| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1990 |
| Headquarters | Baltimore |
| Parent | Educational Testing Service |
Prometric is a U.S. company in the test administration industry. Prometric operates a test center network composed of over 10,000 sites in 160 countries. Many examinations are administered at Prometric sites including those from Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry , Microsoft, IBM, Apple, the Common Admission Test (CAT) of the IIMs, the European Personnel Selection Office, the Medical College Admission Test, the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination, Architect Registration Examination, and the USPTO registration examination. Prometric's corporate headquarters are located in Canton (Baltimore, Maryland) in the United States.
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Prometric's testing centers were originally part of Sylvan Learning Systems, who sold the company to the Thomson Corporation in 2000.[1] The Thomson Corporation announced its desire to sell Prometric in the fall of 2006, and Educational Testing Service announced its plans to acquire it.[2] On Monday, October 15, 2007, Educational Testing Service (ETS) closed its acquisition of Prometric from the Thomson Corporation.[3] Prometric is currently a wholly owned, independently operated subsidiary of ETS, allowing ETS to maintain non-profit status.
Prometric sells a range of services, including test development, test delivery, and data management capabilities. Prometric delivers and administers tests to approximately 500 clients in the academic, professional, government, corporate and information technology markets. While there are 3000 Prometric test centers across the world,[4] including every U.S. state and territory (except Wake Island), whether a particular test can be taken outside the U.S. depends on the testing provider. For example, despite the fact that Prometric test centers exist worldwide, some exams are only offered in the country where the client program exists. The locations where a test is offered, as well as specific testing procedures for the day of the exam, are dictated by the client.
In 2009, the company was involved in a controversy due to widespread technical problems on one of India's MBA entrance exams, the Common Admission Test. [5] While Prometric claims that the problems were due to common viruses,[6] this claim was disputed since these tests were not internet-based and were rather offered on local area networks within India, where the virus was pre-existent.[7] Due to this controversy Prometric allowed 8000 students to reappear for the examination.[8]