How to pass the Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) assessment from Scrum.org

Taisiia Berg
Berg Digital CH
Published in
3 min readJul 20, 2020
Taisiia Berg is certified Professional Scrum Product Owner I by Scrum.org

The Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) assessment is a 60 minute time boxed assessment where you answer 80 questions (in English) of multiple choice type, very similar in style to the Scrum Open assessment. It is super important, some of them you will meet at the exam. Just make the all for Scrum Master, Product Owner until you get 100% with every try (from 3 to 5 times).

At first, you need to register and pay $200. Then you receive one attempt and decide when and where to take it. The plus is no expiration date.There is no a necessity to go to assessment centre and you just take it from your home. All you need is a good internet connection.

I was too bumptious, thinking that it is easy to pass it. The first try costed me $200 and was a pretty expensive and disappointing attempt, I answered all questions but got only 80% and did not pass. But honestly I was not really good prepared, I’ve read a lot but not deeply.

Actually I don’t think that I’m too rich to participate in a full preparation course and decided to learn much more independently. But of course you can attend a Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner course.

To avoid my first mistake, I would like to give you some advices, how to prepare to pass Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) by yourself.

No excuses, read the Scrum Guide pay attention to every detail. You have clear to differ what and who must/have/may do. Clear understand the difference between accountable and responsible in the wording of questions. There is a lot such questions with tricky wording.

Read the Scrum glossary for main definitions of key terms Actually you can make cards with definitions and learn them in Quizlet for example.

Don’t forget to read posts from others on the Scrum.org forums, to find out possible questions and available simulators. Keep in mind, the wording of questions is changing but the gist is the same.

I found a very helpful a book The Professional Product Owner by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham. Some questions were from it, of course with another wording.

Take all possible, available and free assessments in internet for Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I). Believe me, the free simulators are not so many there.

Contact me if you still have questions.

When you are ready to pass, use link in the email you will have received from Scrum.org

Check your internet connection, ask your family do not distract you and leave you alone for next 60 mins.

To be concentrated is a key for understanding questions with tricky wording.

Open the Scrum guide and the Scrum glossary, use it to look up what you need. But honestly you will NOT have time for that, thus it is better to keep deep understanding in your mind.

Prepare the pen and paper to make notes with numbers of questions where you are not sure. Try to spend a one minute for two questions, it sounds impossible but for that you have to be prepared before. 60 mins for 80 questions.

Yes, somewhere it will be an educated guess, but somewhere you will be 100% sure.

If you leave yourself 10 min in reserve, you may come back and double check a few tricky answers.

Also you may google some questions, but believe me, you just waste time because to find something worth you will need much more time (3–5 mins per 1 questions — too much!) then the educated guess.

If you fail this attempt, after a really good preparation you may try again.

The nuance is if you attend a Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner course, and fail the PSPO I assessment within 14 days of completing the course, then Scrum.org provides you with a 2nd free attempt.

I hope this information will help you to pass. Let me know how you get on via the comments below and good luck!

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Taisiia Berg
Berg Digital CH

Certified Scrum Product Owner, Agile Project Manager. Investment Foundations by CFA