Finance students exceed global average on Bloomberg Aptitude Test
Once again, MSU’s College of Business students have proven to be among the brightest in the world.
More than 50,000 students around the world take the Bloomberg Aptitude Test each year. The exam covers eight areas: economics, financial statement analysis, investment banking, global markets, analytical reasoning, math skills, charts and graph analysis, and news analysis.
This spring, MSU students who took the exam exceeded the global average in every area.
“This is great external validation for our academic program. Our students typically exceed averages in several categories, but to exceed the world average in every category was remarkable — especially since we don’t know what will be on the exam,” states Dr. Kent Ragan, Head of the Finance and General Business Department. Stephanie Bryant, Dean of the College of Business, adds, “To see our students perform so well by standards set by industry experts at Bloomberg is quite exciting.”
The purpose of the exam is to link students with potential employers. The process, however, is unique. “The exam gives our students an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of a range of finance-related topics through a third-party assessment while remaining anonymous,” Dr. Ragan states. An employer can look at individual test scores to evaluate potential hires without any other information about the person, such as name, university, major, gender, etc. If the employer has interest in a particular test-taker, then that employer may contact Bloomberg, which then contacts the student to seek permission to release their contact information to that interested employer.
Student anonymity also applies to universities. University personnel are not told who took the test nor are they given individual exam scores, only aggregate results for all test takers from their school. Students register directly with Bloomberg and Bloomberg personnel administer the exam on campus.
Finance juniors and seniors may take the exam this semester on Sept. 27. Anyone interested may visit the Finance and General Business office, in Glass Hall 300, for registration information.