page_title: Test (assessment)
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Test (assessment) / History / Modern era / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: School children doing exams inside a classroom, 1940. Children sitting at their school desks in a classroom doing scholarship examinations, 16 April 1940.
context_page_description: A test or examination is an assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics. A test may be administered verbally, on paper, on a computer, or in a predetermined area that requires a test taker to demonstrate or perform a set of skills. Tests vary in style, rigor and requirements. For example, in a closed book test, a test taker is usually required to rely upon memory to respond to specific items whereas in an open book test, a test taker may use one or more supplementary tools such as a reference book or calculator when responding. A test may be administered formally or informally. An example of an informal test is a reading test administered by a parent to a child. A formal test might be a final examination administered by a teacher in a classroom or an I.Q. test administered by a psychologist in a clinic. Formal testing often results in a grade or a test score. A test score may be interpreted with regards to a norm or criterion, or occasionally both. The norm may be established independently, or by statistical analysis of a large number of participants.
context_section_description: Written examinations had been unheard of before 1702 for European education. "The Chinese examinations were described repeatedly in Western literature on China of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." Standardized testing began to influence the method of examination in British universities from the 1850s, where oral examination had been the norm since the Middle Ages. In the US, the transition happened under the influence of the educational reformer Horace Mann. This shift decisively helped to move education into the modern era, by standardizing expanding curricula in the sciences and humanities, creating a rationalized method for the evaluation of teachers and institutions and creating a basis for the streaming of students according to ability.
  Both World War I and World War II demonstrated the necessity of standardized testing and the benefits associated with these tests. Tests were used to determine the mental aptitude of recruits to the military. The US Army used the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale to test the IQ of the soldiers.
  After the War, industry began using tests to evaluate applicants for various jobs based on performance. In 1952, the first Advanced Placement (AP) test was administered to begin closing the gap between high schools and colleges.
caption: Students taking a scholarship examination in a classroom in 1940
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