College Entrance Examinations

In the early years of the United States, students applying to colleges took oral examinations given by professors at the school they wished to attend. As the size of the country grew, individual colleges prepared written examinations. However, this offered no common standard for schools that sent students to several colleges. At the urging of Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard University, and Nicholas M. Butler, president of Columbia, twelve colleges joined together in 1900 to form the College Entrance Examination Board. Beginning the next year, the C.E.E.B. offered standardized exams for college admissions. Brooklyn teacher L. Leland Locke graded some of these tests, and kept copies of related materials.

This acquisition includes over thirty examinations in mathematics and physics from the period 1901 to 1918, as well as a medieval and modern history exam from 1904. For example, one pamphlet has the examination questions in mathematics for the years 1901 through 1905.

Reference:

John A. Valentine, The College Board and the School Curriculum, New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1987.

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