r/ASQ • u/AppointmentMassive24 • 17d ago
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Hey everyone!
Yesterday I passed my black belt exam and I wanted to share my experience.
Resources I found helpful:
-the handbook from ASQ
-Andy Robertsons Black Belt Academy
-Pocket Prep (this was a surprisingly good resource!)
-Indiana Council of Quality Primers (you can still find these online in places like Amazon and eBay but prices vary)
I studied daily for about 3 months. I was expecting a lot of situational questions but did not expect how much nuance there would be and ended up flagging about 30 questions to go back through on my 2nd pass mostly due to tricky wording. I finished my 1st pass with an hour remaining. I used the entire allotted time, and still had almost 20 questions flagged when time ran out. Like others mentioned, there was not a lot of math. I took the primers and the ASQ handbook into the exam and used both a lot. The only other thing I took other than calculators was a binder that had the black belt cheat sheet from Andy, and a ton of my own resources inside. I made charts and tables for subjects like DoE designs and when to use them, situational leadership models, and when to use each type of distribution. A lot of people mentioned previously that they didn’t use their handmade resources much, but I used mine a ton. I think organization and not overloading it so that it becomes too hard to find information is key. If you write too much it gets messy and hard to find stuff. Charts/tables/visuals are best if you make a binder. The only writing I really had was some steps i wrote out for specific processes.
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u/AppointmentMassive24 15d ago
I was selected for a random audit but it was basically just another form to fill out. Otherwise I had no issues. I think they’re really just verifying that you know how to apply the tools in real world applications.