Monmouth College accounting students participating in the MFT exam included (from left): Anthony Beaird, Tyson Gramkow, Jaclyn Angelotti, Stephen Coutts, Brian Siemers, Sara Tyson and Scott Taylor. Professor Frank Gersich is pictured to Beaird's left.

The eight MC students, enrolled in Contemporary Accounting Issues (the accounting program capstone course), achieved a higher average score than any previous class since the test has been administered at Monmouth, according to accounting professor Frank Gersich. “Our mean score of 165 points—on a scale of 120 to 200—was also well above the national institutional mean of 152, achieved between 2003 and 2005,” he explained.

Designed by Educational Testing Service and modeled on the Graduate Record Examinations, the Major Field Test (MFT) in Business contains about 120 multiple-choice questions based on the common body of business knowledge developed by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. It is administered online and students are allowed two hours to complete.

Test results are broken down into separate subject fields in order to provide useful curricular feedback. Monmouth was in the 95th percentile in the fields of Accounting, Finance and Economics. It also achieved a 90th percentile score in the fields of Legal and Social Environment, International Issues, and Quantitative Business Analysis and Information Systems.

“What is particularly noteworthy about our scores,” Gersich explained, “is that the vast majority of students taking the exam nationwide are enrolled in public universities which have much more extensive business course requirements than does Monmouth. The fact that our majors tend to do as well as or better than these students demonstrates the effectiveness of both the liberal arts learning environment and the kind of personal attention we can provide our students.”

Gersich said the test results are valuable not only to the students taking the exam, but also assist the department in evaluating its curriculum and recruiting new students.

Students participating in the exam were: Jaclyn Angelotti, an accounting/business administration major from Galesburg; Anthony Beaird, an accounting/business administration major from Coal Valley; Stephen Coutts, an accounting/business administration major from Ladd; Tyson Gramkow, an accounting/business administration major from Peoria; Josh Ragar, and accounting/business administration major from Stronghurst; Brian Siemers, an accounting/business administration major from Kewanee; Scott Taylor an accounting/business administration major from Evanston; and Sara Tyson, a mathematics/accounting major from Rushville.