Quick Answer: how to pass PSM I in two weeks
Give it ten weekdays: eight study hours of about an hour each and two longer sessions of two to three hours. Scrum.org's Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) tests whether you understand the Scrum framework as the 2020 Scrum Guide describes it, word for word, not how your last company ran sprints.
That is the plan. Days 1 to 5 cover the guide in pieces: the framework, the theory and values, the Scrum Team, then the events. Days 6 to 10 are a full second read, the artifacts, a third pass by ear, exam tactics, and a readiness check on the Scrum Open that tells you whether to sit or move the date.
Two rules make it work. The Scrum Guide is the textbook, and every video is there to make one part of it stick, never to replace it. And you are a Scrum Master this week, not only a student, so you run your team's real Sprint Planning and Retrospective using Scrum.org's own facilitation videos. Doing the events is the fastest way to remember their rules.
What the exam actually tests
Per Scrum.org's PSM I page, read October 2026, the exam is 80 questions in 60 minutes: multiple choice, multiple answer and true or false. The pass mark is 85%, which means 68 correct and only 12 misses. Each attempt costs $200 USD, the certification is lifetime, and no course is required.
The source text is the 2020 Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, free at scrumguides.org. By LearnPath's own count of the web version, October 2026, it is under 4,000 words. That is short enough to read three times in two weeks, and you will. Here is how its sections map to this plan:
| Scrum Guide section | What it covers | Days in this plan |
|---|---|---|
| Scrum Theory | Empiricism: transparency, inspection, adaptation | Day 2 |
| Scrum Values | Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, Courage | Day 2 |
| Scrum Team | One Scrum Master, one Product Owner, Developers | Day 3 |
| Scrum Events | The Sprint, Planning, Daily Scrum, Review, Retrospective | Days 4-5 |
| Scrum Artifacts | Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Increment and their commitments | Day 7 |
| End Note | Scrum is immutable; parts of it are not Scrum | Day 8 |
Three facts from the guide come up again and again in practice questions. A Scrum Team has no sub-teams or hierarchies and is typically 10 or fewer people. A Sprint is a fixed length of one month or less, and the next one starts immediately after the last. And the timeboxes for a one-month Sprint are Sprint Planning at most 8 hours, Daily Scrum 15 minutes, Sprint Review at most 4 hours and Sprint Retrospective at most 3 hours, usually shorter for shorter Sprints.
Should you take PSM I or CSM?
If your employer has not chosen for you, PSM I is the faster route for someone studying alone: no course is required and the attempt is a one-off cost. Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) from Scrum Alliance requires a course first and renews every two years. Both test the same framework.
Here is the honest comparison, using only what each body publishes, read October 2026 (Scrum.org's PSM I page and Scrum Alliance's CSM page):
| PSM I (Scrum.org) | CSM (Scrum Alliance) | |
|---|---|---|
| Course required first | No, recommended only | Yes, 16 hours of training |
| Questions | 80 | 50 multiple choice |
| Pass mark | 85% (68 of 80) | 37 of 50 |
| Time | 60 minutes | One hour |
| Attempts | One per $200 USD password | Two included with the course, within 90 days |
| Renewal | Lifetime, no renewal | Every two years, with Scrum Education Units |
If your company already pays for a CSM course, take it; this plan still works as revision.
One more thing worth knowing: Scrum Alliance's own CSM page says certification is not required to get a job as a scrum master. You already have the job; the certificate is for your manager or your next role. For a wider look at when a credential pays off, read our take on whether certificates are worth it for self-taught developers.
Before Day 1: three things to set up
Before your first study hour, open the Scrum Guide, take the Scrum Open once cold, and start a question log. Then block eight one-hour slots and two longer slots in your calendar, ideally next to your team's real Sprint Planning and Retrospective. A plan that lives only in your head loses to the first busy week.
The Scrum Guide. Open the 2020 Scrum Guide and keep it in a tab all fortnight. When a video and the guide disagree, the guide wins.
The Scrum Open, once, cold. Take Scrum.org's Scrum Open before you study anything. Scrum.org describes it as a free tool for validating your basic knowledge of the Scrum framework. Your first score does not matter; it shows you how the questions are worded.
A question log. One page, three columns: the question you got wrong, the guide section, and the exact guide sentence that settles it. Week 2 runs on this page.
Week 1: the framework, the team and the events
Week 1 is five weekdays of content: the whole framework on Day 1, theory and values on Day 2, the Scrum Team on Day 3, and the events across Days 4 and 5. Each day pairs one short video with one part of the Scrum Guide, and Days 4 and 5 line up with running your team's real events.
Day 1: the whole framework in one sitting
Watch Codex Community's Scrum in 20 mins... (with examples) (Codex Community, 20 min). It is enough because today's job is the shape of the whole thing: who is on a Scrum Team, which events happen in a Sprint, and which artifacts come out. Twenty minutes with examples gives you that map.
Your hour today: read the Scrum Guide end to end, once, without notes. It is under 4,000 words, so it fits in the rest of the hour. Notice which parts differ from how your team works now.
