I recently became an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Green Belt (CSSGB) and wanted to go over my experience with studying and passing the exam. This article will go over the process for applying, studying, and taking the exam, and will provide all of the study material I used to pass the exam on the first try.
As many of you know, the American Society for Quality (ASQ) is the largest and most respected company in the quality space. They produce a magazine, run a website with tons of useful information, and host dozens of quality conferences and seminars, just to name a few things.
While I have plenty of experience related to Six Sigma, I wanted to get the certification from ASQ, because it is the most recognizable to companies. The CSSGB exam is also a great stepping stone to becoming a Certified Quality Engineer, so I figured I would get it out of the way before taking the CQE exam.
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Basics of Applying for an ASQ Certification
I am already a Certified Quality Inspector and was familiar with the process of gaining an ASQ certificate before applying.
To start, you need to apply through the ASQ website. Each exam has a certain amount of years of experience necessary to apply for the exam (note: education may substitute for some of the years of experience on certain exams). The CSSGB exam requires three years of experience, which is easy to achieve, however, there are no educational waivers for this particular exam.
The application is fairly simple and just includes some basic information and details about your experience. At the time you apply, you will need to pay for the application fee and exam fee. As of 2023, the application fee was $130. This amount is included in the price of the exam, however, it is non-refundable if your application is denied or if you later cancel the exam.
The total cost of the exam is $469 for non-members and $369 for members. If you are not already an ASQ member, you should consider becoming a member before getting the study materials and applying for the exam.
The membership fee is $185 (this has been raised since I began my membership), but can almost make up for the costs based on the exam fee discount and the discounted study materials. It is even more beneficial if you plan on taking multiple exams in a year, or if your company is going to cover the costs of the membership.
Study Material for the ASQ CSSGB Exam
Once I applied and was accepted to take the exam, I purchased all of the study material I would need for the CSSGB test. While some people may prefer to study the material before applying for the exam, I like to have a hard date in place to increase motivation.
One thing to note is that almost all ASQ exams are open-book tests. For this reason, the study material that you get plays a significant role in passing the test.
To start, I got the ASQ CSSGB Handbook. This is the number one thing you need if you are going to take the CSSGB exam. It is the foundation for many of the questions in the test and will provide the answer to 90% of questions when properly used. It’s likely that if you already have a quality background, you could get the handbook by itself and still pass the exam.
Before the test, I also put a large number of book tabs marking specific areas of the Handbook (post-it notes are only allowed as book tabs). This helped me easily reference sections during the exam, without having to look at the table of contents or glossary.
The other study material I got from ASQ was the ASQ CSSGB Study Guide. This provides several hundred questions that are directly related to the study material, and give you a good feel for the exam. While there are parts of the Study Guide I do not like (some of the answers are incorrect, which drove me crazy), I do enjoy quizzing myself before the test, so I felt it was worth the cost. (Note that you cannot take the Study Guide into the exam).
Outside of the ASQ material, I also got several items from the Quality Council of Indiana (QCI). QCI makes some great study guides to help with a variety of ASQ exams. While I would not say it is the best for studying the material, the way it is laid out is very useful for actually taking the exam.
From QCI, I got their main piece of study material for the CSSGB exam, the CSSGB Primer. I do not believe the Primer is sufficient on its own, but it is a great compliment to the ASQ Handbook. The Primer also includes a large number of questions for each section of the exam.
The questions provided in the Primer are significantly more difficult than the questions in the CSSGB exam, so if you are doing okay on those questions, you can be confident you will pass the exam. To go along with the questions I also got the Solutions Key, which provides detailed answers for all of the practice questions. (Again, you cannot take the Solutions Key or questions from the Primer into the exam).
The final piece of study material I used was an online Six Sigma course offered by Coursera. This is something that is not necessary but is nice for someone who likes to learn via video or from multiple different sources.
Studying for the ASQ CSSGB Exam
The amount of time you need to study for the exam will vary greatly depending on your confidence in taking tests and your exposure to Six Sigma content.
If you have already taken some Six Sigma courses and are familiar with the material, you could likely pass the test by just skimming the CSSGB Handbook.
However, if the material is very new to you, you should consider spending more time studying for the test, or possibly taking an ASQ study course for the exam (especially if your company will pay for the course).
