And Florida has set a goal to have their test scores rank among the top five states in the country, and the top 10 countries in the world.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Speaks on No Child Left Behind Reform

The most selective schools rank applicants according to their test scores, admitting only the best performers.

ECONOMIST: Grammar schools

Plenty of my school fellows did just OK in high school, went to second-rank universities, where they majored in having a good time, crammed for the LSAT (law school test) and squeezed into second-rank law schools or business schools.

BBC: Class calculator: A US view of the class system

The study found there was a positive link between good information technology and national test results, of 0.07 under the Spearman Rank Correlation statistical measurement system.

BBC: Books 'best for tests'

The Gaokao is China's national educational test, given to 10 million secondary students to determine their rank and placement at university.

WSJ: Can U.S. Universities Stay on Top?

The databases can--in a single day--test one disease-causing protein against a trillion chemical compounds and rank which ones are most likely to latch onto the protein and gum up its works.

FORBES: Machine Gunner