An apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving forward channel quality information between a base station and a mobile station in a CDMA mobile communication system supporting multimedia service including voice and data services. The mobile station transmits an absolute value symbol in at least one time slot selected from a plurality of time slots, and a relative value symbol in one of the remaining time slots. The absolute value symbol represents the signal strength of the forward channel in the at least one time slot corresponding to the selected time slot, and the relative value symbol represents a change in the signal strength of the forward channel between the at least one time slot corresponding to the one remaining time slot and the signal strength of the forward channel in a previous time slot.