Relationship between ASQ exam questions & Quality Council of Indiana Primers
Relationship between ASQ exam questions & Quality Council of Indiana Primers
A question arose from one of the 04 December 2004 certification examinees about the relationship
between the ASQ exam questions and the Quality Council of Indiana's CQx Primers. So, I asked Dennis
Arter, a friend of mine, who is a member of the ASQ Quality Auditing Division Executive Committee
and author of one of the standard Quality Auditing texts -- "Quality Audits for Improved
Performance" -- to respond.
Posted: 06 December 04
Following is Dennis' email. Note that the same process is used to build the exam questions for all the other CQx exams, too.
Bill Casti, CQA
Email: Proctor15@asq0511.org
>From: Dennis Arter>To: Bill Casti >Subject: re: Relationship between ASQ exam questions and the Quality Council of Indiana >Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 10:08:58 -0800 > >Hi Bill, > >It's easy to see how this misunderstanding occurs. It happens to me all >the time. The instructor recommends a book and the participant hears >something different. Common communication issue. > >I recommend four books for the CQA exam (in this order): >a) my book, "Quality Audits for Improved Performance" >b) ASQ Quality Audit Division handbook >c) either ASQ self-study software, or CQI primer > >Word then goes around that the exam comes right out of my book. > >The process for developing and maintaining exam questions is actually >quite rigorous and consists of three components: > >1. Five year review and update of the test specifications. > >Every five years (or so), the ASQ contractor contacts noted sources, >gurus, etc., with heavy emphasis on the exam-owning Quality Audits >Division, to validate the test specifications. (This is sometimes >incorrectly called the Body of Knowledge.) This update appears in the >exam brochure and becomes the basis of all subsequent exams. > >2. Exam writing workshops > >Volunteers gather in Milwaukee once or twice a year to generate new >questions for the exam bank. All questions MUST be based on published >material and independent of any particular quality management system. We >don't write ISO questions or FDA questions or Boeing questions. > >3. Post-exam cleansing > >After every exam, the statistics are examined to make sure each >individual question remains valid. If it's too easy and stats show that >it seldom is missed, out it goes. Likewise, one that gets consistently >answered incorrectly is thrown out. New questions from the exam bank take >their place. > >Ron Kingen was instrumental in making these changes to the process about >a decade ago. The approach has served us well. > >Regards, >Dennis > > >--------------------------------------------------------- >Dennis R. Arter, "The Audit Guy" >Columbia Audit, 6951 W Grandridge, Kennewick, WA 99336 >509/783-0377, toll-free 877/597-9498, (no more fax) >dennis@auditguy.net, http://auditguy.net >Now blogging at http://auditguy.blogspot.com >
Posted: 06 December 04