MBA and undergraduate commerce students from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University 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.

For the second time, both DeGroote's undergraduate and MBA classes scored in the 95th percentile - the highest category available.

"This is an outstanding achievement for McMaster and provides independent evidence of the student-centred teaching culture and quality of curriculum we uphold here at DeGroote," said Paul Bates, dean of the DeGroote School of Business. "The fact that both programs continue to be tops among their peers is very gratifying and proves that our graduates are top notch."

The MFT program is an innovative battery of tests that is used by schools and departments at more than 700 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 set of MFT exit exams during December of 2003 and has followed with tests in April and December of each subsequent year. One test is targeted for commerce undergraduate students and another for MBAs.

During the most recent examination in December 2009, DeGroote's Commerce students scored an average of 165 out of a possible 200 points placing them in the 95th percentile in North America for the eleventh consecutive time. The MBAs scored an average of 265 out of a possible 300 points placing them in the 95th percentile for the second time.

"I was ecstatic when I saw the results. This is the second time both programs reached the top performance level. In addition to our very strong institutional scores, we can also be proud of our extremely high student achievements," said exam coordinator Nick Bontis, associate professor of strategy. "Undergraduate students Patrick Shulist and Praveen Perera scored 195 out of 200 while MBA students Mark Stewart and Petras Vaiciunas scored 285 out of 300, placing all four of them among the highest scoring students in North America."

"As a graduating student, I am very proud of these results," said Shulist. "I credit both my own performance, as well as the performance of my classmates to the high quality of the professors at DeGroote."

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