Chinese high school students who plan to study in the United States will be able to take the American College Test (ACT) in China next year, according to an ongoing* meeting in Beijing.

At present, students have to travel to Hong Kong or the United States to take the test or take training courses at a few schools in China designated* by the ACT before they are allowed to take the test in the schools.

ACT is America’s most widely accepted college entrance exam, recognized by more than 3,300 U.S. universities.

It assesses* high school students’ general ability and their ability to complete* college-level work.

The multiple-choice* tests cover four skill areas: English, mathematics*, reading, and science. The writing test, which is optional*, measures* skill in planning and writing.

With hundreds of thousands of Chinese college students taking TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) to apply to postgraduate* programs at U.S. universities, a growing number of Chinese high school students also hope to take ACT and the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), which are known among Chinese students as the “U.S. college entrance examination.”

China’s annual National College Entrance Examinations are regarded as the fiercest* of its kind in the world.

ACT and SAT offer more hope for many students, who have several chances to take the tests in a year.

Since May 2005, more than 2,000 Chinese students have registered for ACT training courses and have taken the test.

Since 1978, more than 400,000 Chinese students have studied abroad, with more than 100,000 returning to the country over the last two decades.

Xiong Yutong, a staff member* at the U.S. Embassy* in Beijing, said the the students only need to have basic English skills and be able to cover the expenses.

The increasing popularity of overseas college entrance tests in China has sparked worries of a “student brain drain*” to universities outside the mainland.

Over the summer, more than 30,000 students applied to study in six Hong Kong-based universities that could take only 1,000 freshmen from the mainland.

(SD-Xinhua)