PSM-III Exam and Certificate

Over the last I’ve been discussing the Scrum Master exams from Scrum.org. Today I’m going to look at the PSM-III, it’s the hardest and last of the scrum master exams. In their own words

PSM III certificate holders prove that they have a deep understanding of the application of Scrum, Scrum practices, the Scrum Values, and have the ability to apply Scrum in a variety of complex team and organizational situations.   

Scrum.org

According to Scrum.org’s own statistics at the time of writing less than 1000 people have passed this exam. That’s around 7% of the people who’ve taken the PSM-II and a staggering 0.2% of the people who have taken the PSM-I. In other words, PSM-III certificate holders are few and far between.

So what does the exam entail? As with all other scrum.org exams anyone can take them at any time, there’s no requirement to go on a particular course or buy certain books. The cost for this exam is $500, it’s expensive because real scrum experts mark it. The marks for earlier exams in the series are calculated automatically but the PSM-III asks the candidate to write answers to questions which are then marked. This obviously adds cost.

The exam itself is 30 questions and you have 2 hours 30 to finish it. The questions are a split of multiple choice and essay type answers. As with the PSM-II questions are much more focused around what you would do in a particular situation rather than asking you to give answers directly from the Scrum and Nexus guides. The pass mark is 85%.

Time is your big enemy in this exam (you know, other than the difficulty of the questions). You need to work quickly and make sure you’re covering all the points in each question. Particulary in the essay questions there are multiple points to address and you have to think and write quickly to ensure that you have enough time to finish the paper.

You should work quickly, not focusing too much on spelling and grammar but making sure you’re answering the entire question and what you have written is clear. You don’t lose points for typos but you will miss them if you get to the end of the time and haven’t answered all the questions. Work your way through the question and make sure you’re answering everything which is asked. In the multiple choice questions remember that more than one of them may be correct.

Not all questions are the same length so it’s not as easy as limiting yourself to 5 minutes per question. Some of the multiple choice questions may take ten seconds and the longer essays some significant time. Having said that, keep an eye on the clock and pick up the pace if you’re running behind.

When I clicked Submit at the end of the paper (with around 2 minutes to spare) I felt absolutely exhausted. But then the next trial begins. As I mentioned above the test is marked by scrum.org’s own experts so you won’t get your answer right away. You will get an email confirming they’ve got your answers but then you will have to wait, three weeks in my case and let me tell you it’s a very very long wait. At one point I even began to wonder whether the wait was part of the test and they’d see how I’d escalate or communicate with a third party supplier!

You don’t get the same category breakdown you do with the PSM-I and PSM-II but you do get a very helpful email with feedback, some questions to think through to further your learning, and hopefully some good news.

I found the entire process and exhausting and very rewarding experience and was delighted when my certificate came though.

What are your experiences of the PSM-III exam? What advice would you give to other people looking at taking it? Please drop me a comment below and let me know!