Students enrolled in Boston University’s School of Management may see a new test impacting their post-collegiate job opportunities.
The test, which would focus on broad topics learned during the first year of business school, would be the first of its kind to measure the knowledge of business students on a nationwide scale.
Created by W. Michael Mebane of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Bernard L. Beatty of Wake Forest University Babcock School of Management, the test will determine the merit of students’ education in many areas, including financial reporting and human behavior in organizations.
However, controversy has surrounded the test since its creation. John Chalykoff, associate dean of the School of Management, said he believes the tests will be useless and in the long run do more harm than good.
“It’s redundant,” Chalykoff said. “An MBA is a generalist degree, and you can’t test this type of problem-solving with these kinds of tests.”
Many students also expressed caution toward the test. Adam Cooper, an SMG freshman, said he had strong feelings about being tested on certain topics against other business students.
“Its pointless trying to rank people against each other based on what the tester thinks is important,” he said. “I would not take it if it had no relevance on whether I got my MBA.”
The test offers students a chance to compete against many of the powerhouse business schools nationwide. Such an opportunity was attractive to SMG sophomore Ryan Mishina, who said he saw advantages to taking the test.
“I’ve heard from some SMG alumni that coming out of business school against students from Harvard and other impressive programs leave us at a disadvantage,” Mishina said. “Maybe this test will put us on an equal playing field.”
On the other hand, the advent of such testing has brought some people to worry that schools will begin to gear their curriculum toward the test once it becomes accepted as the high water mark for business students.
“If every business school has this standard, then people will teach the test, which would not be useful at all,” Chalykoff said.
Currently, the test is optional and has no influence on whether students will get their MBA. It is also not state-regulated like the MCATs for doctors or the Bar Exam for lawyers.
Chalykoff said he believes even the additional accreditation will not increase the test’s popularity.
“Crediting programs already exist,” Chalykoff said. “It won’t affect BU at all.”