Ben sent Socrates to his death in the book
The movies clearly go with Ben not trying to help Socrates, but the book is set differently. Socrates is killed in the woodwork between the bathroom and the store room. Ben's whereabouts are unknown to Ratman. Socrates was in there alone as the girl was or so he thought. When Ratman goes to fetch Ben, he takes a while to get into the case, Ratman assumes this to be fear, but what if Ben wants to make sure Ratman isn't on to what he did? Ben clearly wanted the special privileges that Ratman only gave Socrates and later even Ratman seems to catch on Ben is smarter than Socrates, but it doesn't seem to cross his mind Ben may very well have had a helping paw in getting Socrates out of the way. Ratman's notebook eventually came into the possession of NIMH
The tests were deliberate attempts to replicate Ben's intelligence.