How to study the Scrum Guide: read the Scrum Guide 2020 at least five times, each time with a different goal; mark who is accountable, modal verbs, time-boxes and commitments; and turn each sentence into a question you can answer from memory. Professional Scrum Master (PSM) and Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) exams reward exact reading: PSM I and PSPO I have 80 questions in 60 minutes with an 85% pass mark.
This article explains the method step by step, lists the misreadings that cost candidates points, shows what the guide does not cover, and says when to add the Nexus Guide and the Evidence-Based Management (EBM) Guide. Last verified: October 2026.
Why studying the Scrum Guide matters for PSM and PSPO
The Scrum Guide is the official definition of Scrum, and Scrum.org assessments test Scrum "as described in the Scrum Guide" (Scrum.org, PSM I page). The current version is the November 2020 edition by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland (Scrum Guide 2020).
The exam format makes careful reading essential:
| Exam | Questions | Time | Pass mark | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSM I | 80 | 60 min | 85% | $200 |
| PSPO I | 80 | 60 min | 85% | $200 |
| PSM II | 30 | 90 min | 85% | $250 |
| PSPO II | 40 | 60 min | 85% | $250 |
| PSM III / PSPO III | 24 essays | 150 min | Pass / Did Not Pass | $500 |
Source: Scrum.org assessment pages, checked October 2026 (see Sources). At 80 questions you can miss at most 12. You have 45 seconds per question, so there is no time to look things up. The guide has to be in your head, word by word.
Many wrong options on these exams are almost right. They use a familiar Scrum word in the wrong place: "the Scrum Master runs the Daily Scrum", "the Product Owner approves the Sprint Backlog". Only a close reading tells you which word is wrong. For a full PSPO I timeline, see the 30-day PSPO I study plan; this article covers the reading method inside any plan.
How to study the Scrum Guide step by step
Studying the Scrum Guide works best as five passes over a short text, each with one goal, plus a short daily review. The guide is short enough that one pass takes 30 to 60 minutes.
Pass 1: Read for the whole picture
Read the guide once from start to end without notes. Aim to see how the parts connect: empiricism and the three pillars, the five values, the three accountabilities, the five events, and the three artifacts, each with one commitment (Product Goal, Sprint Goal, Definition of Done). Do not memorize yet.
Pass 2: Annotate with a fixed code
Print the guide or use a PDF reader, and mark four things with four colors or symbols:
- Who. Every sentence that names who is accountable or who decides. Example: only the Product Owner can cancel a Sprint.
- Modal verbs. "Must", "should", "can", "may", and "never". These words carry the rule. "Should avoid" is softer than "must not", and exam options often swap them.
- Numbers and time-boxes. One month or less for a Sprint, 15 minutes for the Daily Scrum, eight, four and three hours for Planning, Review and Retrospective in a one-month Sprint, typically 10 or fewer people on a Scrum Team.
- Purpose statements. The sentence that says why each event or artifact exists. Most scenario questions test purpose, not mechanics.
Several candidates in a 2025 r/scrum thread describe the same habit: they printed the guide, took personal notes and highlighted key vocabulary (r/scrum, 2025).
Pass 3: Turn sentences into questions
Self-questioning means rewriting a sentence of the guide as a question and answering it without looking. For each marked sentence, ask three questions:
- Who does this, and who does not?
- What happens if this is skipped or done by someone else?
- Which word would make this sentence false?
Example: "The Sprint Backlog is a plan by and for the Developers." Questions: Who can add work to it during the Sprint? (The Developers.) Does the Product Owner approve changes to it? (No.) Write 40 to 60 such questions on cards. They become your daily review.
Pass 4: Read after practice questions
Take a free Scrum Open or Product Owner Open assessment, then reread the guide with your wrong answers in mind. Find the exact sentence that settles each question. Stefan Wolpers, a Professional Scrum Trainer, advises reading the guide "in advance several times" and practicing Open Assessments until you score 100% in much less time than allowed (Wolpers, 2022). One r/scrum commenter read the guide daily for about a week and took the Scrum Open after each reading (r/scrum, 2025).
