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Test day

Exam rules and strategy

Pack bound books, a non-programmable calculator, and a matching photo ID. See the test-day packing list and print packet.

Open book is not open brain

ASQ (American Society for Quality) allows bound references only. No loose sheets. No question banks. No stored text in the calculator. Tab a bound copy of these notes plus the CQI (Certified Quality Inspector) Handbook. You will not have time to discover a topic during the exam. Open book rewards people who already know where the table lives.

Tabs that work: 1 conversions/geometry/trig · 2 gauges, 10:1, calibration · 3 GD&T, position, bonus, datums · 4 sampling (AQL (acceptance quality limit), Ac (acceptance number), Re (rejection number)) · 5 SPC (statistical process control) and capability · 6 tools, audits, CAPA (corrective and preventive action) / 8D (eight-discipline problem solving) / DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) · 7 glossary.

Exam trap. About 20% of items need calculation. Flag them if the arithmetic is slow and come back. Do not burn twelve minutes on one sine-bar stack while easy definition items sit unanswered. People fail GD&T, sampling tables, and MSA (measurement system analysis) words — not the shop math.

Calculator

ASQ allows certain calculators and forbids programmable / graphing / CAS (computer algebra system) machines. The TI-30Xa (a common non-programmable scientific calculator) is the traditional shop exam calculator. Practice every drill on the same calculator you will carry in. Know square root, sin/cos/tan and inverse, scientific notation, and memory. Do not rely on the on-screen Prometric (ASQ’s computer-based testing contractor) calculator if you can avoid it — it is slower.

Time budget

100 scored items in 258 minutes is about 2.5 minutes each. Reality: calculation items take 3–5 minutes. Knowledge items take 30–45 seconds if you know them. Strategy:

  1. First pass: answer every item you can do in under 90 seconds. Flag the rest.
  2. Second pass: calculations. Write units on scratch paper. Box the answer before you look at choices.
  3. Third pass: flagged wording traps (“always,” “only,” “except”).
  4. Guess remaining. There is no penalty for wrong answers. Never leave a blank.

Wording traps the CQI exam likes

  • Accuracy vs. precision vs. bias vs. linearity vs. stability.
  • Variable data vs. attribute data (and therefore X-bar/R vs. p/np/c/u).
  • Control limits vs. specification limits. They are not the same thing.
  • Cp (capability index for spread only) vs. Cpk (capability index that includes centering) vs. Pp (overall performance index for spread only) vs. Ppk (overall performance index that includes centering).
  • Detection vs. prevention. Appraisal cost vs. failure cost.
  • Internal vs. external audit; product vs. process vs. system audit.
  • First-article vs. in-process vs. final vs. incoming.
Cognitive levels on the 2025 BoK (Body of Knowledge): many metrology and math items are Apply. Drawing and inspection-type items climb to Analyze. Improvement tools are often only Understand — know the definition and when you would reach for the tool, not every worksheet cell of an FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis).