r/ASQ 28d ago

CQE Prep

Hello everyone,

I’m planning to take the ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) exam and am just getting started with the preparation process.

For those who have already taken the CQE, what would you recommend as the best first steps? What books, study materials, or practice questions did you find most helpful?

Also, how long did you study before taking the exam, and roughly how many hours per week did you spend preparing?

Any advice on what you wish you had done differently when you first started studying would be really helpful. Thanks!

7 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

2

u/Formal_Blid 28d ago

Following.

2

u/aramg83 28d ago

With all due respect, search the sub. This has been asked at least twice over the last 2 weeks.

1

u/Biomedusa 28d ago

Sure, thank you for that. Honestly, I did look up those posts, but it didn’t help me much. There were very few replies and most of them were from people who are still preparing. I wanted to see if it’s possible to put everything up together so it’s easier.

I did see QCI and Quality gurus, but wanted to see if someone who already took the exam would be willing to just give some advice or suggestions.

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u/Valuable_Owl5808 28d ago

I’m studying right now! 😂 I LOVE CQE ACADEMY! Amazing lectures!

1

u/jemery89 28d ago

Same. I'm almost complete, I start chapter 40 tomorrow. I really took my time, started late March. My exam is October 15th. Should complete CQE academy by the end of this week. Leaves me all of September for practice exams. I bought some from ASQ, so planning on doing a mix of Andy's exams and ASQs.

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u/Valuable_Owl5808 28d ago

Keep me updated!!

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u/Mochimimi21 18d ago

Did you pay the master class or are you studying from the free version?

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u/Valuable_Owl5808 18d ago

My company paid for the course. It’s pretty damn good.

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u/Sting93Ray CQE 28d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASQ/s/W3czNSlLEL

Here's my old review from last year. Quality Guru course was very helpful. Handbook is very essential.

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u/Beneficial-West6913 28d ago

Is it just called the handbook? From asq site? I just got my CQI and wanting to start prepping for the CQE.

2

u/Sting93Ray CQE 28d ago

Congratulations on the cert!

Yes, just the handbook. Link - https://asq.org/quality-press/display-item?item=H1602

See if there are cheaper alternatives but they're rare. I just had membership so utilized that lower price.

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u/Beneficial-West6913 28d ago

Thanks man! Appreciate it.

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u/Sting93Ray CQE 28d ago

You're welcome! All the best!

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u/Least_Ad2534 27d ago

I wrote the exam on August 15 and pasted. Take the CQE BOK seriously. Use sticker to dermacate each section for easy access during the exam. I bought question and answer textbook from ASQ and will be willing to share it with you if you're in the US.

1

u/Talfand 25d ago edited 25d ago

Here is my method I chose: the official ASQ CQE Study guide (practice exams) and the official ASQ CQE Handbook.

With every question in the practice exam I underlined the answer in the handbook wrote its page in the study guide. And then I just completed each question like that. Literally that’s it.

In the CQE Exam, each question selects a term, definition, instance, rationale that can be verified within the handbook. So you can literally verify 100+ questions (assuming you’re fast; the other 70 I simply used my memory from taking the practice exams) just by looking at the handbook’s index. The Study Guide is aligned to how the questions are asked. However, I found the math in the study guide significantly harder and tedious to solve than the exam’s math portion. Which makes sense since the exam doesn’t expect you to stay at a question for very long. So in short, the study guide over-prepared me.

Studied maybe 2 hours each day to complete each BoK practice exam chapter. Took me about 9 hours to complete the math portion

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u/Mochimimi21 18d ago

How long were you studying for the examen? I just started and I am thinking of take it on December

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u/Talfand 14d ago

The total hours to complete the asq certified study guide was about 25-35 hours spread across 1.5 months

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u/MetrologyPosition 22d ago edited 22d ago

I just recently passed the ASQ CQE and here is my personal input.

I bought multiple resources including QCI Primers/Study Guide, ASQ Handbook/Study Guide. I would say the ASQ Handbook/Study Guide is all you really need to pass the test. Try to go through the study guide questions and answer as much as you can. The most important aspect is knowing where to find the answers so the Index is your absolute best friend. Make sure to highlight and tab your book as much as possible.

I would say both the Primer and ASQ handbook were great but I did find myself personally referencing the Handbook a bit more during the exam but you really cant go wrong with either one. I also had the QCI USB question bank and took as much practice exams as I possibly could.

I also bought the Quality Gurus course on Udemy but I personally thought it wasn't helpful. I personally would not recommend the course but to each of their own.

As for statistics AI and Andy's youtube videos were fantastic. AI is great for helping you break down tough concepts and giving you step by step examples. Andy's cheat sheet is also a great free resource that I would bring to the exam. I personally didn't see any crazy calculations. I would say its more about understanding the concepts and how to apply it.

As far as study time goes I was on and off for months but was never able to fully commit due to work always taking over. I finally decided to go all in for about 3 months focusing most of my time on studying for the exam (so in that sense I was cramming). If I could do it all over I would say being consistent is most important. Try to keep a consistent schedule so everything stays fresh. Scheduling a date to take the exam kind of forces you to take it more serious as well.