Become Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) and Learn How Scrum Really Works

Scrum is the most used Agile framework in software development. and more than 56% of companies now started adopting the Scrum framework.
Recently, I had achieved the Professional Scrum Master I(PSM I) assessment on my first attempt. I answered 77 questions correctly, acquiring 96.3%. So let me share my experience with you in the next few lines to know more about how to be a certified Scrum master.

My Scrum Background

I have been working as a Mobile developer for a while now in a big corporate company that employs agile and specifically scrum framework. and I wanted to know more about scrum more theoretically and know-how to adopt it better in my company. 

So I asked about how I could study scrum and all answers led me to get a well-respected certificate but that would need some time investment and also some time to study as the exam isn't easy at all.

After my experience taking the exam and start working again, Scrum certificate is really worth and during my study, I discovered a whole new scrum I didn't know about as most companies don't implement scrum well with all they don't understand Scrum well.

So here I will share with you my guide to understand scrum well and pass the exam like a boss :)

Assessment Preparation — Overview

First of all, Scrum has are two well-known organizations in market Scrum.org and Scrum alliance so Should you take the PSM certification provided by Scrum.org® or CSM certificate provided by the Scrum Alliance® Long story short both are equally respected and the only difference is in the way of acquiring the knowledge, not the knowledge itself and to answer your question if you are going to study on your own and take the online exam then go for PSM.

If you enjoy class courses and practical live-classrooms or your company provides scrum training then go for the CSM.

Now Good job so far my friend as you are still reading then you decided to be a certified scrum master so the next three questions that popped up to your mind are 

First, what is How much time it would take you to understand Scrum and also get certified?

For the PSM exam: the Answer is a full-time -8 hours- study it would take on average two or three days and if you are going to study 4 hours of less then double the time for max a week.

For the CSM exam: the Answer is most trainers that provide CSM do it at a maximum of two or three full days and you will do the exam on the final day.

First, what is How much is the Scrum certification?

The Professional ScrumMaster (PSM) course costs around $350 (it is not mandatory you can self-study it).
And the PSM Exam costs 150$.

The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course costs around $1000-$1400 (including the exam).

Now you are finalizing your decision and here it comes to the final question what is the learning path I should take to learn scrum and get certified?

For CSM when you apply for the training the instructor will introduce for you his way of learning the Scrum and also understanding it to pass the exam.

For the PSM exam let me introduce to you me super-learning path ;)

First, read those two Golden Guides well ONCE

First, the Scrum guide that you will find here

https://www.scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf

then the Nexus guide that you will find here

https://scrumorg-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/drupal/2018-01/2018-Nexus-Guide-English_0.pdf

Secondly, Do The Scrum Master and Product Owner Open assessment

I advise you to do the scrum master and product owner as they both have really good questions that will help you understand Scrum more and also you will find questions from both of them in the PSM test.

Scrum Master Open assessment:

https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/scrum-open

Product Owner Open assessment:

https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/product-owner-open

Thirdly, check the learning path 

you will find many categories and many resources in every category but you don't need to read everything in every module you should only check one or two links and that's enough to understand the material

Here is the link

https://www.scrum.org/pathway/scrum-master

The target here not to study for the exam but to understand the topics of the scrum guide as the PSM exam have questions about every point in the learning path but only tests understanding of these topics throughout situation questions. 

The one before last re-read the scrum guide again

Yes please re-read the scrum guide again multiple teams and focus on every word and imagine how you can apply it to your team and then do the practice exam for both PSM and PSPO till you be able to solve the questions right

Finally,

A piece of advice to be sure that you can pass PSM test in 60 minutes you may purchase the practice exam from mplaza it's for 30 £ but it’s worth it as it has many of questions you are going to find in the exam and also give you detailed feedback for answers also there is this FREE website called mlapshin that offers a real mode exam questions too. they are both fine and give you an overview of the exam questions and also exam mood.

Note: an important thing is that the exam is 60 minutes long and has 80 questions so you need to answer it fast and precisely. when I did my exam, I finished the exam and had 20 minutes extra left and I revised the questions all again but that's because I had done the practice exams that I mentioned over and over till I was finishing them in less than 15 minutes as I prepared myself to be so fast at responding to all questions.

Conclusion 

Scrum is really awesome framework but you need to understand it well before adopting it to your team and PSM exam is not a hard exam but you need to be prepared well as its success rate (85%) is high and the time allowed (60 minutes for 80 questions) is short so you need to understand the scrum guide really well and practice the exam enough time to be able to get the most out of The Scrum and surely pass the exam.

An early Congratulations from me to all of you and Good luck in your careers :)💪