Pass 5: Explain it aloud
Close the guide and explain each event, artifact and accountability in two minutes, as if to a new team member. Where you hesitate, reread that section. This pass also prepares you for PSM II and PSPO II scenarios, where you must apply the text, not recite it.
Daily review
After the five passes, spend 10 minutes a day on your question cards and one section of the guide until exam day. Shorter, repeated reviews hold better than one long session.
Example: annotating one paragraph
Here is how the method looks on the Sprint Review section. The guide calls the Sprint Review "a working session" and says the team "should avoid limiting it to a presentation" (Scrum Guide 2020).
| Mark | What you note | Question card |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Scrum Team and key stakeholders | Is the Sprint Review only for the Product Owner and stakeholders? |
| Modal verb | "should avoid" | Is a slide presentation forbidden, or just not the goal? |
| Time-box | Max 4 hours for a one-month Sprint | What is the time-box for a two-week Sprint? (Usually shorter; the guide sets only the maximum.) |
| Purpose | Inspect the outcome and decide future adaptations | What can change as a result? (The Product Backlog.) |
Then link the section to the Increment section, which says the Sprint Review should never be considered a gate to releasing value. Two sections, one idea: the review is for inspection and adaptation, not for approval.
What practitioners say about reading the guide
Candidates who pass with high scores almost always describe repeated reading combined with practice questions. Many of these reports come from forums and study groups; see Scrum community exam preparation for where to find them.
- Repetition with a target. A PSM I candidate who scored 97.5% wrote on the Scrum.org forum that he read the guide "over and over" and then marked the sentences most likely to be tested. A later reply in the same thread, from a candidate with 95%, read it more than three times, alternating with practice tests (Scrum.org forum, 2017–2018).
- Highlighting against practice tests. Another PSM I candidate (90%) read the guide at least five times and highlighted the items that matched Open Assessment topics (Scrum.org forum, 2018). These posts predate the 2020 guide, so use the method, not the content.
- The real exam is harder. A PSPO I candidate who passed on the second attempt with 89% advised reading the guide two to three times and understanding every statement, because exam questions were much tougher than the Open Assessments (Scrum.org forum).
- Do not skim. Marta Małkowska of Droids On Roids warns, "Do not just read it a couple of times," and suggests reading a translation in your native language if English is not your first (Droids On Roids).
- Watch the version. A 2024 r/scrum candidate who scored 92% after about three weeks warned that some third-party tests are outdated (r/scrum, 2024). The guide is the check: if a practice answer contradicts the 2020 text, the guide wins.
Common misreadings of the Scrum Guide
The most common misreadings come from older versions of the guide, from workplace habits, and from reading "should" as "must". The 2020 edition changed several terms, as Johannes Geske's side-by-side comparison shows (Scrum.org, 2020).
| Misreading | What the 2020 guide says |
|---|---|
| Scrum has three roles | Scrum defines three accountabilities: Developers, Product Owner, Scrum Master. "Roles" was replaced. |
| There is a Development Team inside the Scrum Team | The 2020 guide removed the Development Team; the people who create the Increment are called Developers. |
| The Sprint Review is a demo where stakeholders accept work | It is a working session to inspect the outcome and adapt; it is never a gate to releasing value. Increments can be released before the Sprint ends. |
| The Product Owner or Scrum Master manages the Sprint Backlog | The Sprint Backlog is a plan by and for the Developers. They update it during the Sprint. |
| The Daily Scrum has three fixed questions | Developers can select whatever structure and techniques they want, as long as the event focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal. |
| The Scrum Master must facilitate every event | The Scrum Master ensures events take place and are positive, productive and within the time-box. That does not mean running each one. |
| The Product Owner can delegate accountability | The Product Owner may delegate work but remains accountable. |
| The team is self-organizing | The 2020 term is self-managing: the team decides who does what, when and how. |
For more traps of this kind, with practice questions, see Scrum Guide 2020 exam traps for PSM. For the commitment that defines "done", see Definition of Done vs Definition of Ready.
