Quiz: Are You Smarter Than My Students?
I ran out of time tonight due to my class preparations (and since I work 16 hours tomorrow, I need my beauty sleep), so I thought that I’d post some of the questions from the exam I’m giving my Introduction to Contemporary Business students tomorrow night (I never appreciated how long it takes to write a text until I became an instructor!).
I typically teach high-level corporate finance (think bond pricing and asset-backed securities) or marketing management classes, so this course has been a break from the norm for me. I was surprised by the breadth of knowledge these students are responsible for - this is one of the early required courses in the cirriculum - but I guess they have to start building a foundation somewhere. This exam covers an extremely broad range of topics, so I bet most readers know the answers to a high percentage of these questions.
Are you smarter than an associate’s student? Take the short answer section of my exam and find out.
1. List the four Factors of Production and explain how these factors influence the overall supply of goods and services.
2. What is dumping? How do countries counteract this practice?
3. What does SWOT stand for?
4. Name and describe the five types of teams in the workplace.
5. What does SBA stand for?
6. Discuss each of the four motives frequently cited as major reasons why people become entrepreneurs.
7. List four of the major challenges regarding e-commerce for both consumers and businesses.
8. Name the four primary functions of the Internet
9. List the steps involved in the decision-making process.
10. Name the four forms of incentive compensation.
11. Name the five needs in Maslow’s hierarchy.
12. Name the four P’s in the Marketing Mix
13. Name the Federal Reserve’s three major policy tools
Good luck!
Update: I have posted the answers in the comments section below.
Stumble it!
May 15th, 2008 at 8:29 am
1. List the four Factors of Production and explain how these factors influence the overall supply of goods and services.
The CEO — he convinces people to give him money to start production.
The investors — they let the CEO coerce them into giving money.
The marketing department — they convince people they need what is being produced.
The legal department — they deal with the consequences when people actually use what is being produced.
2. What is dumping? How do countries counteract this practice?
As a child, you knew it as “Number 2″. Countries try to add fiber to their citizens’ diets.
3. What does SWOT stand for?
Sealed With Overt Tonguing.
4. Name and describe the five types of teams in the workplace.
Passive Aggressive — team continually positions itself so that its inevitable failures can be blamed on circumstances.
Passive Inert — team is incompetent and knows it, and tries to avoid calling attention to itself at all costs.
Active Aggressive — team behaves as though it is at war with all other departments, and is setting them up to take the fall for its own lack of success.
Active Inert — team performs equivalent of digging holes and filling them back up again to try to avoid doing the company any harm.
Productive — exists only in fairy tales.
5. What does SBA stand for?
Slovakian Basketball Association.
6. Discuss each of the four motives frequently cited as major reasons why people become entrepreneurs.
Bipolar Disorder — entrepreneur honestly thinks this is a good idea during manic cycles.
Dissociative Identity Disorder — one of entrepreneur’s self-destructive alternate personalities decides to get creative.
Schizophrenia — maybe THIS will get the voices in entrepreneur’s head to shut the hell up.
Major Depression — entrepreneur is trying to work-up sufficient despair to make the next suicide attempt stick.
7. List four of the major challenges regarding e-commerce for both consumers and businesses.
Software tools like SpamAssassin prevent business from reaching consumer.
The market is already glutted with Viagra, and some consumers may (mistakenly) feel their penises are already large enough.
After the dot-com bust of the late ’90’s, it just isn’t as easy to become a millionaire based on a half-baked application of poorly-understood technology.
Sometimes, the monkey punches back.
8. Name the four primary functions of the Internet
Porn.
Porn.
Ebay.
Porn.
9. List the steps involved in the decision-making process.
Procrastination.
Panic.
Regret.
10. Name the four forms of incentive compensation.
If you do better, we’ll give you this lovely coffee mug.
Do better, or we fire you.
Do better, or we punch your spouse.
Do better, or we run over your dog.
11. Name the five needs in Maslow’s hierarchy.
Porn.
Porn.
Ebay.
Porn.
Up-to-the-minute sports scores.
12. Name the four P’s in the Marketing Mix
Pandering.
Plagiarizing.
Polarizing.
Porn.
13. Name the Federal Reserve’s three major policy tools
Fear, uncertainty, doubt.
Do I win a cookie?
– Yer future brother-in-law
May 17th, 2008 at 10:02 am
There is no way I could get better than a 50% on your test but if you wanted to challenge your students to some physics questions then I guess I could prove I’m smarter.
May 18th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Thanks, Pete, for your humorous stab at these questions. I like your answers better than the real ones:
1.List the four Factors of Production and explain how these factors influence the overall supply of goods and services.
a.Natural resources
b.Capital
c.Human resources
d.Entrepreneurship
2.What is dumping? How do countries counteract this practice?
Dumping is the practice of selling products abroad at prices below production costs or at lower prices than the same products are sold in the home market in an effort to unload surplus or capture market share from domestic and foreign competitors.
3.What does SWOT stand for?
SWOT is a strategic analysis acronym. It stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
4.Name and describe the five types of teams in the workplace.
a.Work teams – semi-permanent teams composed of people with complementary skills that do the day-to-day work of the organization
b.Self-managed teams – a work team that is empowered with the authority to make decisions about how the members complete their daily tasks
c.Problem-solving teams – temporary combination of workers who gather to solve a specific problem and then disband
d.Cross-functional teams – team make up of members from different functions such as operations, marketing and finance
e.Virtual teams – members seldom or never meet in person and instead collaborate electronically.
5.What does SBA stand for?
Small Business Administration
6.Discuss each of the four motives frequently cited as major reasons why people become entrepreneurs.
a.Desire to be your own boss
b.Financial success
c.Job security
d.Quality of life
7.List four of the major challenges regarding e-commerce for both consumers and businesses.
a.Privacy and internet fraud concerns
b.Unreliable and hard-to-use websites
c.Deliveries and returns
d.Conflicts with business partners/suppliers/intermediaries
e.Challenges with measuring the success of internet promotions
8.Name the four primary functions of the Internet
a.Information
b.Communication
c.Entertainment
d.E-commerce
9.List the steps involved in the decision-making process.
a.Recognition of a problem or opportunity
b.Development of alternative courses of action
c.Evaluation of alternatives
d.Selection and implementation of chosen alternative
e.Follow-up to determine decision effectiveness
10.Name the four forms of incentive compensation.
a.Profit sharing
b.Gain sharing
c.Lump-sum bonus
d.Pay-for-knowledge (salary increase)
11.Name the five needs in Maslow’s hierarchy.
a.Physiological
b.Safety
c.Social
d.Esteem
e.Self-actualization
12.Name the four P’s in the Marketing Mix
a.Price
b.Promotion
c.Placement
d.Product
13.Name the Federal Reserve’s three major policy tools
a.Reserve requirement change
b.Discount rate change
c.Open market operation