Stop Starting and Start Finishing

We’ve been talking about Common Mistake #3 Six Sigma exam candidates run into; Trying to Study Everything at Once.

Last time we talked about how hard fictional Six Sigma student John was working…. and how ineffectual it was… and how close he was to giving up.

Now it’s time to come to John’s aid.

Mistake #3 Solution

Several of you have guessed already; the solution to working everything all at once is to ….simply not do that.

Pick one topic, master it, then go over to the next one.

Some of the most crucial learnings of Lean Six Sigma are about how to achieve flow. You know; kanban, Little’s Law, Work in Progress (WIP Limits). All of that fun stuff.

Or, if you want a catch phrase, try this one.

Stop Starting and Start Finishing.

It’s as simple as that.

The antidote to trying to do too much is to break the whole into small, manageable pieces.

Instead of trying to study all of Six Sigma, break it down into cognitive groups. Getting stuck on an entire Phase (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control, etc)? Break it down to subtopics or even techniques.

I promise that if you focus on mastering all of the ways the exam makers can possibly ask you questions on one small topic before moving on to the next one, you’ll save time AND you will score higher.

Aim small, miss small. (And miss out on all of that useless context switching, self-loathing, and other nonsense.)

But It’s All Important!! Where do I Start?

Good point. It is all important. But in terms of the exam you only generally need a certain percentage to pass. So, let’s go with that.

Let’s say you need an 80% on the exam. And for sake of this example, let’s say that there will be 100 questions on your certification exam. (Thus you need to get 80 questions right.)

Does it matter which questions you get right?

No. No it does not.

It only matters that you get at least 80 of them right.

Thus the only sane (and fastest) approach is to focus on getting 80 questions right!

There are a few ways to do this. Here’s my favorite:

Take a practice exam.

If you get <50%, start at the very beginning at Define and work your way up. If you’re over 50%, sort the questions you got wrong into groups and make a Pareto chart.

Find the topic you scored the worst on and study that area relentlessly. Study it so well that you are confident that you know it cold and that it’s no longer a weak spot – in fact, it’s become a strong suit!

Don’t worry about any other sections until you’ve mastered that part.

But once you have mastered that part, move on to the next area that you are having issues with.

And so on and so forth.

It’s that easy.

Next Time

The next time we’ll return with Common Mistake #4 and talk through how to handle it.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, leave a comment anywhere on the Six Sigma Study Guide website and I’ll do my best – or just hit reply to this email. I read all emails and do my best to respond to everyone.