Personally, I spent about 1-3 hours a day, 4-5 days a week, over 8 weeks studying for the exam. My method was to read a section of the Handbook, then read the same section in the Primer, and then watch the videos for the same section on the Coursera course. I would then go over all of the practice questions for that section, and restudy any questions that I missed.
Before I actually took the exam, I also went through all of the practice questions in a row multiple times to simulate taking the exam. I would recommend answering the practice questions open-book since your ability to find the answers to questions is more useful than straight memorization.
This was likely overkill based on the difficulty level of the exam, however, I was able to move through the exam with confidence and could answer about 75% of the questions without referencing any study material. So, feel free to base your study time on your knowledge
Taking the ASQ CSSGB Exam
There are two options for taking the ASQ CSSGB exam; in-person, and remotely proctored. I actually attempted to take the exam remotely. However, I had some major issues that I will discuss in a later post, so instead, I ended up taking the test in person.
The process of taking the in-person ASQ CSSGB exam is fairly simple. You need to show up at the facility about 30 minutes before the exam starts. You then need to empty your pockets and put anything you brought into a locker that is provided. I would recommend taking some water and possibly food with you if you think it will take you a while to complete the exam since these can be accessed during your break.
Then, meet up with the proctors at the facility who will give you a rundown of the test. I had to show my arms and ankles and then was checked with a metal detector. The proctors will then look through your study material to make sure there are no loose pages or other issues (I find all of this pretty ridiculous for an open-book test. What will I have written on my ankles that would be more useful than the study material?).
After the check, you are brought into the room where you will be taking the test. You are provided headphones by the facility to keep out some of the noise of the other test takers. The proctor will set you up with the computer you will be using.
After getting through a small amount of setup, you are able to start taking the CSSGB exam. There are 110 questions on the CSSGB exam, of which 100 are graded. From my experience, the questions are relatively simple, and about 90% of the questions can be answered directly from the CSSGB Handbook.
During the exam, you can also flag questions causing you issues. There were ten or so questions that caused me difficulty during the test, so I just flagged those and answered them at the end.
You are also allowed three ten-minute breaks during the exam, during which you can get any water or use the bathroom. You will have to do the check-in process again once you are done with the break, so I would recommend not pushing the time limit too much.
All-in-all, the exam took me about 90 minutes (although, I have historically been a fast test taker). I took one break for a couple of minutes to grab a drink of water but otherwise wanted to stay focused on the test.
Once you are done with the exam, the results will instantly be displayed on the screen. This is awesome since you will not have to nervously wait to find out if you passed. You will also receive an email a couple of minutes after the exam is completed that states your results.
Lessons Learned
Now that we went over my experience with studying for and passing the exam, let’s summarize the key points and lessons to help you pass the exam on the first try.
- Sign up for the exam right away. While this won’t necessarily help you with passing the exam, a lot of people are motivated once they have an actual deadline in place. Otherwise, it’s too easy to procrastinate studying and preparing.
- Get the ASQ CSSGB Handbook. This is the most essential element of having an easy test-taking experience. It is the basis of what you need to know to study for the exam and provides answers to the majority of the questions on the exam.
- Add lots of book tabs to the Handbook and any other reference materials you will bring. Since the exam is open book, it makes it much easier if you can quickly find specific pieces of information.
- Take the practice tests open-book. You can take the practice tests without any study material as well, but it is more relevant practice for the test if you look for the answer in the Handbook while answering a question from the study guide. That way you get used to searching through the Handbook (or whatever material you choose) to find the answers to questions/
- Your need to study for the exam will vary. As I mentioned, if you are already familiar with the material, you can probably just read through the Handbook and use it during the test. If Six Sigma is completely new to you, you should study a lot longer to prepare.
- Make sure everything is ready to go on exam day. This is general test-taking advice, but you should prepare yourself so that you don’t have to stress about any of the technical details on exam day. Read up on everything required a couple of days beforehand, have all of your reference material ready to go, try to get good sleep, and show up to the exam facility as early as makes you comfortable.
- The CSSGB is a great jumping-off point for other exams. While some of the material is specific to Six Sigma, a lot of the material consists of general quality ideas and tools that will help you for a number of different ASQ exams.
Wrapping Up
That was my experience with studying and taking the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Green Belt exam. Hopefully, after reading this, you will feel more confident about what you need to do to pass the exam on the first try. If you have any questions about the test or Six Sigma in general, please leave them in the comments section below and I will answer them to the best of my ability.
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