How a C Student Passed the ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Exam

I nearly failed mathematics at school.  In fact, I was so bad at maths that the teacher “politely suggested” to my parents that I move to the other maths class – the one where all the below average kids go.

And I did.  Not thinking that I could do any better, I moved to the basic maths class and I still only just scraped by with a C (a D is a fail, in Australia).  It was a long time before I would ever look at a maths book again.

Fast forward a few years, and I am now a person who has passed the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Black Belt exam, a marathon at four hours long and heavy on the math.

How did I go from a struggling, failing maths student who didn’t know how to study, to passing one of the most notoriously difficult examination combinations of statistics and project management in the world?  Well, there are a few things I did, and I’ll pass them all on here so you can use them for yourself if you want to.

First, I Got The Quality Council of Indiana Black Belt Primer

The Certified Six Sigma Black Belt Primer is the tome of knowledge that has most, if not all of the Black Belt Body of Knowledge (BOK).  You can get it from the Quality Council of Indiana, which is also affiliated with ASQ I believe.  After going through this book every night for four or more months, I can tell you there is a LOT of great stuff in here.  Not just statistics, but project management, process leadership, team building techniques, and design as well.

I also got the “Black Belt Memory Jogger” – a small book that is associated with the other major Six Sigma organisation – Six Sigma Academy.  This rounded out some gaps with Gage R&R, and was also an easy read on the Bus to work.

Second, I Got the Quality Council of Indiana Black Belt Practice Exam CD

The Practice exam, also from the Quality Council of Indiana, was worth every penny of the $70 or so it cost.  It has 1000 questions, and you can see the answer, with working, if you get it wrong.  You can do practice exams in 10, 25, 50, 100, or 150 question lots, and choose which chapters you want to test for.  This exam really helped me find my best way to study, which brings me to my last note:

Third, I Learned an Easy Way to Study That Suited Me

It wasn’t until I had been struggling with the thousand page tome of information for two months, that I realised in my life that: “I never actually learned how to study”.  I had simply breezed through High School, and studied things afterwards that didn’t require much effort.  This exam was completely different – with no knowledge of stats, or the crazy symbols they come with, or even basic mathematics, I had a huge gap to fill.

My beautiful wife gave me some suggestions on how to study, and I modified them to suit my needs.  Below is the outcome of what I did.

1. I opened an Excel file, and wrote out every “section” heading within every chapter of the Black Belt Primer in a new cell.  This took about a week, every night after work.
2. Then, I filled in the details with a quick summary of what that section was about, in my own words.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good first draft and it took about four weeks, again every night after work.

Now I had a means for “building” my knowledge, instead of simply reading something and forgetting it by the next day.  Everything I learned, I added under the appropriate section of my Excel sheet.

• Finally, I took a practice exam (from the Indianna CD) of 25 – 50 questions every single night for the remaining six weeks.  When I got a question wrong, I read their reason why (this is provided – which is excellent!) and added any learnings to my Excel file notes.

In the last four weeks leading up to the exam, I would do a full practice exam (150 questions) on each day of the weekend.  This was quite exhausting, but turned out to be worth it in the end.  The real exam was still a mental marathon.

Doing the Actual Black Belt Exam

Doing the Black Belt exam in Australia requires someone to oversee it – a “proctor”.  Luckily, we had a spare room to sit the exam and a current Black Belt to act as the proctor, overseeing our exam.

Doing each question for the exam took longer than the practice CD, and I still had five questions out of the 150 to go at the end that I had to fill in on instinct.  I remember for the last hour I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I thought I was going to burst.  But there was no time to spare for a toilet break.

When it was over (and had been to the bathroom, thank goodness), I was slightly numb.  I had a bad feeling about the test – as though I had messed it up and would have to sit it again.  I went home angry with myself that I had wasted so much time, and questioned why I ever tried to do a project management exam with maths and statistics in it in the first place.  Even a glass of whiskey that night couldn’t take the edge off.

After that, it was a nervous two week wait.  Every day I would ask my colleagues if they had their results, and every day they would say no.  When they finally did come by email, I checked the result.  It said:

“Congratulations: You Have Passed!”

The Journey is Just Beginning

Using the things I’ve learned by becoming an ASQ Certified Black Belt will be a great reward in itself – now I have a lens I can see any business dealings through to reveal opportunities that others can’t often see.  I will have these skills for life.  And recertifying is much easier, if I have applied what I’ve been taught.

But the real lesson is: if I can do it, then anyone can do it.  When I started I didn’t have even the basic skills.  Now I can make control charts, design experiments, test distributions and much, much more.

Keep at it, study hard, and you can succeed too.

Yours in change,

David McLachlan

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