Preparing for the ASQ CQE exam

Hi everyone! I am Kimi, I am a quality engineer working in a medical manufacturing company. I am preparing for the US ASQ CQE exam. If you are also preparing for the CQE exam, you are welcome to join the study group I created on Google Group.
https://groups.google.com/d/forum/certified-quality-engineer-cqe-study-group
Or if you are already a CQE, please share your experience.
Thank you!
Kimi
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Hi Kimi,
I took my CQE exam in 2014 , its really a good career enhancing certification and by applying the BOK learning through the certification in your day -to day jobs helps you to be a successful QE. If you were to ask me how did I go about preparation, I used 1. The Certified Quality Engineer Handbook , 2. The CQE Primer- Quality Council of Indiana and then in the last month I used the 3. ASQ- CQE question bank to test my skill to identify the areas of improvement. Good Luck with you exam, please let me know if you need any help regarding the preparation and BOK topics, I will try my best to help you out. All the best.

 

I also took the CQE exam in 2014. I found that my 10+ years experience as a Quality Engineer combined with the quick reference ability using the Quality Council of Indiana (QCI) book was what worked (for this and other exams). A similar approach has also worked for a number of my coworkers as well.

The CQE has such a broad Body of Knowledge (BOK) that I'd think the ability to learn it all from scratch would be a near insurmountable task - but if you're already proficient with most of it, I could see successfully learning enough of any deficiencies to be successful.

Years before, I took a prep course but it was so poor that I (and many others) ended up so discouraged that none of us took it at the time and it took me 5 years to actually get arround to taking the exam. A number of my friends/collegues have also found these courses generally useless (across multiple instructors and offerings).

Things that I did find help are:
- having some friends take it with you (the positive peer pressure helps)
- having a study group to bounce questions off of
- the QCI books - they are written to pass ASQ exams and have an essential index to allow you to get quickly to the information you need, at a level of detail that is useful but not overwhelming
- get a good assessment of yourself and the test to focus your preparation: ASQ has a half length exam of old questions on their webpage. It is much better than other sources for gaging your abilities (ASQ writes much better questions on their tests than are in the QCI material).

Best of luck,

David

 

I'm an ASQ CQE. My experience is that you need at least 3 months of time to study prior to the exam. I took the prep course offered through the ASQ and I actually thought it was really good. I used the ASQ CQE handbook, the binder I got with the prep course, and as many prep tests as I could take. There are alot of questions that I felt were trick questions so be aware-you need to really watch the wording and such. Bring a snack with you-like a protein bar and some water. Use the entire 5 hours. It's hard. I felt like my brain was numb for weeks after that. Maybe years. I need to re-certify by taking the exam again this coming Dec and I'm already dreading it.

 

Any reason in particular you're recertifying by exam rather than by submitting the necessary amount of recertification points? Mine is coming due in December also and I've been planning on just submitting my work history, training, etc to meet the requirements (along with a check).

David

 

I have been a CQE, CQM, CQA and other Professional certifications for 15+ years. I used to also be heavily involved in managing and writing another popular professional societies certification program. My personal opinion on the ASQ exams is you do not need much more than the QCI primer along with the following advice.

1. prep for it several months in advance on a regular basis instead of cramming. This is probably the most important point.
   
2. Practice the sample questions with the primer. There is not much originality to the questions on the exam. nor are they very different. At least that is what I remember.
   
3. Don't bring a stack of books to the exam. Just 1-2 will suffice. Having many books with you will just be distraction.
4. Have a time management strategy. Divide the test time minutes by the number of questions. Lower the minutes per question by 20%. Don't spend more than that on any one question the first pass through. You want to try each question at least once. Then go back and review the ones you could not answer. Bring a watch to help do time checks. Don't use it like a stop watch n every question, just use it to keep an eye on your pace.
   
5. Always give an answer since there is no penalty for being wrong. Even if you blind guess
6. Go with your first answer. Don't spend too much time changing answer. Odds are your first answer was the right answer.
7. IF you must guess, try to rule out the obviously wrong answer then select from the rest. There are always 1-2 in a question. For example, for most math questions on these exams you do not even have to do the math to give yourself a good chance of guessing the answer.

Remember, passing long multiple choice exams is a bit of game.

Cert programs are good and i believe in them, but keep in mind that professional certifications are VERY much about generating revenue for the professional society sponsoring it. Tremendous revenue is generated by selling classes, books, CD's, Etc. This is why I say all you really need is the Primer for exam purposes. For along time ASQ did not sell their own study materials because they did not want to have the appearhence of a conflict of interest.

 

Hi QMSmaster,
I;ve passed IRCA certified QMS ISO 9001:2015 LA course in April'17 and I'd like to apply for IRCA Certification Scheme. Other option is to go for CQA examination.
Which one I should opt for ?

 

Hi everyone,
Anyone is planning to take the preparation and CQE exam any time soon? I'm living in Northern Colorado and wonder if anyone thinking or planning to take the exam or preparation course.
Also, I'm thinking to take the online preparation course, any idea or suggestion regarding the effectiveness of online study for this exam?

Thanks in advance for your valuable suggestion or idea

Shoaib.

 

Hi Shoaib - I am planning to take the exam by May 2017. It would be nice we can create a study group.

 

Hi.....

I am beginner in the field of Quality with work experience Five years, I would also like to prepare for the CQE exam. Can anybody suggest me, from where should i start for preparation? Also suggest me preliminary courses if any.

Waiting for reply.

 

I'm re-certifying by exam (next week-yikes!) because I didn't want to spend time away from my new daughter to take classes for the points. I also took 4 months off for maternity leave so I lost valuable points there. The online courses-unless you physically leave the office, you're expected to do both the classes and your normal workload.

 

hello there
already set my goal to attend ASQ CQE in Dec. 2017
i am a qaulity engineer with +10 years of work experiance if there are somebody interest to creat a study group facebook or google group or even whatsapp just inform me we can rrange for that
thnak you

 

Hello. I am preparing for the CQE exam. I have 10 years plus in aerospace quality. I feel like I am really chewing through the material in the CQE handbook well. The questions in my ASQ study guide thus far have come at ease after reviewing the material. My confidence that I can pass this test is growing. However,I am a bit concerned about the statistics / formulae / math that is covered in the test. Can anyone give an approximate number of these types of questions that will be on the exam?
I am not a trained engineer nor a math enthusiast. A colleague of mine mentioned to me that he failed the CQE exam due to his poor execution on this portion of the test. Can anyone offer some insight on what I can expect?
Thank you everyone!

 

Hello, I am thinking about to take CQE exam next year some time. I still study CQE handbook. do you think I should purchase the Primers from the Quality Council of Indiana? it seems old version.

I will join study group if someone would like to set it up.

Thanks!

 

Hi Everyone...I'm also taking the ASQ CRE & CQE Exams next year however I'm looking at the different materials to use as study guides. Does anyone know if the Primers from Quality Council of Indiana is updated with the new version?

 

Im also looking to find out same...I would be taking the CQE next yr as well

 

Hi Susann. Hello everyone,
I plan to take the CRE ASQ exam and consult if you have the book:
* CRE Primer (Quality Council of Indiana). Pack of exams
* Certified Reliability Engineer Handbook (ASQ) from Editor Mark Allen Durivage.

https://asq.org/quality-press/display-item?item=H1535
If someone could share the books in digital would be excellent.

Regards,

 

Hey I am a new member. I am going for the certification in this April. Any advice on where to start and how to prepare would be a great help.