A business school exam is no longer just a test of knowledge confined to a traditional classroom setting. As business education evolves to meet the needs of a more diverse and technologically savvy student body, its exams must also transform.
With the rise of hybrid and remote learning, tech-enabled assessment tools have become essential for fostering both academic integrity and practical skill development. They also make the assessment process more accessible for those who may face challenges with traditional exam formats, such as working professionals, students with disabilities, or those balancing education with other commitments.
Technology empowers us to offer flexible, secure, and skill-focused evaluations. This gives all students a fair shot at demonstrating what they know in a way that reflects the real business world. That's why it's critical that instructors are equipped with solutions that enable them to create and grade assessments that truly mirror professional business practices.
This blog post demonstrates how technology can help mitigate the issues associated with delivering a traditional business school exam. We’ll cover how tech-driven solutions raise the bar for exam integrity, facilitate practical skill assessments, and provide actionable insights through advanced reporting features.
What are the challenges of delivering a traditional business school exam?
The traditional business school exam has long faced a series of hurdles, particularly in assessing practical skills and ensuring integrity in both in-person and remote settings.
Assessing practical skills
Many business concepts require hands-on application, such as analyzing financial data or building marketing forecasts. Traditional theoretical exams often struggle to capture students' proficiency in these tasks.
Take the universally recognized MBA, for example. The traditional MBA generally examines theory and broad business principles, whilst the “new-age” MBA has a more modern take to assessment, focusing on real-world application in technology-driven exams.
Huang and Ti (2019) highlight that the modern MBA emphasizes applying and synthesizing knowledge in business practice, bridging the gap between theory and real-world management.
Preventing cheating in hybrid and remote learning
Academic misconduct remains a persistent issue, especially as students gain access to advanced technologies, including ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini, that can be leveraged during high stakes exams.
In a 2023 study into the commonality of cheating in online exams, Newton found that nearly 55% of students admitted to cheating during the COVID-19 pandemic. With many institutions continuing a hybrid approach to assessments post-pandemic, the need for tools that mitigate the risks of online testing remains top of the agenda for institutions globally.
These hurdles have driven a need for innovative exam technologies that can ensure secure, fair, and comprehensive assessments.
How can technology help mitigate cheating in business school exams?
One of the key advantages of leveraging technology to administer a business school exam is its ability to reduce cheating, ensuring that only truly qualified individuals enter the workforce—especially in high-stakes roles such as financial analysts, CEOs, or healthcare administrators, where ill-informed decisions can have a significant impact on the public.
Modern exam technologies come with built-in security features that help maintain academic integrity regardless of location. Students are then able to focus on their assessments without distraction, giving assessors the opportunity to accurately evaluate their true capabilities.
Some of the ways in which technology can help mitigate cheating in a business school exam include:
Offline exam environments
Putting measures in place that ensure students cannot use the Internet during an exam minimizes the risk of external interference. This security measure isolates the exam process from other system functions, preventing tampering, and upholding assessment integrity.
Remote proctoring
Advanced AI technologies can monitor student behavior, flagging suspicious activities such as unusual eye movements or multiple voices in the room that may suggest a student is leveraging additional resources to gain an unfair advantage during an exam. Auto-identity verification also ensures that the student taking a remote exam is the one enrolled in the course.
Device lockdowns
With over half of students (53%) admitting to using generative AI for assessments, business schools can enhance their exam security by going beyond traditional locked-down browsers. By locking down the full device, students are restricted from accessing unauthorized websites, such as ChatGPT, third-party applications, and external materials during a business school exam.
How can technology support the assessment of practical skills in business?
Business education often requires students to demonstrate practical skills, such as financial modeling, data analysis, and problem-solving. Exam technologies can facilitate these assessments by offering secure, offline testing that enables hands-on application and real-time evaluation.
Spreadsheet assignments
Spreadsheet assignments are commonplace in a business school exam. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales notes, “Chartered Accountants are increasingly using more advanced approaches to interrogate client data. Embedding these techniques within our exams ensures that we continue to reflect the current and future workplace and will also help to develop your judgement, professional scepticism and critical thinking skills.”
While tools like Microsoft Excel allow students to input data, use formulas, and perform functions, these platforms aren’t always secure for assessment purposes. The increasing availability of AI tools like Excel Copilot, which automates financial modeling and data analysis, presents a dual challenge: It makes cheating easier for students and, simultaneously, makes it more difficult for educators to authentically integrate real-world business practices into their testing environment.
A secure assessment tool that mimics industry-standard spreadsheet software allows instructors to confidently evaluate student answers for accuracy and problem-solving processes, such as the efficiency of formulae and data analysis approaches.
