McMaster MBA and undergraduate commerce students have once again scored among the highest business schools in North America, in a recent Major Field Test (MFT) conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS)  the largest educational assessment organization in the world.

DeGroote's commerce students scored in the 95th percentile in North America while the MBAs scored in the 75th percentile. Both sets of scores were consistent with an earlier test in December, 2003.

“We are very proud of the consistently outstanding performance displayed by our students. Once again, this is clear evidence of the strong teaching culture and quality of curriculum we possess here at DeGroote,” said Dean Paul Bates. “We strive to prepare all of our students well for the future and these results show that we are doing a fantastic job.”

ETS is widely known for the development of its entrance exams such as the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). However, the assessment of university education quality requires the testing of outcomes from graduating students. To address this issue, ETS also administers MFTs for various university programs such as graduating MBAs and undergraduate commerce students. The MFT program is an innovative battery of tests that is used by schools and departments at more than 600 colleges and universities globally to measure student academic achievement and growth. Academic departments benefit from the use of the tests as the scores allow for detailed curriculum review, benchmarking and evaluation. Students benefit from the tests by having an effective metric to determine their own level of achievement, comparing their scores with those of other students in the program and with international comparative data.

DeGroote administered the first of two different MFT tests during the fall of 2003 and then once again in the spring of 2004. One test was targeted to undergraduate commerce students and the other to MBAs. DeGroote's undergraduate students scored an average of 167 out of a possible 200 points placing them in the 95th percentile in North America. The MBAs scored an average of 262 out of a possible 300 points placing them in the 75th percentile.

“In addition to our very strong institutional scores, we can also be proud of our extremely high student achievements,” said exam co-ordinator and McMaster business professor Nick Bontis. “Undergraduate students Andrew Dasigan and Darryl Korpan scored 195 and 194 out of 200 respectively while MBA students Michael Davidson and Yanghong Fang scored 285 out of 300, placing all four of them among the highest scoring students in North America.”