Towards the end of my Bachelors, I decided to do something that I’d been meaning to do for a long time – get the Professional Scrum Master I certification. I’ve always been interested in both software development and iterative, Agile development methodologies, and so I decided I might as well turn that latter interest into something tangible.
What follows is my personal study guide for how I studied and passed the PSM I exam. Before I get into that, I need to clarify that…
Throughout the studying process, I was continually making and studying flashcards to remember the principles that I’d learned. Without daily flash-card studying, all of the video-watching and reading would have been wasted. I ended up with about 100 flashcards total.
Watched and Took Notes on the Scrum Video Series
- Day 1: Watched modules 1 and 2
- Day 2: Watched modules 3 and 4
- Day 3: Watched modules 5 and 6
Studied and Took Notes on Scrum and XP from the Trenches (Free eBook)
- Day 4: Read Chapters 1 and 2
- Day 5: Began Chapter 3
- Day 6: Finished Chapter 3
- Day 7: Read Chapters 4 and 5
- Day 8: Read Chapters 6, 7, and 8
- Day 9: Read Chapters 9 and 10
- Day 10: Read Chapters 11 and 12
- Day 11: Read Chapter 13
- Day 12: Began Chapter 14
- Day 13: Finished Chapter 14
- Day 14: Read Chapter 15 and the Checklist
Studied and Took Notes on the Official Scrum Guide
- Day 15: Read the Introduction and Scrum Roles
- Day 16: Read Scrum Events and Scrum Artifacts
Practice Tests and Review
- Day 17: Took the Scrum Open Assessment and the Lapshin PSM I Quiz in Real Mode
- Day 18: Flash card review, and took the Lapshin PSM I Quiz in Real Mode
- Day 19: Flash card review, and took the Lapshin PSM I Quiz in Real Mode
The Scrum Open Assessment, I felt, was too easy. The Lapshin Quiz was tougher and I took it until I was regularly scoring 100%.
Scheduled and Took the PSM I Certification Test
…and passed.
Appreciate you putting this together. Looking to mimic your approach fairly closely over the next month.
Thank you