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The College Board is a non-profit examination board in the USA, comprised of over 4,500 institutions of higher learning. It is known principally for managing standardized tests such as the SAT, PSAT, CLEP and the subject-specific SAT II and AP tests. The SAT, the most well known of these, is a test widely used for admission to universities in the United States, which over 3 million prospective college students take yearly. All of the tests are actually administered by the Educational Testing Service, which is an independent non-profit organization that also administers other tests like the GRE and TOEFL.
The SAT has been subjected to increasing criticism in recent years, and College Board has decided to completely overhaul the test in 2005. In addition, the Board decided that the name "SAT", which was formerly an acronym for "Scholastic Aptitude Test", should no longer stand for anything. Schools no longer put as much weight into SAT scores into making admission decisions as was once the case, and some now disregard them entirely.
The College Board also supervises the Advanced Placement Program. Students in the later years of high school can take certain advanced courses, after which they take an AP test; many colleges will treat them as having taken an equivalent college-level credit class depending on their score. AP tests are scored on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest. Different colleges have differing requirements for score levels and test areas that they will accept. Some colleges will accept a 2 or above on an AP test as college credit, others a 3 or 4. AP test subjects include English language and literature, foreign languages and literature, economics, history, geography, art, computer science, natural science, mathematics, goverment, psychology, and music.
The Board's headquarters are in New York City.
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