The Comprehensive Business Exam provides a valid and reliable measure of the general business knowledge undergraduate students possess as they near graduation with a general business degree. The CBE is designed to assess the knowledge and concepts presented in the core courses required for an undergraduate degree in business.

CBE Results are Used to:

• Take stock of their business degree program by comparing the performance of their senior business majors to the performance of senior business majors at peer institutions,
• Judge the effectiveness of their program in preparing students,
• Document the change over time in students’ knowledge of business content. Faculty can administer a pretest using the CBE to freshman/sophomore students who have declared a business major and then again as the students approach graduation,
• Track over time the performance of different cohorts of business majors,
• Prepare accountability documents for governing boards and accrediting agencies,
• Gauge what senior students have learned over the four years in their core business degree courses, and finally,
• Establish within their degree program a culture of accountability and evidence that uses data to drive decisions about program changes and improvements.

CBE: Online Test

The Comprehensive Business Exam™ (CBE™) consists of 88 multiple-choice test questions designed to assess the core business content knowledge of soon-to-graduate college seniors who will earn an undergraduate business degree. Each administration of the CBE™ also includes an additional four to 12 unscored items in development for future versions of the CBE. Students should ideally take the CBE during the semester of their graduation from a fouryear college.

The CBE includes questions that cover 28 objectives within the following eight content domains :

• Accounting Online Test Questions
• Finance Online Test Questions
• Economic Environment Online Test Questions
• Social Environment Online Test Questions
• Legal Environment Online Test Questions
• Management Online Test Questions
• International Business Online Test Questions
• Marketing Online Test Questions
• Business Tools Online Test Questions (spring 2008)

Make Up

The 88-item Comprehensive Business Exam generally includes three multiple-choice items for each of the 28 objectives listed below. Because of the importance of the accounting function in business, four of the five objectives in the Accounting content domain use four items rather than the normal three to assess the student’s knowledge. An additional four to 12 items on the CBE consist of unscored items that will be used to gather psychometric information on questions for future versions of the exam.

The 28 general business content objectives assessed by the Comprehensive Business Exam include the following. The number of items assessing that particular objective are in brackets.

(1) Accounting

• Identify the basic financial statements and their purposes, and explain their interrelationships. [4]
• List the effects of transactions on the elements of the accounting equations and transaction analysis. [4]
• Demonstrate an understanding of the content, concepts, structure, and meaning of reporting for organizational operations for external use. [3]
• Identify and utilize sources of financial statement information of publicly traded companies. [4]
• Demonstrate a fundamental understanding of accounting terminology. [4]

(2) Finance

• Demonstrate an understanding of the valuation effects of each financial decision. [3]
• Demonstrate an understanding of the risk-return relationship and its effects on decision making. [3]
• Demonstrate the ability to access and use basic tools to calculate and measure financial outcomes. [3]
• Identify the major financial statements of a corporation and indicators of good performance. [3]

(3) Economic Environment

• Define terminology associated with economic environments in business (e.g., deficit, surplus, debt, market economy). [3]
• Demonstrate an appreciation for basic economics issues, such as limitations of resources and the global impact of economic issues on business. [3]
• Identify factors responsible for economic growth and the policies that impact long-run growth. [3]

(4) Social Environment

• Identify ethical issues and choose the most ethical action. [3]
• Demonstrate ethical and social responsibility in given business scenarios.[3]

(5) Legal Environment

• Identify legal issues and legal risks in business decision making, including the substantive areas of torts, contracts, and sales law. [3]
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts of the legal system such as the elements of a contract. [3]

(6) Management

• Select the appropriate management action in a business scenario involving employee supervision/evaluation. [3]
• Demonstrate an understanding of management and leadership and their differences. [3]
• Describe and explain the manner in which all of the functional areas in business operate, emphasizing business management. [3]
• Demonstrate an understanding of the other managers and the human resource management process. [3]
• Identify how to make changes and organizational changes. [3]

(7) International Business

• Demonstrate an understanding of current global business and future global business challenges. [3]
• Demonstrate an understanding of the environments of global business and the importance of global business strategies. [3]
• Demonstrate an understanding of the influences of political, economic, and cultural factors on the development of global business strategies. [3]

(8) Marketing

• Identify components of the marketing mix. [3]
• Demonstrate an understanding of the social/cultural; legal, political, and regulatory; economic; technological; and competitive environments on marketing products and services in a global society. [3]
• Demonstrate an understanding of the synergistic effects of combining product, promotion (communication), price, and distribution decisions relevant to market opportunities and applying this understanding to the development of a marketing plan. [3]
• Explain how consumers purchase and evaluate services. [3]

Demonstration

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