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Test Measures Proficiency in MBA Subjects
Slightly more than half of the master of business administration degree graduates who volunteered for a trial run of a new, standardized MBA exam earned passing scores.
The New York Times
The Salt Lake Tribune
The test was designed to measure proficiency in subjects taught in advanced business school programs.
The testing organization that launched the voluntary exam this year said 162 of the 304 initial testers scored high enough to earn what test designers considered necessary for a "Certified MBA" designation.
All of the inaugural test takers held or are close to receiving MBA degrees from 160 MBA programs.
"The overall results of the CMBA beta test confirm that attaining an MBA degree does not necessarily equate with being competent in fundamental business knowledge," said Paul Muchinsky, an MBA professor who helped create the test.
The International Certification Institute, Prometric testing centers and a panel of business educators created the test and determined passing standards.
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The test creators’ goal was to help employers know whether job candidates who held MBA degrees had mastered the subjects that businesses typically expect an MBA degree to signify.
"Prospective employers can feel confident that candidates passing the exam have a solid command of the MBA core curriculum," said W. Michael Mebane, managing director of the International Certification Institute.
Introduction of the standardized exam has not been welcomed unanimously by business educators. Some business schools fear that test results might be used to rate their institutions based on the numbers of graduates who passed or failed.
The certification exam is voluntary, but its developers believe that it will attract those MBA graduates who want to differentiate themselves from the increasingly crowded MBA field.
Critics contend that business knowledge isn’t as easily measured as, say, proficiency in medicine, law or certified public accounting, where it is necessary to pass standardized exams to practice in the profession.
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