What the Scrum Guide does not cover
The Scrum Guide is "purposefully incomplete": it defines the framework and leaves practices to the team (Scrum Guide 2020). Knowing what is missing helps you reject wrong options fast.
The guide does not mention:
- user stories, story points or velocity;
- any named estimation technique (it only says Developers size items during refinement);
- Sprint Zero, hardening Sprints or release Sprints;
- Scrum of Scrums or other scaling structures;
- a required Product Vision, a Definition of Ready or a Scrum Master's attendance at the Daily Scrum.
Burn-downs appear only as one of "various practices" to forecast progress, next to burn-ups and cumulative flow. So an option such as "the Scrum Master must update the burn-down chart daily" is wrong. Exams still ask about related practice, though. Refinement is a good example: the guide describes it in a few sentences, while scenario questions go deeper. Our article on Product Backlog refinement covers what the guide leaves open.
PSPO candidates meet the same gap on product management topics. Value, stakeholders and product strategy appear in exam scenarios but get only short mentions in the guide. That is why official courses, Open Assessments and books are separate preparation methods: the guide is necessary, but not sufficient.
Adding the Nexus Guide and the EBM Guide for levels II and III
At levels II and III, study the Nexus Guide and the EBM Guide with the same method, because Scrum.org recommends their Open Assessments for these exams.
| Guide | Current version | What it adds | Exams where it helps most |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nexus Guide | January 2021 | Scaling for about 3 to 9 Scrum Teams on one product: one Product Backlog, one Product Owner, a Nexus Integration Team, a Nexus Sprint Review that replaces team reviews, an Integrated Increment | PSM II, PSM III; some PSM I questions |
| EBM Guide | 2024 edition, released 7 May 2024 | Measuring value and goals with evidence: Key Value Areas, goals at several levels, small experiments | PSPO II, PSPO III, PSM III |
Scrum.org lists the EBM Open among recommended preparation for PSPO II, and the Nexus and EBM Open Assessments for PSM III (see the exam pages in Sources). PSPO II candidates on the Scrum.org forum say strategy and portfolio questions surprised them and recommend the EBM Guide (Scrum.org forum); Rami Kaibni also lists the EBM Guide in his PSPO II learning path (projectmanagement.com, 2019). Even at PSM I, the 97.5% candidate above estimated that seven or eight questions touched on scaling that the Scrum Guide alone did not answer.
Read each guide with the same five passes. Mark how each one extends Scrum without changing it: for example, the Nexus Sprint is the same Sprint, and the Product Owner is still one person.
Which exam levels this method suits
Studying the Scrum Guide suits every PSM and PSPO level, but its share of your preparation shrinks as the level rises.
- PSM I and PSPO I. The guide is the core material. Most questions can be answered from a careful reading plus Open Assessments. Expect to spend half or more of your preparation on the five passes and question cards. Start at the PSM I exam page or the PSPO I exam page, and see the full plans for how to prepare for PSM I and how to prepare for PSPO I.
- PSM II and PSPO II. The guide is the base, but questions are scenarios with partial credit. Add the Nexus Guide (PSM II) or EBM Guide (PSPO II), suggested books and real team experience. Step-by-step plans: how to prepare for PSM II and how to prepare for PSPO II. See the PSM II exam guide and the PSPO II overview, or the PSM II exam page and PSPO II exam page.
- PSM III and PSPO III. These are essay exams. You still need the guide's exact terms, because precise wording is part of a strong answer, but the main work is essay practice and broad reading. See how to prepare for PSM III and how to prepare for PSPO III.
Practice Questions
These three questions test careful reading of the Scrum Guide 2020. They are original and not taken from any exam.
Question 1
Midway through a Sprint, the Developers find that one Product Backlog item needs more work than planned. The Sprint Goal is still reachable. Who can change the Sprint Backlog?
