CQI

It is a multiple-choice exam in English only. Computer-delivered, it is one part of 110 questions - 100 scored and 10 unscored - with 4 hours and 18 minutes of exam time inside a total appointment of four and a half hours. Paper-and-pencil is 100 questions in four hours.

After ASQ approves your application, you receive an eligibility email in one to two business days with instructions for scheduling through Prometric. You book a date and location inside the testing window you selected when you applied. Paper-based registrants instead receive a seating letter about two weeks before the exam.

Yes - all exams are open book, but reference materials must be bound: stitched or glued, or fastened in a cover by ring binders, spiral or plastic snap binders, brads, or screw posts. Hand-stapled documents are banned, and Post-Its are allowed only as book tabs attached before you enter. Non-programmable calculators are permitted.

Only silent, hand-held, battery-operated calculators without programmable memory are allowed. Programmable models typically have graphing capability, user-entered text or alphanumeric storage, or function keys, so devices such as the Texas Instruments TI-89 are absolutely not allowed. A basic scientific calculator is on-screen for computer-based exams, and a hand-held basic model is available on request.

Computer-based candidates see results immediately after submitting and receive a confirming email within three to five business days, plus a separate email on claiming the digital certificate and badge. Pilot exams built on new or updated Bodies of Knowledge take up to five weeks. Paper-based results are slightly delayed.

You receive an emailed summary of your performance within three to five business days of your exam. For two years from the previous attempt you can reapply at a significantly reduced retake rate, so a failed attempt is not a full restart - but treat the first sitting as the one to prepare hardest for.

Yes, three years of full-time, paid on-the-job experience in one or more areas of the CQI Body of Knowledge. Completing a technical, military, or trade school diploma, an associate degree, a bachelor's degree, or a master's or doctorate waives two years, and only one waiver may be claimed.

Yes, but you must change the date or time at least five days before your appointment using Prometric's reschedule/cancel option or automated voice response system, and there is a $130 fee for changing an appointment. Failing to appear forfeits all application fees. Plan to arrive 30 minutes early for check-in.

Start from the CQI Body of Knowledge and the published reference list, since exam questions are based on them. Because the exam is open book, the real skill is fast retrieval: tab your bound references, know your calculator, and rehearse calculations under time pressure - roughly 2.3 minutes per question on the computer-based version.

Two things: poor time management on a 110-question, open-book exam where hunting through unmarked references burns minutes, and procedural mistakes on exam day - hand-stapled notes, unbound pages, a programmable calculator, or arriving late enough to forfeit the fee. Read the identification, reference, and prohibited-items policies before test day.