An added benefit is that instructors can grade within the same secure environment for both formative assignments throughout the semester and high stakes final exams, ensuring consistency and fairness. This also allows for targeted feedback and deeper insights into student understanding—all within a single platform.
Scientific calculators
Advanced calculators built directly into assessment platforms allow students to perform complex mathematical operations during exams. They support integrated reasoning and multi-step problem-solving—which are core focuses in many high-stakes business assessments.
Calculators help by enabling students to handle formulae, financial models, and data analysis more efficiently. This is particularly beneficial in subjects like finance, economics, and quantitative business, where advanced calculations are essential.
Graphing calculators
Another useful assessment feature allows students to input expressions, text, and tables to generate visual models. These models can demonstrate trends in areas like sales, marketing, and business forecasting. By assessing how students create and interpret these models, instructors gain valuable insights into their strategic thinking abilities.
To keep pace with the evolving landscape of business education, assessment tools must not only support practical skill evaluation but also adapt to the diverse needs of today’s students. The question is, how can they do both effectively?
Adapting assessment tools for non-traditional and lifelong learners
The demographic makeup of students taking a business school exam is changing, with an influx of non-traditional and lifelong learners. These students often have different learning styles and require flexible assessment methods.
Technology-enabled tools support these needs by:
- Offering flexible exam formats, such as project-based assessments, open-ended case studies, or interactive simulations, that accommodate different learning preferences.
- Improving accessibility for students who need accommodations, by integrating features like screen readers, voice-to-text input, and adjustable time limits.
- Focusing on practical skill evaluation through a solution that can assess financial modeling, data analysis, or strategic decision-making rather than relying solely on rote memorization.
This adaptability ensures that all students, regardless of background, can demonstrate their knowledge and skills effectively—especially when delivering exams that reflect real-world business scenarios.
How does technology improve tracking and reporting of business school exam results?
Advanced assessment technologies should include tracking and reporting of student performance. These systems can categorize exam results, provide actionable insights for instructors, and support data-driven decision-making.
Immediate and in-depth performance reports
Upon exam completion, educators can receive detailed performance reports, allowing them to quickly gauge how well students grasped key concepts and identify areas where additional instruction may be needed.
Customizable reports and longitudinal insights
Data filtering options enable educators to customize reports, view class performance over time, and track longitudinal trends. This information can help instructors adjust their teaching strategies and ensure that learning objectives are being met.
Supporting student success with targeted feedback
Detailed reporting makes it easier to identify problematic exam questions and flag at-risk students for early intervention. Individualized, data-driven feedback helps students recognize areas for improvement and gives educators the opportunity to address learning gaps proactively to enhance student retention and overall academic success.
Flexible assessment formats for deeper insights
Spreadsheet-based problem-solving or case study analyses during a business school exam, give institutions the flexibility to deliver exams that reflect real-world business scenarios. With integrated technology like the aforementioned spreadsheet assignments and calculators, students can demonstrate skills in a more applied manner—giving educators richer data to inform their instruction.
By providing data-driven insights, technology strengthens tracking and reporting while promoting fair and consistent evaluations. But is data alone enough to ensure equity? How else can technology help create fairer outcomes for all?
What role does technology play in reducing bias in a business school exam?
Bias in grading can unintentionally affect student outcomes, undermining the fairness and credibility of assessments. Subjective factors—such as unconscious bias, familiarity with a student’s work, or even grading fatigue—can influence how an instructor evaluates responses. In a business school exam, where precision and analytical skills are key, it’s critical to ensure that grading remains as objective as possible.
By using technology to remove identifying information from student submissions, this ensures that work is evaluated purely on merit. Research shows that anonymous grading can significantly improve fairness and positively impact student outcomes.
In a study on macroeconomics courses, researchers found that female students received higher grades when their exams were graded anonymously, making them more likely to continue in the field. This suggests that biased grading contributes to the “leaky pipeline” phenomenon, where underrepresented groups are disproportionately discouraged from pursuing certain disciplines (Jansson and Tyrefors, 2022).
A fair assessment process not only benefits individual students but also strengthens the integrity of business education as a whole. By leveraging technology to minimize bias, institutions can create a more level playing field, ensuring that all students—regardless of background—are evaluated based on their true abilities. This, in turn, helps cultivate a more diverse and inclusive business leadership pipeline.
Overview: The benefits of implementing technology for every business school exam
The integration of technology into business school exams offers an array of benefits, including preventing cheating through enhanced security, supporting practical skill assessments, and improving student learning outcomes.
By adopting these solutions, business schools can better prepare their students for real-world business environments, ensuring they develop the skills and knowledge needed for successful, and potentially high-stakes, careers.