CORRELATES OF THE ETS FIELD TEST IN BUSINESS – GRADES AND CHOICE OF MAJOR

Timothy E. Jares
William Wilcox
Garth Allen
Robert Lynch
University of Northern Colorado
ABSTRACT
Using one objective measure of the level of student learning, the ETS Major Field Test in
Business (ETSB), this study examines correlation between both pre-college and college-level
measures of student performance for 448 business majors. Pre-college aptitude is, as expected,
highly correlated with subsequent ETSB performance, as is the choice of major and performance
in key core business courses. A remarkably consistent correlation of grades in certain courses to
higher ETSB scores provides evidence that faculty instructing these courses are doing very well
discriminating content knowledge and skill, and these courses may be adding an unidentified skill
set that results in better ETSB performance.