Wow, what a ride to taking this thing. I'm going to post in the other forum my thoughts on the use of SCRUM in software development, but for this post, I'm going to provide, like others have, some insight that may be useful in terms of studying for and passing the PSM1 Exam.
1. Ignore the advice on this forum to read other SCRUM books and manuals. For instance, like the Scrum Book of Knowledge that's over 300 pages. It's not necessary and can actually be a detriment because information in other books and manuals by third parties (parties other than Scrum.org/the Scrum Guide) can be wrong and just plain confusing. Besides, it's overkill anyway and thus a waste of time unless you have the time to spend on navigating all of that information and verifying it.
2. What did I use to study? a) The official Scrum Guide from Scrum.org. b) The Open Assessment Tests on Scrum.org: PSM Open Assessment, the Developer Open Assessment, the Product Owner Open Assessment, and the Nexus Open Assessment. c) The practice tests on http://mlapshin.com. d) The Nexus Guide from Scrum.org. e) My own practical experience using Scrum for software development and knowledge of it otherwise.
3. I read the Scrum Guide 3 times. I read the Nexus Guide once.
4. I took all of the Open Assessments mentioned several times until I was consistently scoring 100%. On the Nexus, there was a few times where I might get one question wrong and just didn't bother taking that test too many times. I probably took the Scrum Open Assessment at least 10 times: this was my main focus. A few new questions will randomly appear different times you take the test so doing the test several times helps you memorize and get exposed to the other questions.
5. From the Scrum Guide, I created 140 questions using Flashcard software for Mac called Flashcard Hero. By creating these questions, it caused me to think more deeply about what I was reading. I then went through the Flash Cards once to memorize them as best as I could.
I have several years experience practicing as a software development leader and thought I was practicing Scrum. After getting certified, I now realize that I wasn't completely practicing Scrum. Anyway, if a person has no experience in software development I could see this certification being that much harder because of how abstract the concepts really are.
For me, I spent 3 days solid all day studying and cramming for this. That 3 days prepared me for today, and I passed with 94%. I can see there's no end of people offering training and even big Universities offering courses for around $1200. If you feel shaky with the concepts and with software development perhaps one of these courses will help. However, for me, it would be a waste of money and time. The Scrum Guide and the Internet is all I needed. But again, I have practical experience applying Scrum in software development.
I'm probably going to put up a site with 150 questions as a practice test for PSM 1 in the near future.
I can say that a few of the questions on the exam were a bit tricky, and it's associated with multiple Scrum Teams and a few other things. I found that that wasn't really clear and completely covered in the Scrum Guide, so ensure you do get some exposure to Nexus and also to the Product Owner Open Assessments.
But again, do not focus too much on this other stuff. Spend most of your time just working with the Scrum Guide. I've read through many threads on this forum and it's enough to make my head spin. Some of you are really overdoing it and I can only imagine what it would be like to work with you on software development projects. There's a law of diminishing returns folks...
On that note, just keep it simple, focus on the Scrum Guide, study it hard, take the Open Assessments and the practice tests at http://mlapshin.com and you should be just fine. Any questions please let me know.