Organizing the 'Meritocracy': A History of the College Entrance Examination Board

As higher education has opened to more and more students, the standardized tests of the College Entrance Examination Board, which regulate access to it,have attracted considerable attention. And for good reason: in the past two decades,job opportunities in the white collar and professional worlds have expanded much more rapidly than the number of blue collar positions.1 Because higher education is taken as prerequisite to the white collar and professional ranks, more young people have focused their ambitions on college entrance. College entrance exams arouse deeply felt anxieties, for it is important not only to go to college but to the