ADVANCED

SCRUM
MASTER
CERTIFICATION
by

VALENTIN
DESPA
The terms Professional Scrum Master™, PSM I, PSM II, PSM
1, PSM 2 etc. represent the protected brand of Scrum.org.

This document including any information, links, practice

exams, or materials are neither endorsed by nor affiliated
with Scrum.org.
ABOUT THE
PSM™ II EXAM
Requirements My advice
$250 USD per attempt
Take this exam if you:

30 questions
Passed the PSM I exam with a score
>90% (ideally at least 95%).
90 minutes

Have professional experience using

Passing score is 85%
Scrum / Agile (2+ years).

Real interest in Scrum.

Desire to self-study (articles, books).

Difficulty
The exam is hard but not impossible.

While the material does not include

new topics, the questions are long
and tricky.

You have to perfectly know the PSM

I topics.

Because there are only 30

questions, you cannot make too
many mistakes.

PSM II is not for

everyone!
Having this certification does not
compensate for real-world experience.

Could be redundant and a totally

different certification may be more
useful.

Having PSM II and no experience will

most likely NOT land you a job!
ste
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y-step gu

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et

HOW TO PASS
PSM™ II EXAM
e certi
th
ips
m t
exa

1. SET a DEADLINE 2. READ THE SCRUM GUIDE

Most students manage to get the PSM II ™ Most of the content in the exam originates
certification in 4-8 weeks of preparation. from the Scrum Guide. It is important NOT
It is important to set a deadline and to to read the Scrum Guide like a regular book.
make daily progress toward that goal. Read it a few times entirely and then come
back and focus only on specific aspects.
If you take a break, you lose your focus.

3. READ THE AGILE 4. READ THE

MANIFESTO SCRUM GLOSSARY
Scrum is an agile process framework, so The Glossary includes many terms and tools
understanding that agile means, is very that may appear in the exam. Make sure
important. you are familar with all of them.

5. TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE 6. RELAX & TAKE THE EXAM

Do any of the recommended practice make sure you a fresh and relaxed
questions, even if they are for PSM I. get a pen and some paper
Identify which parts of Scrum are still stay focused
unclear and go back to the Scrum Guide.
SET A Some TIPS
on how to get
DEADLINE started

Define a goal Be realistic

Having a deadline in mind helps you
focus on this specific thing. The idea How many hours per day can you
is to keep any distractions away. consistently spend preparing for the
exam?
You need to stay on track and to
think about why you are doing this
and how this can help you in the Most students need a total of 40 to
future. 80 hours to prepare for this exam
and this translates to 4-8 weeks of
preparation.

The daily reminder Be realistic

Search for an image with a
certificate. Download it, open Paint How many hours per day can you
or any other image editing software. consistently spend preparing for the
exam?
Put your name and your exam date
on it. Keep this file to yourself.
Most students need a total of 40 to
Print it and put it somewhere where 80 hours to prepare for this exam
you can see it every day (for and this translates to 4-8 weeks of
example on your fridge). preparation.

Be flexible
Learning Scrum can sometimes be
slow, difficult and frustrating.

Don't set over optimistic. You know

that some unexpected things always
occur. Try to take some
interruptions into account.
READ THE This should be
your MAIN focus
SCRUM GUIDE
Download or print Read it 2-3 times first
Begin by downloading or printing Start by reading the Scrum Guide
the Scrum Guide. You can find it two or three times.
online at https://scrumguides.org/
This will help you get an overview.
The Scrum Guide is also translated While is till may be very dry, it will
in over 30 languages. But soon start to make sense.
remember, the exam is in English!

Don't underestimate it! Use free resources

You may think that the Scrum Guide Understanding the Scrum Guide is
is only a few pages and easy to probably the hardest part. Here are
grasp. You are wrong. some free resources explaining
some aspects.
The Scrum Guide is like a piece of
legislation. You need to pay close scrum.org/resources/blog
attendion to every word. scrum.org/resources/webcasts
kenschwaber.wordpress.com

Create a mind map Come back

It is important that you read the When you come back to the Scrum
Scrum Guide and begin extracting Guide, read only certain parts of it
some information from it. that are relevant for what you are
looking for.
Many things are related, so it may be
worth to write your own notes or to In the PDF or web version of the
create a mind map. Scrum Guide, you can also search
for specific words.
READ THE Understanding
the fundamentals
AGILE
MANIFESTO
Agile manifesto Get familar
Agile is hard to define but it all starts Make sure you also read the Twelve
with the Agile manifesto. Go to Principles of Agile Software.
agilemanifesto.org and read it.
Understanding the meaning and
The manifesto many seem short, but importance of the Agile manifesto is
it is full of meaning. crucial in understanding Scrum.

What is Agile?
Agile refers to the mindset that
people being "agile" have.

People collaborate on building a

product while respecting a set of
values and principles.

Agile is driven by business

opportunities and by providing value
to customers and users.

Understand the mindset

Learning from can be difficult, new,
and frustrating.

