Students in Western Kentucky University’s Master’s of Business Administration program are in the top 20 percent of all MBA students in the United States, according to national test scores.

MBA students across the country take the Major Field Test, an exit exam used to determine how much MBA students learn during their program. WKU’s MBA students rated in the top 20th percentile as a group, according to a news release.

“The MBA Major Field Test is the ‘gold standard’ for MBA programs,” said April Schleig, WKU’s MBA advisor and admissions director, in a news release. “Every program in America strives for a high score on this exit exam.”

Three MBA options are offered at WKU: professional-weekend, full-time one-year and online. In 2011, professional-weekend graduates scored in the top 20 percent, online graduates scored in the top 30 percent and full-time graduates measured at the national average, according to the release.

“Since one-half of our full-time students are international students who speak English as a second language, it is quite an achievement for them to score at the national average for learning in a test written in English,” said Bob Hatfield, WKU’s MBA executive coordinator, in the release.

The combined test score averages of all three programs has been greater than the national average score for three of the past four years the Gordon Ford College of Business has been conducting the tests, according to the release.