled Whatsapp, Facebook and Youtube from my phone (yes, seriously!)

   Eliminated anything that could distract me from learning and focusing

2. Started reading books recommended in the PSM subject areas (and others like Management 3.0)

   Particularly liked the books - Leader's guide to Radical Management and Coaching Agile teams

   And reading Gunther's pocket guide is a must!    

   Could not get hold of Scrum Mastery and Agile retrospectives  book - Had to settle watching a few videos    

   

3. Took up all all open assessments available out there including Mikhail Lapshin's quizzes

   Another confidence building assessment was a Scrum Master test by Simplilearn which I found useful

4. Few days before I took up the test, I started visualizing myself successfully completing the test and celebrating it :-) 

5. A day before the test, dropped into office and reviewed my learnings from the past 2 months

I would say that the value of PSM II lies in that it forces you into an intense learning mode and I would like to believe that I came out as an improved and enriched version of myself. Scrum on!