AMA. Within 4 wks I unintentionally passed all PSM-II, PSM-I, PSPO-II, PSPO-I core scrum.org certs.

Well I just got my PSPO-II and last of the 4 certs (PSM-I, PSM-II, PSPO-I,PSPO-II). It was freaking hard to pass as a first attempt for PSPO-II. I have been practitioner of scrum and other agile frameworks for over 10 years, but scrum is my fave and especially scrum.org. Its certification standards is way beyond scrum alliance or SAFe or....certification industry favourite: mixed martial arts combo agile certification like PMI-ACP, PRINCE2 Agile, AgilePM that throws the kitchen sink at agile with all the frameworks and all the roles (scrum master, product owner, devs) into one magical cert (These certs are IMHO perhaps master of none, 1 mile wide, 1 inch deep).

I originally planned on just obtaining PSM-I, but after I passed, I reviewed what people on LinkedIn had in scrum.org certs and I got badge envy and badge collector urge. With 10 years experience in Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, LeSS, SaFe under my belt, I just kept studying scrum materials, books and videos. It wasn't intentional to get all 4 certs, I just told myself to get another one to test and validate my knowledge and 10 years work experience as SM, PO, PM. I was also tired of less qualified colleagues with certification I didn't have, telling me wrong things about agile. So that was extra motivation to keep studying and getting more scrum.org certs. So like a drug addict, I studied hard and I had a supportive wife that thought I was insane but it was better obsession than cars or drugs or alcohol. I just studied after work, 3-4 hours each day, books, videos, scrum.org articles and consumed the materials. I passed PSPO-I to make my scrum knowledge more even with PSM-I. Then badge envy came along in a few days and I ended up studying for PSM-II (VERY hard exam, all situational questions). After passing PSM-II I was elated and thought that's the end of scrum.org certs (I don't plan to be an Agile coach yet). Then at work, a clueless product owner with CSPO was giving out wrong commands yet again, like interfering with sprint backlog, sprint goal etc, non-adherence to scrum guide 2020. He uttered that my PSPO-I wasn't superior to his, which made me jump to my browser and buy the PSPO-II exam voucher without thinking. I end up regretting this purchase immediately as I knew I had to study EBM guide hard and memorise it and apply it to situational questions, also re-read everything in PSM-II study materials and add-on a whole bunch of PO materials.

I finally took the PSPO-II exam and at question Q8-10, I regretted taking the exam, the questions got way harder - I really thought it was the hardest exam in scrum.org so far, harder than PSM-II. It had same applied knowledge difficulty level of PSM-II, but with way more business ambiguity questions. The questions got easier around Q30-40. I finished all 40 questions in 40 minutes and for the first Time in scrum.org exam journey, I went back and reviewed my answers (I actually never did this in previous exams as I was confident, even PSM-II and I submitted all exams way ahead of exam time box). I reviewed maybe 35 odd questions and even changed a few answers I wasn't sure...I really thought I had failed. Then 1 hour came up and I saw congratulations...I'm so happy and surprised as I was low confidence in the exam, doubting all my answers.

I'm glad I have 10 years of scrum work experience knowledge to pass. I know colleagues and people online that highlight how hard the scrum.org exams are. It's not easy. ask me anything.