Day 2: empiricism and the five values
Watch Scrum.org's Part 6 An Introductory Video Series to Scrum: Empiricism (Scrum.org, 5 min). It is enough because the theory section of the guide rests on three words, transparency, inspection and adaptation, and five minutes from the exam body itself explains why every event exists to serve them.
Your hour today: reread the Scrum Theory and Scrum Values sections slowly. Write the three pillars and the five values, Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect and Courage, from memory. Then write one line per event on what it inspects and adapts.
Day 3: the Scrum Team and its three accountabilities
Watch Mountain Goat Software's The 3 Scrum Roles And Their Responsibilities (Mountain Goat Software, 5 min), then ScrumMastered's What do Scrum Masters do all day? (ScrumMastered, 10 min). Together they are enough: one sorts who owns what, the other shows what your own week should look like.
Your hour today: note the vocabulary first. The first video says "roles", but the 2020 guide calls them accountabilities: Developers, Product Owner and Scrum Master. The exam uses the guide's words. Reread the Scrum Team section and write who is accountable for the Product Backlog, who owns the Sprint Backlog, and who makes sure events happen. The guide calls Scrum Masters "true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization". Underline that line.
Day 4: Sprint Planning, studied and then run
Watch Scrum.org's Part 14 An Introductory Video Series to Scrum: Sprint Planning (Scrum.org, 7 min), then How to Facilitate Sprint Planning (Scrum.org, 7 min). Together they are enough because one covers what the guide says Planning must produce and the other covers how to run the room.
Your hour today: reread the sections on the Sprint and Sprint Planning. Write the three topics Planning addresses and the timebox for a one-month Sprint, at most 8 hours. The job side: if your team's Sprint Planning falls this week, run it with the facilitation video's approach and leave with a Sprint Goal. If it does not, plan how you will run the next one.
Day 5: Daily Scrum, Review and Retrospective
Watch Scrum.org's How to Facilitate the Sprint Review (Scrum.org, 6 min) and How to Facilitate the Sprint Retrospective (Scrum.org, 8 min). Then Ryan Ripley's YDS: How Should a Scrum Master Facilitate Their First Retrospective? (Ryan Ripley, 7 min). They are enough because Review and Retrospective are the events most people mix up.
Your hour today: reread the Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective sections. Write the timeboxes, 15 minutes, at most 4 hours and at most 3 hours, and who each event is for. The Daily Scrum is for the Developers. The job side: if your team's Retrospective is this week, use Ryan Ripley's advice and keep it inside its timebox.
Week 2: a second read, then questions until you are ready
Week 2 switches from learning to checking. Day 6 is a long second pass through the whole guide, Day 7 covers the artifacts, Day 8 is a third pass by ear plus question-log review, Day 9 is exam tactics, and Day 10 is the long readiness check. Days 6 and 10 are the two longer sessions.
Day 6: the guide line by line (long session)
Watch David McLachlan's The Scrum Guide: FULL COURSE (David McLachlan, 48 min) with the Scrum Guide open beside it. It is enough because it walks through the guide itself rather than someone's version of Scrum, so it counts as your second full read with commentary.
Your session today: pause every time he reads a sentence you would have got wrong on the cold Scrum Open, and add it to your log. Then retake the Scrum Open. Sort each miss by guide section.
Day 7: the artifacts and their commitments
Watch Scrum.org's Facilitating Product Backlog Refinement (Scrum.org, 5 min). It is enough because refinement is the ongoing work that keeps the Product Backlog usable, and the rest of today is close reading of a short section.
Your hour today: reread Scrum Artifacts and write the three pairs from memory: Product Backlog and the Product Goal, Sprint Backlog and the Sprint Goal, Increment and the Definition of Done. For each, write who is accountable for it and when it changes. The job side: if your team has no written Definition of Done, now you know why it matters. Put it on the next Retrospective agenda.
Day 8: a third pass by ear, then the log
Listen to Agile Games With James's The Scrum Guide - Audio Version - 2020 (Agile Games With James, 28 min) on a commute or a walk. It is enough because by now you know the content, and hearing the exact wording catches words you skimmed, like "typically", "a maximum of" and "immutable".
Your hour today: go through your question log and, for every miss, find the guide sentence that settles it. Read the End Note twice: the framework is immutable, and implementing only parts of Scrum is possible but the result is not Scrum. For how to make these notes stick past exam day, our guide on how to remember what you learn from YouTube has the method.
Day 9: exam tactics and the clock
Watch Alvin the PM's How to Pass PSM 1 Certification - PSM 1 Exam Prep (Alvin the PM, 11 min). It is enough because today is about how the test feels, not new content, and eleven minutes on how to approach the exam is all the tactics you need.
Your hour today: do the clock maths. Per Scrum.org's PSM I page, read October 2026, you get 60 minutes for 80 questions, about 45 seconds each. Take the Scrum Open again, timed, and practise flagging hard questions rather than stalling on them.
Day 10: readiness check and the decision (long session)
Take the Scrum Open several times in a row, timed, and explain each wrong answer with a guide sentence. You are ready when your scores are consistently high, well above the 85% pass mark, and your misses are scattered rather than stacked in one section. If one section still dominates, move the date rather than guess.
