ONLINE TESTING
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM SPECIFICATIONS The following information reflects the comprehensive (multiple-choice) exams used for all Business Simulations events. Please keep in mind that each association makes independent decisions regarding exams for association conferences (as do chapters who offer on-campus competitions). New comprehensive, multiple-choice exams are developed each year and are based on the most recent update of national business and industry standards.
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR 2016–2017 • All exams are 100-item, multiple-choice.
• Students are allowed to use a calculator during testing. Devices capable of connecting to the Internet are not allowed. • Tests are designed with test discrimination in mind. The design is intended to encourage a broad range of student scores, thereby making the results more valid and reliable in terms of identifying “winners.” • Items are prorated across all eligible performance indicators so that each instructional area (e.g., promotion) is represented in proportion to the total of all performance indicators. For example, if there were a total of 200 indicators in a particular list, and 25 of them were from the promotion area, there would be approximately 12 or 13 promotion items on the exam. • All exams are fully independent of one another. All items are reviewed on a regular basis, and updated as appropriate. Although items are pulled from a large test-item bank, some may have appeared in other products, including other exams, learning modules, or practice activities. However, although many items for a given performance indicator may sound “similar” to students, the actual chance of an item being reused in any given year is small. (The item bank exceeds 30,000.)
EXAMS FOR SPECIFIC EVENTS
At the international level, three exams are being used in 2016-17. Each exam is utilized for multiple competitive events as follows: FINANCE EXAM: Accounting | Banking Financial Services | Corporate Finance HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM EXAM: Hotel and Lodging | Restaurant and Food Service Management | Travel and Tourism RETAIL MANAGEMENT AND MERCHANDISING EXAM: Fashion Merchandising and Marketing | Retail Management
PREPARING FOR EXAMS
Review the list of performance indicators for the event you are competing in. Performance indicator lists and sample exam questions can be found at www.deca.org.
CERTIFICATIONS
Students who achieve proficiency on DECA’s association-level and International Career Development Conference-level Hospitality & Tourism Cluster Exam are eligible for AHLEI’s Certified Guest Service Professional (CGSP®) designation. Additionally, students achieving proficiency on the Collegiate DECA Conference-level Hospitality & Tourism Cluster Exam are eligible for the knowledge component of the Certified Hospitality Supervisor (CHS®) designation, exempting them from taking the CHS® exam. Students will still need to complete the time in position requirement before obtaining the CHS® designation. This pertains to the following events: • Hotel and Lodging • Restaurant and Food Service Management • Travel and Tourism
6 ›› COLLEGIATE DECA GUIDE 2016
Beginning in 2016-17, all testing for the International Conference will be administered using an online testing platform. Students competing in an event with an exam component will complete their exam prior to the conference. To find out which events include an exam, please refer to page 4 in this publication. • Additional information will be available in October on the Collegiate DECA website (link to http://www.deca.org/ college-programs/collegecompetitive-events/), and will be communicated through the DECA Direct: Collegiate Edition online newsletter. • The use of online versus paperand-pencil testing varies at the Association-level.