The College Board is a non-profit association in the United States that was formed in 1900 with the title College Entrance Examination Board or CEEB. It has more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational groups or organizations as members. It sells standardized tests used by colleges, universities, and post-secondary education institutions to measure or rate a student’s ability. Gaston Caperton, a former Governor of West Virginia, has been the president of the college board since 1999 until this day. Their headquarters is located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City.
The college board manage tests for which it charges fees and also works with programs that are claiming to have raise the ability or achievement by poor and minority middle and high school students. Foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other grants fund the college board which also operates autonomously within New York City public school buildings.
The Code. The college board has a numbered registry of countries, colleges, college majors, scholarship programs, test centers and high schools that use this code. In addition to the college board’s internal use of this registry code, it is also borrowed by institutions as a means of identification. Meaning, a student can give his guidance department not only a college’s name and address, but the CEEB code as well, to ensure that his transcript is sent to correctly. ACT Inc., the no. 1 competitor of college board, also uses a similar code for colleges, scholarships, high schools and test centers but unlike the CEEB code, the ACT code is less widely used outside ACT Inc.
The Tests. The SAT Reasoning test is a fee-based, standardized test used for college or university admissions in the United States. Administered by the college board in the US and is developed, scored, and published by the ETS or Educational Testing Service. The SAT is an aptitude test that rates or score’s a persons ability and performance in specific areas such as mathematics, science and history. The SAT scores range from 600 to 2,400, having 800 points for each section. The test has a time limit and currently allots three hours and 45 minutes, and costs about $45. Most of the time, students take this test in their junior or senior year of high school.
Another test administered by the college board is the PSAT/NMSQT. The acronym stands for Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Same as the SAT, it is a fee-based standardized test that provides practice for the SAT reasoning Test. It is also the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation scholarship program.
The Advanced Placement Program is an extensive program that lets high school students experience and participate in what they call college level classes for a fee. Broadening the student’s intellectual horizons and preparing them for college is what the class is all about. The test also plays a huge role in the college admissions process, showing by the student’s performance, his intellectual capacity, and pure interest in learning. The program also allows many students to gain college credits for high performance.
The CLEP or College Level Examination Program is a program for students of any age to demonstrate collage-level achievement through a program or series of tests and exams in undergraduate college courses.
The college board have other tests that they offer but the tests listed above are the ones commonly used in colleges, universities, educational institutions and test centers. All are to determine the student’s skills and capabilities that he or she requires for college admissions, scholarship programs, or just for the simple reason of being prepared for the future.