SCRUM learnings | 10 Tips to rock your certifications

Are you managing a project in an Agile environment and would like to take your skills to the next level? Or are you looking for a way to give a new breath to your Project Management career? Whether you are already familiar with this framework, or just discovering it, there are multiple reasons why you should become SCRUM Certified (as a Product Owner or as a Scrum Master).

However, we know taking and passing a Scrum certification can seem overwhelming. Our Product Owners/Scrum Masters have been there before. Don’t panic, here are their tips and tricks to help you structure your approach and rock your certification!

Dig deep into the SCRUM framework

1. If you can, attend a Scrum Certification Course and review your notes. Such courses will give you more practical insights and concrete cases on how to implement Scrum in your work environment. It will also save you a lot of time on the following steps! What’s better than learning with Scrum practicioners everyday?

2. Read the Scrum Guide and make sure you understand every concept. This guide will be your main source of information, as the certification is mainly based on it. We know some ideas may not always seem logical with regards to your everyday work, but keep in mind that Scrum is a framework. Language-wise, the Scrum Guide is available in different languages. However, remember the assessment is only given in English. You may want to first read it in your mothertongue, but make sure to read it in English as well!

3. Read the Scrum Glossary and get familiar with key wordings.

4. Repeat step 2 and 3 until you are 100% comfortable with all concepts and terms. Remember the certification can contain questions about a very specific idea of the Scrum Guide, that didn’t look that important at first glance.

Learn technical terms

5. Complete your knowledge with additional readings on the following topics: Burn up and burn down charts, technical debt, Total Cost of Ownership, and Cone of Uncertainty. These are not detailed in the Scrum Guide, but will for sure be part of the certification exam. In addition, these are important tools and concept for your daily work in a Scrum Team.

Test your knowledge

6. If you have followed one of our certification courses, re-take the trial exam you’ve done with your trainer. Thanks to the preivous steps, it should already be easier!

7. Take the Scrum Open Assessment on Scrum.org until you reach 100% 5 times in a row. This quiz contains 30 certification-like questions that you have to answer in 30 minutes. This means you have more time than during the real certification. In the end, you should be able to correctly answer these 30 questions in 15 minutes. This may seem redundant, but it will allow you to answer these questions with little effort when you encounter them during the real certification. Keep in mind that this open assessment is easier than the real one. You can exercise on both the Scrum Open or the Product Owner Open ones, as the concepts are mostly the same.

8. Proceed the same way with M Lapshin Scrum Quizzes. This practice exam contains 80 questions close to the real ones, that you have to answer in 60 minutes. You can take the practice exam in two modes, the learning mode will give you an explanation after each question, while the real mode is closer to the real certification conditions. Here again, you can take both the Scrum Master and Product Owner practice exams. Only the case studies will slightly differ whether you’re in the Scrum Master or the Product Owner mode.

9. While going through steps 6 to 8, write down any difficult questions and make sure you understood why the correct answer is correct, and why the wrong ones are wrong. Refer to the Scrum Guide if needed.

Try to apply it at work!

10. In the meantime, it’s likely that you’ll be working with your usual team at the office. If not done yet, start implementing Scrum and reflect on how it changes the way you collaborate and deliver. As a result, this may raise some questions in your mind, and highlight some topics you need to dig further into.

Once the open assessments and the Scrum Guide have no more secrets for you, just do it! Purchase your token, find a comfortable, quiet place with a great internet connection and press start! Remember: you have 60 minutes to answer 80 questions. You’ll need 85% correct answers to succeed, which means you can only give 12 wrong answer. Make sure you bring a paper and a pen to mark down the questions you’d like to come back on later. Don’t spend too long on a question. If you followed our tips above, you’ll know some questions and their answers by heart. This will save you time at the end of the quiz to come back to the hardest questions and think about them further. Keep calm, and rock your certification!

If you are convinced that team work makes the dream work, and would like to get all this knowledge in a funny and playful way, we’d be more than happy to see you during our next SCRUM training session.

Written by Lise Wurmser-Ott