Qualifying Exams come first

I had a meeting with the professors who I wanted to work with in the summer. The professor asked me to decide about his project as soon as possible. I told him that I was interested to work on your project. Then I brought the Qualifying Exams topic up to know the opinion of our department chair.
"I could start my job today, if I was not worried about my Qualifying Exam." I said.
"Yes! The QEs come first!" the department chair said.
This means that I should waste my time, the time that I could do many things, studying stupid Qualifying Exams to just get a pass grade. I could finish main parts of their projects in these two months. I liked to start the project as soon as possible, but, unfortunately, I have no other choice. They were very serious about Qualifying Exams. I don't even know what to study for this exam.