Last month, I wrote a blog post about taking professional exams. My goal was to pass 2 certifications, Professional Scrum Master (PSM) I and Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) I, at the end of the year. 18 days later, I completed the challenge.

PSM and PSPO are the certificates offered by Scrum.org to validate the knowledge of the Scrum framework. The names are self-explanatory. PSM focuses on Scrum Masters who understand how to apply Scrum, and PSPO focuses on Product Owners who enable value creation and delivery. Both certifications consist of 3 levels. Level 1 covers the fundamental understanding.

The exam requires candidates to complete an 80-question paper within an hour. The questions can be multiple-choice questions with multiple answers, and the passing grade is 85%. The questions sometimes are wordy. Without good reading skills, you might get into trouble. So how did I overcome this challenge?

Before I started my challenge, I researched these exams. PSM I covers all the fundamental knowledge, and PSPO I contains all contents of PSM I with one more topic. All these topics are based on a 14-page document – Scrum Guide. Therefore, I prepared for PSM I first and put PSPO aside.  Scrum.org offers open assessments that are easier than the actual exams. My first attempt was 17/30. Reviewed the result, and I realised the exam was about theory rather than practical work. Many questions were designed to trap people who acquired years of experience mixing multiple Agile frameworks.

In the next 2 days, I repetitively took the open assessments until I identified the question pattern and constantly got almost full marks. I then bought an online course created by someone who scored 100% on the same exam. He builds a high reputation by teaching and guiding others towards success. The most important thing was the course consisted of several mock exams. Simulation is a quick way to learn. It also puts you under pressure as the mock exams are just as hard as the actual exams.

So I spent a whole week going through the course. Once it came to the quiz, I read the related topics in the Scrum Guide before attempting it. When I didn’t answer the questions correctly, I read the explanation and found the related paragraphs in the Scrum Guide. A few minutes later, I re-did the quiz until I got full marks.

At last, there were a few sets of mock exams with 80 questions and a 1-hour limit each. My approach was to complete exam A, review the answers, read the guide, and then move on to exams B, C, D, etc. After completing the whole circuit, I reiterated the circuit. This prevented me from memorising the questions rather than testing my understanding of the concepts. Daily drills and regular retrieval enhance long-term memory. When I constantly got 100% or almost 100% scores, I stopped attempting the mock exams. The more effort I further spent, the less significantly I could improve my performance. Conversely, if I over-practised, I might become over-confident. More careless mistakes could be made during the actual exam.

On the exam day, I rested enough, drank a tasty espresso, and then took the exam. I answered 80 questions within a half hour, leaving me another half hour to review the answers and identify the tricky questions. Finally, I scored 100% in PSM I. Next week, I used the same approach on PSPO I and scored 96.3%.

The questions in the exams are tricky, especially when the correct answers may contradict the real-life situation. You may argue that they don’t match what you are doing now. If I had not taken the exams, I wouldn’t have read the Scrum Guide so many times. Being an agile coach for 5 years, I didn’t read the guide. Now with a better understanding of Scrum and its value, I have more ideas for improving my team’s working environment. For instance, why should it be the single source of work undertaken by the Scrum Team? Before that, my team put the to-do items everywhere. It’s time to change our practice.

Remember the previous blog post that said I have never worked as a Product Owner? Now I realise I am working as a Product Owner should be doing. With the materials, I can improve my Product Owner capability and find ways to maximise the product value. This expands my horizons.

Learning by challenging mini-projects is addictive. It works best when the knowledge applies to real life. So what’s next? Maybe PSM II? As I know, PSM I is about “what is correct”. PSM II is about “what is better”. Knowing what is correct is essential, but knowing why is important to keep the momentum of improvement.