Take just a few minutes to watch

this video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=2NFH3VC6LNs
SCRUM All the terms you
need to know
GLOSSARY
Go over the list
Go to

https://www.scrum.org/resources/sc
rum-glossary 

and make yourself familiar with

many of the terms used in Scrum or
similar Agile frameworks.

Pay attention
You may want to pay close attention
to these terms

Burn-down Chart
Technical Debt
Velocity

It's not rocket science

If you don't know a term, it is not the
end of the word.

You don't need expert knowledge

about this. Just read a few
paragraphs on Wikipedia or watch
one or two YouTube videos.
TEST YOUR There are no
official PSM II ™
KNOWLEDGE open
assessments

Scrum Open Product Owner Open

There is no official simulator for This assessment is targeted toward
PSM II. Use the Scrum Open to the PSPO I ™ certification but useful
asses your current understanding of for PSM I ™ as well.
Scrum.
Go to https://www.scrum.org/open-
Go to https://www.scrum.org/open- assessments/ to take the
assessments/ assessment.

Go back to the Scrum Guide and try

to understand the correct answers
from the test.

Scrum Developer Open ScrumPractice.org

If you are don't have a development
background, this assessment will be Rieks Visser has created a very good
the most confusing. Level II assessment:

Try it anyway and look at the correct https://scrumpractice.org/

answers and explanations.

Go to https://www.scrum.org/open-
assessments/scrum-developer-
open

Paid resources
There are some paid options
available but most of the time the
quality of the questions is
disputable.

Don't memorize questions and

answers!

Don't trust answers without an

explanation that you can follow back
to the Scrum Guide.
RELAX AND Just pass it!

TAKE THE EXAM
This is the final step How do I know if I am
ready?
You have been preparing so much
for this. Now it is time to
Make sure that you have near
demonstrate what you have learned.
perfect scores at all practice tests. 
Understand which areas are still
Stick by your deadline and take the
unclear.
exam.
Read the Scrum Guide once again, if
possible with small breaks in
between.

Be fresh Be prepared
Don't take the exam after a day of Put everything you might need on
work. Mornings and week-end are the desk you have your computer.
the best candidate. This includes:

You need to be fresh, relaxed and pen and paper

have a clear mind so that you can water, coffee and something
focus for 90 minutes. sweet
ensuring your laptop has enough
batter or that the power cord is
connected

Be focused
Don't let distractions get to you
during the exam. Any minute counts
and don't waste this.

Ensure that your environment is

quiet and if anybody is around you,
let them know that you cannot be
disturbed for 90 minutes.
Books
THERE IS NO BOOK TARGETED AT

THE PSM II EXAM. THESE ARE THE

CLOSEST TO HELPING YOU BETTER

UNDERSTAND SCRUM.

SCRUM - A POCKET GUIDE -

2ND EDITION

by Gunther Verheyen

forworded / verified by Ken

Schwaber

FIXING YOUR SCRUM

by Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller

SCRUM INSIGHTS FOR

PRACTITIONERS

by Hiren Doshi
UP
DA materials you are
Make sure that the

TE using are
according to the
Scrum Guide
v2020.

20
And NO, there is
no Scrum Guide
v2022!
HOW TO DEAL WITH
EXAM QUESTIONS
TIPS & TRICKS

1
DO NOT CONFUSE
MEETINGS AND
ARTIFACTS

2
LOOK FOR WORDS
LIKE CAN, MAY,
MUST, NOT, ...

3
USE A PROCESS
OF ELIMINATION

4
KEEP CALM AND
YOU WILL DO FINE
Do not confuse
meetings
and artifacts

Read the question and identify which meetings and

artifacts are mentioned.

It is very easy to confuse the Product Backlog and the

Sprint Backlog. The same goes for meetings like the
Sprint Retrospective and Sprint Review.

Sometimes the context in which they appear may

trick you into confusing the meeting.

For example:

DURING THE SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE THE SCRUM

TEAM AND THE STAKEHOLDERS WILL INSPECT THE
INCREMENT AND ...
 Loo k o u t!
FOR WORS
LIKE CAN, MAY, MUST, NOT ...

It is very important that you recognize such words

hidden in the question, so that you get get the meaning.

THE SCRUM MASTER MUST ATTEND THE DAILY SCRUM

VS

THE SCRUM MASTER MIGHT ATTEND THE DAILY SCRUM

 ELIMINATE

WRONG
ANSWERS
Some questions can be really confusing with many
very similar answers. When you have six, seven or
eight options and you need to select three correct
answers, this can get confusing.

What I recommend is to use a process of elimination

to figure out which options and clearly wrong and to
concentrate on the rest of them.

Overall this will give you a better chance to find the

correct answer.
stay
cool
IT IS SUPER IMPORTANT TO BE

RELAXED AND TO THINK ABOUT

WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT

SCRUM, NOT WHAT THINK
YOUR BE THE LOGICAL THING

TO DO IN A GIVEN SITUATION.

THE EXAM DOES NOT WANT

YOUR OPINION.

BE SUSPICIONS ABOUT TERMS

AND PHRASES THAT DON'T

APPEAR IN THE SCRUM GUIDE.