Many in the United States are quick to criticize standardized testing , but a glance at gaokao , China ’s college entrance exam , offer up some view on justhowbad standardized examination can actually be .
By the time Chinese high school students take gaokao , they have often pass up to half their life studying for the exam , which was first introduced in 1952 to even the chance gap between poor and affluent student in China .
take over two days , gaokao — which lasts nine hours and cover an regalia of guinea pig including Chinese lit and Mathematics — sees approximately 9 million scholarly person vie for few than 7 million college muscae volitantes per year .
Students pour over books mere minutes before the test begins.
Here ’s what that looks like :
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In China , gaokao is a educatee ’s sole gibe at getting into a college within the country . If they do n’t do well on the examination , they have no chance at earning a Chinese university degree , and face bleak job scene .
Thus , students desperate to get a good score are known to take IV amino back breaker drip for studying energy and even record hyperbaric O sleeping accommodation to reduce emphasis . Sometimes , the stress can leaven fateful : In 2011 , student Lü Pin committed self-destruction by jumping from his sixth floor dorm on the first day of the test .
out of doors of changes in a pupil ’s deportment , cities close down during the test . Airplanes are rerouted , factories are close , and car - French horn honking is foreclose . Even in 2008 during the Summer Olympics , the torch relay road was move so as not to upset gaokao test takers .
pay the fact that more and more students are leaving China to attend college abroad — and that , as critic paint a picture , the test encourage memorization instead of learning , has a hurtful impact on students ’ genial and emotional state , and is actually discriminatory given its region - based quota system – some have begun to call for an end to gaokao .
As Chinese talk of the town show emcee Zhong Shan said , " Is there no fashion at all we can deflect hold the younger propagation , the future of our land , grow up in such a fearful , desperate and roughshod ambience ? "
In the end , though , number alone might spell gaokao ’s demise . Amid falling numbers of student lead gaokao — an annual survey revealed that the number of taker has fall to record lows in Beijing , Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces — training experts just this calendar month have pushed university to look for new recruiting method acting to keep college enrollment human body up .
Read more about adequate opportunity education andhow income affects your SAT grievance .
