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Major Field Test in Business - Test Description

Test Description - Undergraduate Major Field Test

About the test

The Business Major Field Test is a two-hour, multiple-choice test. Score reports are sent directly to the university, with results being reported for the entire group as well as for individual test takers. Overall student scores are reported on a scale of 120-200; subscores are reported on a scale of 20-100. Only correct answers are scored, so students are not penalized for omissions or guesses.

Following the general guidelines of business school accrediting agencies, the Business Test covers the "common Body of Knowledge" for undergraduate business education. The test assumes that most institutions will offer a common core that includes accounting, economics, finance, law, management, marketing and quantitative analysis.

The test:

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Test content

Major areas covered by the test are:

I. Accounting (about 16% of the questions)

  1.  
    1. Conceptual Foundations
    2. Income statement and Statement of Retained Earnings
    3. Balance sheet
    4. Statement of cash flows
    1. Cost concepts
    2. Product costing systems
    3. Activities-based costing
    4. Cost, volume and profit analysis
    5. Budgeting (except capital budgeting covered under Finance)
    6. Standard costing
    7. Non-routine decision-making
  2. Financial accounting
  3. Managerial accounting

II. Economics (about 16% of the questions)

  1.  
    1. National accounts and income determination
    2. Monetary and fiscal policy
    3. Federal Reserve system
    4. Employment, inflation and growth
    1. Market structure
    2. Price theory
    3. Supply and demand
    1. Balance of trade and payments
    2. International monetary system
    3. Exchange rates
    4. Trade policy (including GATT, NAFTA and European Union)
    5. Comparative advantage
  2. Macroeconomics
  3. Microeconomics
  4. International economics

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III. Management (about 17% of the questions)

  1.  
    1. History and theory
    2. Functions (organizational structure, planning and controlling)
    3. Group/team dynamics and managing diversity
    1. Leadership and motivation
    2. Communication
    3. Group/team dynamics
    1. Strategic analysis
    2. Policy determination
  2. Management process
  3. Organizational behavior
  4. Strategy and policy
  5. International Management
  6. Entrepreneurship

IV. Quantitative Business Analysis and Information Systems (about 16% of the questions)

  1.  
    1. Measure of set operations
    2. Conditional/joint probabilities
    3. Counting rules
    4. Measures of central tendency and dispersion
    5. Distributions (including normal and binomial)
    6. Sampling and estimation
    7. Hypothesis testing
    8. Correlation and regression
    9. Time-series forecasting
    10. Statistical concepts in quality control
    1. Linear programming
    2. Project scheduling (including PERT and CPM)
    3. Inventory and production planning
    4. Special topics (including queuing theory, simulation and decision analysis)
    1. Technology (hardware and software)
    2. System analysis and design
    3. Interdisciplinary issues
    4. Management of information systems and technology
  2. Probability and statistics
  3. Management science
  4. Information systems

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V. Finance (about 12% of the questions)

  1.  
    1. Time value of money
    2. Capital budgeting
    3. Price/earnings and dividend models
    4. Risk, return and diversification
    1. Market efficiency
    2. The Capital Asset Pricing model
    3. Sources of financing for firms
    4. International markets
    1. Working capital management
    2. Financial statement analysis
    3. Cost of capital and capital structure
    4. Risk management
  2. Valuation of investments
  3. Financial markets
  4. Corporate finance

VI. Marketing (about 12% of the test)

  1.  
    1. Strategic marketing
    2. The 4 P's (Product, Price, Promotion and Place)
    3. Marketing environment
    4. Marketing research and information systems
    5. Consumer and industrial buyer behavior
    1. Consumer markets/Market segmentation
    2. Industrial markets
    3. Service and non-profit
    4. Social issues
  2. Marketing processes
  3. Marketing institutions
  4. International marketing

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VII. Legal and Social Environment (about 10% of the questions)

  1.  
    1. Courts and legal systems
    2. Constitution and business
    3. Administrative law
    1. Employment and labor law
    2. Antitrust law
    3. Consumer protection
    4. Tort law
    5. Crimes
    6. Environmental and international law
    1. Contract and commercial law (including UCC)
    2. Business organizations
    3. Law of agency
    4. Intellectual property
    1. Ethics
    2. Social Responsibility
  2. Legal environment
  3. Regulatory environment
  4. Business relationships
  5. Ethics and Social Responsibility

VIII. International Issues (overlapping and drawn from Economics, Finance, Management and Marketing - Topics IIC, IIID, VB4, VIC and VIIB6).

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