Study Guide for ASQ CMQ/OE

A Study Guide for the ASQ CMQ/OE Examination[pic 1]

Douglas C. Wood

If you been considering taking the American Society for Quality (ASQ) certified quality manager/ organizational excellence (CMQ/OE) exam, this article may help you in deciding when to take it and in preparing for it.

Signing up

Is this the right examination for you? There are pages in the ASQ website open to non-members to help you understand  the certification. The page http://asq.org/cert/manager-of-quality/right-for-you helps talk you through choosing a certification. There is information about required education and experience to sit for the exam. In addition, the page talks about the exam and has other public links on how to prepare. One of the hurdles for applicants is a 10-year minimum experience requirement. If you have a higher-level college degree, up to five years of that experience can be waived. The required experience involves various quality fields such as quality engineer or quality auditor. A minimum of five years of your experience must be in a decision-making position. A decision-making position is defined as someone having the authority to find, execute, or control projects or processes and to be responsible

for them. This experience may or may not include management  or supervisory positions.

The examinations are offered twice a year at key ASQ Conference venues. Dates and costs are included in a document you can download from ASQ as well part of the certification exam application. However, several smaller ASQ conferences (Lean, Audit, etc.) and sections may also hold special administrations of the exam. Check with your local section(s) for more information. If you are not a member of ASQ the CMQ/OE exam is currently listed at $489. It is usually worth it to join ASQ for at least one year because the member discount is roughly equal to one year’s dues. The exams are held at most local ASQ sections on a Saturday in March and October, besides the exams held at conferences.

Preparations

The first step in preparing for the exam is to read the body of knowledge (BoK). ASQ offers free access to the BoK at http://asq.org/cert/manager-of-quality/bok. The CMQ/OE BoK has seven sections. They are:

1.   Leadership

2.   Strategic plan development and deployment

3.   Management elements and methods

4.   Quality management  tools

5.   Customer focused organizations

6.   Supply chain management

7.   Training and development

In the BoK document, there are details underneath each of the seven sections. The detailed sub levels include a Bloom’s taxonomy reference. The Bloom reference identifies the depth of knowledge required by the exam.

The next step in preparation is to take an interactive sample exam. This free exam is offered by ASQ at http://asq.org/cert/resource/pdf/sample-exam/cmqoe-sample-exam.pdf . This short sample exam allows you to gain feedback on what areas of the BoK you are going to need to study in depth to pass the exam. The sample exam also provides a view of the actual test format.[pic 2]

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A Study Guide for the ASQ CMQ/OE Examination

Taking a preparation class

Douglas C. Wood

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You may decide to take a course to help you fill in your knowledge gaps. One significant reference for the exam is the “Certified Manager of Quality/ Organizational Excellence Handbook, Fourth edition” (ISBN 978-0 dash 8738 9-861-4). ASQ Press also offers the book with a special price for members: it is item number H1447.

You may study the materials on your own, but most people find that taking a course aids immensely in their ability to pass the exam. It is not uncommon for people to fail the exam the first time. Even if you are an experienced quality manager, the examination questions are in-depth and require thorough understanding. It is most important to remember that the exam uses ‘general language.’ This language may not be the same that you use at your organization. Even some of the concepts may not be used where you work.

The ASQ web site also provides a list of references used to develop the examination at http://asq.org/cert/manager-of-quality/references . Please note that no particular reference source is primary, but the handbook is a good start.

How are the exams scoring points distributed?

The exam consists of two parts: A constructed response, followed by multiple-choice questions. The constructed response represents  1/6 of the possible score; the multiple a choice questions represent

5/6 of the possible score. The leadership section has 25 questions; strategic planning has 18 questions; management elements has 30 questions; the tools section has 30 questions; customer focus has 17 questions; supply chain has 15 questions; and training and development has 15 questions. You need to keep in mind that not all of the exam questions test to the same depth.

What is allowed at the exam?

Exams are given only in person. When you sit for the exam you need to bring a soft lead pencil (number two or softer) with an adequate supply of erasers. You may bring blank paper for thinking on, but it has to be discarded when you leave the exam. Each examinee has to show the reference materials they have brought for the open book portion of the exam to the proctor for review. For the open book portion of the exam, you may bring as many materials as you wish but remember you are going to have to find information quickly. You may also bring any silent handheld battery operated  calculator without an alphanumeric keyboard. Any programmable memories must be cleared from calculators before you enter the exam room. You might bring something to drink and a “quiet food” for a snack.

Some things are not allowed. No laptop or palmtop computers may be in the room, and no cell phones are allowed either. Your reference materials and calculators may not be shared with anyone else in the room. The exam is done in pencil and not ink so do not bring a pen.

Most importantly, you may not bring any collection of questions or answers to the exam. Any of your reference sources that contain such copy are not allowed unless you can remove those questions and answers or obscure them.

It is strictly forbidden to copy or remove any examination materials from the testing site.

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A Study Guide for the ASQ CMQ/OE Examination

Exam and timing

Douglas C. Wood

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The exam begins with the constructed response portion. This section of the exam is closed book. You have 45 minutes to write responses for two out of the three questions offered. The 5 minutes to read and choose which two you are going to write are included in the 45 minutes. Your final responses are limited to one page of handwriting for each question. Having scratch paper available to jot down a few notes before you begin writing is useful here. You will need to discard them with the exam proctor when you leave.

After the constructed response, you move into the multiple-choice portion of the exam. This portion of the exam is open book but remember, no example questions are allowed. You have 3 hours and 15 minutes for 150 multiple-choice questions, an average of 45 seconds per question. Due to the time limitation, you will have to be able to retrieve any information from your reference materials very quickly. Consider this when you are preparing. It is usually helpful to tab your references for ready sourcing of information.

Preparing for the constructed response

The purpose of constructed response questions is to demonstrate your ability to think and put together multiple aspects of the BoK. Of the three questions offered, you will choose two of them to answer. Remember that you need to consider the full BoK when you are answering these questions. When you practice writing constructed responses, remember to practice your handwriting so that your responses will be legible. Each question has a central question and a series of key issues. You need to answer the core question but you also have to address the key issues.

Some of the things that used in scoring the constructed responses are:

       Have you provided for collecting data?

       Have you written an understandable and logical approach?

       Do you avoid trying to solve the problem?

You would think that solving the problem is part of the answer, but the exam looks for your logical approach: one that makes sense with the kind of problem in the question.

Your approach has to use some form of a response technique. It can be just a series of steps. Alternatively, you can use the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) approach. Another way uses the Six Sigma DMAIC approach. Just be sure your approach makes sense for the question.