BYU Student and Alum Earn Top Scores on Internal Auditing Exam

PROVO, Utah — Jan 10, 2007 — A Brigham Young University graduate student and alumnus both earned kudos for their top-scoring performances on the Certified Internal Auditor exam administered by the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Eric Hatch, a graduate student in accounting at BYU’s Marriott School, earned the William S. Smith Student Highest Achievement Award for his top score on the exam given last May. Dale Holdaway, a 1993 Marriott School MBA graduate, earned the Smith Certificate of Excellence Award as one of the top five non-student performers on the same test.

“I was surprised upon hearing the news at first,” says Hatch, a 27-year-old senior. “I double checked my member ID on the letter to make sure it wasn’t some mistake.”

The CIA exam is given twice yearly to students and internal auditors alike. While not a required component of internal audit certification, passage of the CIA exam is considered an outstanding achievement within the internal auditing community — boosting a career and leading to new opportunities.

“The classes I took during my first year in the MAcc program were the biggest contributor to my preparation,” Hatch says. “I was surprised at how broad the scope of the exam was. I had to draw on things that I had learned in almost all of my classes.”

Holdaway graduated from the Marriott School with a bachelor’s degree in business management in 1991 and his MBA in 1993. He currently works as manager of global finance training for Ford Motor Co.

“I believe that I was able to score so highly on the CIA exam through simple, old-fashioned preparation and by learning to read both questions and potential answers very carefully while taking tests,” he explains.

The first CIA exam was administered in August 1974 to 654 candidates in the United States. Today, the exam is offered in more than a dozen languages. In May 2006, the test was administered at 250 sites in 98 countries around the world. More than 65,000 professionals have been certified through the Institute of Internal Auditors since the inception of the program.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems, organizational behavior and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.