Failed Scrum.org PSM I? Here's Your Recovery Plan

Pro tip: Your failed attempt leaves you with a percentage score for each focus area, and that is the only diagnostic you will get, since Scrum.org does not disclose which specific questions were answered correctly or incorrectly. Passwords have no expiration date, so buying a retake password early costs nothing in shelf life. Beginning a session consumes the password whether or not you finish, so do not open the assessment to look at it. There is no failed-attempt record on the public certification list; Scrum.org lists certification holders only.

• Studying an old version of the Scrum Guide
  The 2020 edition removed the three questions from the Daily Scrum, replaced roles with accountabilities, dropped the Development Team as a separate entity, and added the Product Goal. Anything written before 18 November 2020, including much of the free material still circulating, will teach you answers the test marks wrong.
• Treating 85 percent as if it were a normal 70 percent pass mark
  You may miss 12 of 80 questions and no more. At 70 percent you would have 24 to spare. Plan your revision around eliminating whole categories of error rather than accepting a few losses, because there is almost no margin.
• Scoring 100 percent on the Scrum Open and buying the password the same day
  Scrum.org says in writing that the Open assessments are study tools and will not have the same level of difficulty as the professional-level assessments. Use the Open as a gate you must clear, not as evidence you are ready.
• Answering from how your company runs Scrum
  The test scores the Scrum Guide, not your organisation. If your team has a Scrum Master who assigns tasks, a Product Owner who is a committee, or a Sprint that ends with a hardening week, those habits will actively cost you marks.
• Confusing artifacts with their commitments
  Three artifacts, three commitments, one each: Product Backlog to Product Goal, Sprint Backlog to Sprint Goal, Increment to Definition of Done. Questions often name one and ask for the other, and this pairing is the most reliably testable structure in the whole guide.
• Guessing at timeboxes
  For a one-month Sprint the maxima are 8 hours for Sprint Planning, 15 minutes for the Daily Scrum, 4 hours for the Sprint Review and 3 hours for the Sprint Retrospective, and the Sprint itself is one month or less. These are free marks and there are usually several of them.
• Reading multiple-answer questions as single-answer questions
  Scrum.org lists multiple answer as one of the three item types. Check how many options a question expects before you move on. In a 60-minute test where 68 correct answers are required, a misread instruction is the cheapest way to lose a mark you knew.
• Running out of time on the last 20 questions
  Eighty questions in 60 minutes is 45 seconds each. Candidates who read every scenario twice arrive at question 60 with 8 minutes left. Flag anything that takes more than 60 seconds, move on, and come back.
• Assuming a failure gives you feedback on specific questions
  Scrum.org does not release which questions you answered correctly or incorrectly. You get a score and a percentage per focus area, and nothing more. Plan your retake study from the focus area breakdown, because that is all the information you will ever get.
• Expecting a discounted retake without having taken a class
  Scrum.org grants free retakes only to participants of official instructor-led classes who take and fail the assessment within the stated window, and states that this does not apply to self-paced training. If you self-studied, a second attempt costs another 200 dollars.

• Online exam, take anytime
• 80 questions in 60 minutes
• Scrum Guide is the only official source
• Free Open Assessments on Scrum.org
• 85% passing score required
• No training required unlike CSM