Your session today: remember what is at stake. Per Scrum.org, read October 2026, the password has no expiration date but covers one attempt only, so there is no penalty for waiting a week and a real cost for failing. If you are not ready, reread the weak section and run this day again on Monday.
What to skip in these two weeks
Skip anything that teaches answers instead of the guide: dump videos, long full courses watched end to end, material written for the older guide, and the next certification up. Each takes time this fortnight does not have, and some of it teaches the wrong thing for an exam that follows the 2020 Scrum Guide closely.
"Real exam questions" videos. Videos and sites that claim to show the real exam questions are a bad idea. You memorise answers you cannot check. The Scrum Open plus the guide is the honest test of whether you know it.
Three to five hour full courses, end to end. Long Scrum courses are fine as a reference, but watching one start to finish costs more time than this whole plan's Week 1. The guide is under 4,000 words. Read it instead.
Pre-2020 material. Older videos may say "roles" and use other terms the 2020 guide dropped. When the wording differs, trust the guide.
PSM II and PSM III. Certification ladders are for later.
Paid courses, unless your employer pays. Scrum.org sells a PSM class that includes a free attempt at the test, and some YouTube creators sell their own courses or coaching. Treat all of it as an optional paid extra. This plan uses only free YouTube videos.
Jira, for now. Kevin Stratvert's Jira Tutorial for Beginners - Learn Jira in 20 Minutes (Kevin Stratvert, 20 min) helps if your team tracks its Sprint in Jira. It is not on the exam, so watch it at the weekend.
What the exam and the extras cost
The exam itself is $200 USD per attempt, per Scrum.org's PSM I page, read October 2026. The certification is lifetime, so there is no renewal fee later. Every study resource in this plan costs nothing: the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Open and every YouTube video named above.
The only optional spend is a paid class. Scrum.org's classes include a free attempt at the certification test, per its certifications page, read October 2026. Worth it if your company pays; not needed for this plan.
The real cost to watch is a second attempt. Each password covers one attempt only, so a failed try on a password you bought yourself means paying again. That is why Day 10 is a decision, not a formality. Before you pay for anything, ask your manager whether the company covers the fee. Ask on Day 1, not Day 9.
Proof at the end: the pass, plus the certificate
The proof that this fortnight worked is the pass itself. Per Scrum.org, read October 2026, PSM I is a lifetime certification, and passing the assessment is the only thing that makes you a Professional Scrum Master I. Nothing else in this plan, including any certificate from a learning platform, replaces it.
Bring your manager the events you ran this fortnight. A Sprint Planning that ended with a Sprint Goal and a Retrospective that ended with one agreed improvement show you can do the job, not only pass the test.
LearnPath builds a path of free YouTube videos for a topic and generates a quiz from each video's transcript, so you find out whether a lesson stuck before the exam does. Free opens step 1 of up to two paths; every later step is Pro. The completion certificate is Pro-only, so free accounts do not get one, and it is not a Scrum.org certification. Only passing PSM I earns that. If you are on another exam deadline too, the same shape works in our two-week AWS Cloud Practitioner plan.
Build a work-ready Scrum path before your next sprint.
Frequently Asked Questions
Six questions that come up when someone new to the Scrum Master job is booked on PSM I with two weeks to go and a team to run in the meantime. Each short answer points back to the part of the plan that covers it, so you can jump there mid-study.
Can I pass PSM I in two weeks while working full time?
Many people try, and two weeks is workable if you study every weekday. The source text, the 2020 Scrum Guide, is under 4,000 words, so the content is small. The hard part is precise reading under time pressure. Nobody can promise a pass, so use Day 10 to decide honestly.
Do I need to take a course before the PSM I exam?
No. Scrum.org says, read October 2026, that you are not required to attend an official training course before attempting PSM I, though it recommends one. Its classes include a free attempt at the test. This plan uses only the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Open and YouTube videos that cost nothing.
What score do you need to pass PSM I?
Per Scrum.org's PSM I page, read October 2026, the pass mark is 85%. The exam has 80 questions in 60 minutes, so you need 68 correct answers, and you can miss only 12. That leaves about 45 seconds per question, which is why reading the guide closely matters more than speed.
How much does PSM I cost and does it expire?
Scrum.org's PSM I page, read October 2026, lists $200 USD per attempt. The password has no expiration date but is good for one attempt only. The certification is lifetime, and Scrum.org says its certificates need no additional payments or renewals. A failed attempt on a password you bought yourself means buying another one.
Is the Scrum Open enough practice for PSM I?
It is the honest check, not the whole preparation. Scrum.org describes the Scrum Open as a free tool for validating your basic knowledge of the Scrum framework. Pair it with close reading of the Scrum Guide, and log every miss with the guide sentence that settles it. Skip sites selling 'real exam questions'.
Does LearnPath give a certificate for a Scrum Master learning path?
Yes, on the Pro plan; free accounts do not get one. It shows you finished a LearnPath path, and it is not a Scrum.org certification. Only passing the PSM I assessment earns the Scrum.org credential. Free opens step 1 of up to two paths, and every later step is Pro.
