"The reasons we are working together is to increase the awareness of ACT as another option for Chinese students," said ATA President Walter Wang, and "to enable significant growth in the market".
In the US, more than 1.66 million students in the 2012 high school graduating class - more than half of all graduates - took the ACT, said David Chadima, ACT vice-president for international group activities.
China is the No 1 source of international students to the US with about 160,000 Chinese students studying there, Chadima said.
In the past decade, the growth of applicants for college admission tests in the US has risen sharply, said Fan Meng, director of the North America exams department of New Oriental Education and Technology Group, one of the leading test preparation companies in China.
Fierce competition to enroll in local colleges and the eagerness to have their children exposed to the international arena have motivated Chinese parents to invest in their children's undergraduate education in the US, Fan said.
On the US side, the attempt to attract Chinese students has become more zealous since the 2008 global financial crisis, Fan said.
There have been about 10,000 test takers on each of the six test dates this year in Hong Kong - about 99 percent from the mainland, Fan said. For New Oriental, the number of students taking SAT courses has grown at least 30 percent each year, he said.
The visits have boosted the airline and hospitality industries.
"During the test days, hotels in Hong Kong are almost fully booked," Fan said.
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