The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) is an international organization of top graduate business schools. GMAC's objective is to provide a wide range of products, services, and activities to suit the needs of business schools and students, and the organization also serves as a main source of research and information regarding quality graduate management education. The Graduate Management Admissions Exam (GMAT) is owned and administered by GMAC. The GMAT is the first and only standardized test designed particularly for graduate business and management degrees, having been created in 1954. It is the global benchmark for admission to MBA degree programs, and it is available in over 100 countries. The GMAT is currently used by over 2,100 schools and 5,900 programs, and the test is taken about 230,000 times every year.