A method for determining the state of a battery, or battery pack, that is independent of the type of battery technology under test. The method employs one or more charging and discharging cycles, and measures one or more parameters of battery voltage, temperature, charging time, and charging cycle counts to produce a test value that is compared to empirical data. Based on the comparison, the state is determined, for example, on a pass/fail basis. The method may be embodied as instructions stored in memory and implemented by means of a microprocessor coupled to the memory. In another embodiment, the empirical data is stored within another memory located internal to the battery pack under test.