- A. The Product Owner, after approving the change
- B. The Developers
- C. The Scrum Master, as facilitator of the Sprint
- D. Nobody; the Sprint Backlog is fixed after Sprint Planning
Answer: B. The Sprint Backlog is a plan by and for the Developers, and they update it throughout the Sprint as they learn more. Scope may be clarified and renegotiated with the Product Owner, but the plan belongs to the Developers. D confuses the Sprint Backlog with the Sprint Goal, which does not change.
Question 2
A Product Owner says: "Nothing goes to production until stakeholders accept it at the Sprint Review." What does the Scrum Guide 2020 say?
- A. Correct; the Sprint Review is where the Increment is accepted for release
- B. Correct, if the Definition of Done requires stakeholder sign-off
- C. Incorrect; an Increment may be delivered before the Sprint ends, and the Sprint Review should never be a gate to releasing value
- D. Incorrect; only the Scrum Master can decide when to release
Answer: C. The Increment section says multiple Increments may be created within a Sprint and delivered to stakeholders before the end of the Sprint. It also says the Sprint Review should never be considered a gate to releasing value. A and B describe a demo gate, a common misreading.
Question 3
Which statement about the Daily Scrum matches the Scrum Guide 2020?
- A. Each Developer answers three standard questions
- B. The Scrum Master must facilitate it
- C. The Developers can choose any structure and techniques, as long as it focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal
- D. The Product Owner must attend to answer questions
Answer: C. The 2020 guide removed the three questions and says the Developers can select whatever structure and techniques they want. The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers. If the Product Owner or Scrum Master is actively working on Sprint Backlog items, they take part as Developers, not because the event requires them.
FAQ
How many times should I read the Scrum Guide before the PSM I exam?
Most candidates who report high scores read it at least three to five times, often more. The number matters less than the goal of each pass: overview, annotation, self-questioning, rereading after practice tests, and explaining it aloud. Keep reviewing until you can answer your own question cards without looking.
Is the Scrum Guide enough to pass PSM I or PSPO I?
The guide is the core material, but most candidates also use the free Open Assessments, and many take an official course. PSPO I scenarios on value and stakeholders go beyond the guide's text. Candidates on the Scrum.org forum report that the real exam is harder than the Open Assessments.
Which version of the Scrum Guide is tested?
The November 2020 Scrum Guide is the current official version as of October 2026. Questions use its terms: accountabilities, Developers, Product Goal and self-managing. Avoid study materials that still use "roles" or "Development Team".
Do I need the Nexus Guide for PSM I?
The Nexus Guide is not required, but some PSM I candidates report a few questions on multiple teams working on one product. Reading the Nexus Guide once costs little time. For PSM II and PSM III it is part of the recommended preparation.
When should I read the EBM Guide?
Read the Evidence-Based Management Guide before PSPO II, PSPO III and PSM III, where Scrum.org recommends the EBM Open Assessment. The current English edition was released in May 2024. Use the same annotation and self-questioning method as for the Scrum Guide.
Sources
- The Scrum Guide, November 2020 — Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
- Scrum Guide 2020 and 2017 side-by-side comparison — Johannes Geske, Scrum.org, 2020
- The Nexus Guide, January 2021 — Scrum.org
- Evidence-Based Management Guide, 2024 — Scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Master I — Scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Product Owner I — Scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Master II — Scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Product Owner II — Scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Master III — Scrum.org
- How to pass PSPO I, PSPO II and PSPO III — Stefan Wolpers, Scrum.org, 2022
- PSM I passed with 97.5% — Scrum.org forum
- Passed PSM I with 90% on the first try — Scrum.org forum
- PSPO I passed on the second attempt — Scrum.org forum
- PSPO II experience thread — Scrum.org forum
- I want to pass PSM 1 — r/scrum, 2025
- Passed the PSM 1 today — r/scrum, 2024
- How to get ready and pass the PSM I exam — Marta Małkowska, Droids On Roids
- Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO II) certification — Rami Kaibni, projectmanagement.com, 2019