BLOOMBERG ASSESSMENT (BAT)

What is the BAT?

Bloomberg Assessment (BAT)
A global financial assessment for undergraduate, masters and MBA
students who are interested in a career in finance (a GMAT for finance)
An online test, developed by Bloomberg and administered in person:
150 multiple choice questions: 3 hours long
12 sections, both financial (Capital Markets, Economics) and non-financial (Problem Solving, Ethics,
Math Skills)
All in English
Students take the test either on campus at their university or in a Bloomberg office
Open to all undergraduates and masters students, irrespective of what subject they are studying
Free for your students in 2011

A platform for connecting with financial recruiters worldwide:

Allows students to advertise their availability and score to 20,000 global financial recruiters

What is the BAT?

Bloomberg Assessment (BAT)

If they do well overall, or in a particular sections, then recruiters can request to connect
with them about possible roles

In addition, Bloomberg will be inviting the top 15% of test-takers to interview with
them

Tailored careers advice:

Students gain an independent assessment of their skills, knowledge and areas for improvement,
as well as the finance role which might best suit someone with their abilities
A valuable addition to their CVs
Enables them to compare themselves against peers at their institution, in their region and around
the world

The Mission
Help students evaluate their skills and areas for improvement and
highlight areas of finance they may be most suited for
Help students find jobs
Help recruiters filter and more efficiently find people
Help recruiters connect with students from different institutions globally
A global benchmark for students worldwide

Test Content

Test Structure
Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Financial
Knowledge

Practical
Skills

Abilities

(30%)

(30%)

8. Tasks (multiple types of

Interactive simulations)

9. Verbal Skills
10. Math Skills
11. Situational Judgment
12. Ethical Judgment
13. Problem solving
14. Data Interpretation

(40%)

1. Economics
2. Accounting (FSRA)
3. Valuation
4. Corporate Finance
5. Capital Markets Issuance
6. Global Markets
7. Investment Management

Test questions reflect practical, current and real-world scenarios with industry lingo.

Creating Questions
For finance questions, Bloomberg recruited 14 content specialists around
the world
500 to 600 new finance questions are now being created every month

Thorough Review Process

Item Creation

14 Content Specialists
500-600 items per month
550 items

Education Team Review

6 content specialists

500 items

BBG Expert Review

3 senior Bloomberg reviewers

460 items

External Expert Review

US: Duke, Notre Dame
Europe: Cambridge, Cass
Asia: SMU
410 items

KEY FACT
Each question we
produce gets reviewed
at least 5 times

75% Pass

Sample Test Questions

Verbal

10

Sample Test Questions

Situational Judgment

11

Sample Test Questions

IB Corporate Finance & Financial Advisory

IB Capital Markets Issuance / Syndication

12

Sample Test Questions

Finance

13

Sample Test Questions

Finance (cont.)

14

Sample Test Questions

Finance (cont.)

Student Analytics

15

Example 1: Peer rankings

Not all test takers are going to have the same level of finance knowledge some students may
not know any finance at all
How do ensure an apples to apples comparison?
Answer: We provide peer rankings that show how test takers performed relative to their peer
group
Helps recruiters answer questions like between those two humanities/liberal arts students,
which one showed enough interest in finance that they are able to answer at least some finance
questions? And which one is stronger in the areas where humanities/liberal arts students are
supposed to be strong, such as analytical reasoning?
N.B. Student analytics will be shared only with institutions and are confidential. Recruiters will
only see students designated by numbers with no further details, and institutions will not be
listed
Peer Ranking
1. Everyone

Peer Ranking
72nd percentile
of peer group

2. Third (3rd) Years

Sample: 3,783
1,289

80th Percentile

68th

3. Humanities / Liberal Arts

766

4. Asia

1,096

Combined (2 + 3 + 4)

122

76th
72nd

95th

16

Student Analytics
Example 2: Scores for each section

17

Student Analytics
Example 3: Visualization of overall score

18

Student Analytics
Example 4: Comparison of scores to median score on a per section basis

19

Student Analytics
Example 5: Percentile ranking

Privacy and Data

Bloomberg Assessment (BAT)
The students name will never be released publicly or to any party
without the prior permission of the student. However, anonymous BAT
data will be available on every Bloomberg Terminal for our customers to
search for job seekers and we will enable recruiters worldwide to scan
and search www.Bloomberginstitute.com for candidates.
All data from the BAT will be shown transparently to everyone EXCEPT
the name of student and institution. Students will be identified by a
serial number that only the student knows, and that will allow him or her
to know how they rank locally and globally in each BAT section and
overall.
If a recruiter or employer is interested in meeting a serial number, we
will request permission from the student to reveal his or her name and
contact details.