Meet E. C.
Say “Heyyyyyy, E. C.!”
Last year, EC signed up to take her Six Sigma Green Belt exam.
Being a Six Sigma Study Guide reader, she followed the exact process we’ve laid out over the past few emails.
After a few days of tweaking her approach, she finally started studying a few minutes here and there. But he eventually hit The Wall.
She got stuck and couldn’t figure out how to get a higher score on her practice exams.
Then in autumn, she decided to change her approach completely. Instead of just studying everything, she decided to start building a customized study plan based off of her strengths and weaknesses for the exam she wanted to take.
Guess what happened next?
She got past The Wall!
Over the next few weeks, her average Six Sigma mock exams went from 46% to 91%!
All from doing one thing…
BUILDING A CUSTOMIZED STUDY PLAN.
And it’s not just her. Here’s a snap shot of the last 8 people I’ve worked with.
Now, any time one the people I am advising wants to improve their scores (and likelihood of passing their exam) all they have to do is work with their customized study plan.
No re-reading class notes for the umpteenth time.
No hoping and praying what you’re studying will be on the exam.
Just a simple process that leads to great results.
That is the power of building a customized study plan.
So how do you start building your customized study plan?
Building customized study plan is straightforward. You need two key ingredients:
Thing #1: Body of Knowledge (this is a list of topics that your certifying organization (ASQ, IASSC, Villanova, etc) says will be on the exam and the rough percentages they intend to grade on.
Thing #2: Your score on a similar practice exam.
Here is the rub…
Most customized study plan-building advice focuses on the course syllabus.
“Review chapter 1.”
“Review chapter 2.”
That kind of thing.
But when you are studying for your exam on a deadline, all of that stuff is a waste of time because you’re missing two of the key ingredients: What actually will be on the exam and How good are you on those topics.
That’s why when I see blog posts like “How I Passed this hard exam, do this!” I cringe. Because they are ALWAYS written by people who assume their exact scenario is exactly like yours.
OF COURSE all they have to study is what was important to them – because they are them!
What about everyone else?
When you try to mimic these same basic strategies, your results pale in comparison and you get discouraged.
Why?
You are not that person, your circumstances are different, and you have different needs!
So I’m going to give one strategy you can use to fix that problem.
It’s called the Baseline Hack.
In the very early days of SixSigmaStudyGuide.com I used this strategy to get pass my Villanova Six Sigma Black Belt exam with high marks on the first try.
Then I repeated the process again a few months later (right after the birth of my daughter) and passed the ASQ Six Sigma Black belt exam on the first try!
Since then I’ve repeated this advice for literally thousands of other Six Sigma candidates.
And the best part?
It took far less time than any other approach (which was great, because I had no time.)
It worked for 2 entirely different exams.
It worked for thousands of people who visited SixSigmaStudyGuide.com and asked me for advice.
And so many people have used this strategy to turn their opportunities into Six Sigma certifications.
It’s super simple and you can do the same thing.
Tomorrow I’m going to give you the step-by-step instructions.
Today I want you to prep to use the strategy by answering these three questions…
Question #1: What six sigma belt do you want to be certified on? (Not sure? Read this post and decide.)
Question #2: Which organization are you going to try to be certified with? (Unsure? Check out this article for help deciding.)
Question #3: What do you think you should be spending your time studying? Be as specific as possible.
Email me the answers to those questions now!
The goal of this assignment is to identify what you think would be a good fit for your customized study plan.
Don’t over-think this step.
Set your timer for 10 minutes and GO.
See you tomorrow.
-Ted
…
In the next lesson, you’ll use the answers you wrote down today and learn exactly what will be on your exam, how to find out how you stack up against those requirements, and how to determine what the best study plan for you is.
Here’s a recap of the class so far:
Lesson 1 – The very first step to studying for a Six Sigma exam
Lesson 2 – How to know exactly what will be on your Six Sigma certification exam
Lesson 3 – Behind the scenes of Successful Six Sigma Exam candidates
Lesson 4 – How to Dramatically Increase Your Chances of Passing a Six Sigma Certification Exam
Lesson 5 – Two Examples of How to Use the Baseline Hack Strategy
Lesson 6 – Additional Strategies and Tactics for your Six Sigma Exam