“Help! I Didn’t Pass My Six Sigma Exam”

I get this message a lot. After my 2016 Lessons Learned article so many people wrote in that they tried to take a Six Sigma exam last year and didn’t pass.

Don’t worry. Many people don’t pass the first time. In fact, it was when several outstanding colleagues of mine didn’t pass did I realize how much effort it was going to take.

As I mentioned last week, I am writing a few more specific articles that should help.

The first thing I would recommend would be to sit down and decide why you didn’t pass. Were you able to put the appropriate amount of time into studying? Did the test have more of a certain type or different questions than you anticipated? Did the test play to your weak areas instead of your strengths.

Whatever it was, it is important to realize this is just a temporary set back.

The important thing to do is to learn from that experience and make a new plan to achieve your goal this year.

In the meantime, I did write a lengthy PDF covering very specific studying tactics to do. Please take the survey here and you’ll be directed right to the pdf. Everyone I know that follows that process has success passing their exam. Every single one. Yes, it takes hard work. Yes, I am working on building something to make the process easier. Perhaps this process will work for you, too.

One audience member describes how he passed his exam:

Preparing well organized notes for terminologies and important formulas and dividing the notebook for sections of the DMAIC phases to find the notes quickly was important! The test was computerized, but not to worry, just read the instructions carefully! A digital calculator was provided although you can bring your own also. Preparation and test practices were essential as you can’t rely on the notes for each question, you will run out of time! Finally a good night sleep, well balanced diet before the exam and good water intake are necessary for concentrating!

For a greater end-to-end overview I’ve written an article as general overview on how to study.  And this article shows how I prepared for the Villanova Six Sigma Black Belt and this other article shows exactly what I did to pass the ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt exam on the first try.

Please give those a try and let me know how else I can best help.

Did you pass an exam? Reply in the comments here and share your best tips!

Didn’t pass, write back to me and let me know how I can help. Or leave a comment on this post and start a conversation.

Best, Ted.

PS In case it is helpful, here is an article I wrote for the ASQ Influential Voices Blog on how people just starting out in a career in quality succeed.