24 Stunning Photos Of China's

Insanely Stressful College Entrance

Exam Process
Nearly 9.8 million Chinese high school students took the National
College Entrance Exam, called gaokao, on June 7 and 8.
The emphasis on a two-day test has sparked criticism from some
educators because of the incredible amount of pressure it places on
students leading up to just one test. Gaokao has also been linked
toChina's rising suicide rate because of mounted pressure and poor
test results.
Hengshui High School, the highest achieving secondary schools in
gaokao over the last 14 years, has these as its two mottos: "Life is not a
rehearsal, because you won't have the chance to live it all over again,"
and "If you haven't died from hard work, just work harder." At
Hengshui, students study from 5:30 a.m. to 9:50 p.m., cannot have
cell phones and are allowed just one day of vacation every
month. Cameras are placed in each classroom to monitor students for
laziness. These types of tactics are increasingly common at what many
are calling gaokao-sweatshops - schools that exclusively prepare
students for gaokao.
"I usually spent three to five minutes eating dinner," a former student
of Hengshui told China Daily.
Needless to say, the stakes are insanely high.

The Ministry of Education reported that students are competing for

6.5 million vacancies in universities across the country, according to
Xinhua News agency. Currently the test is divided into three main
areas: Chinese, math, and English, though there are other more
specialized tests, too. The country's education ministry recently
announced plans to reduce emphasis on English and instead bolster
Chinese in the near future.
The pictures (via Reuters) are dazzling.

REUTERS/China Daily
Students taking an English exam in an exam hall at Dongguan
University. English is one of three main areas of testing, along
with math and Chinese.

REUTERS/China Daily

Art students draw sketches in Jianan, Shandong province.

REUTERS/China Daily

A mother waits outside in Hefei, Anhui province. In some parts

of the country, authorities banned outdoor square dancing (a
popular activity for elderly Chinese people) within 500 feet of
testing buildings because of the loud music.

REUTERS/Stringer

Students taking the bus to their exam in Liu'an, Anhui province.

Thousands of family and friends crowded the streets in support
as they left for the test.

REUTERS/China Daily

Zheng Dong (left) studies in a hotel room in Shanghai near the

site of his exam. In Beijing, over 1,700 taxi drivers offered to give
free rides to students in town for the test.

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Invigilators monitor examinees in Suining, Sichuan in case of

any sudden cheating. Leading up to gaokao, some high schools
place security cameras in classrooms to monitor students in case
of laziness.

REUTERS/Stringer

A student takes a quick study break. Some schools have been

criticized for producing "robots" who study 15 hours per day for
gaokao.

REUTERS/Stringer

Students self-studying at night in Hefel, Anhui province. 9.8

million students took gaokao this year, in comparison with 1.8
million students who take the SAT.

REUTERS/Stringer

Parents in Huaibei, Anhui wait for their children to finish the

exam.

REUTERS/Stringer

Leading up to the exam, students and teachers take part in

pressure-release activities, like this trust-fall.

REUTERS/Stringer

Students walk by Confucius after a rainy morning in Wuhan.

Many temples were flooded in the weeks leading up to the test
with parents praying to Confucius, China's great educator.

REUTERS/Darley Wong

A security check in Shenyang, Lioning province. Authorities

vowed to crack down on cheating during the exams this year.

REUTERS/Stringer

A hidden camera inside a pen (second from the left) and a

receiver disguised as an eraser confiscated by police.

REUTERS/Stringer

Glasses containing a hidden camera and a coin with a tiny

receiver.

REUTERS/Stringer

A more complex cheating contraption in Chengdu, Sichuan

provence.

REUTERS/Stringer

Confiscated cell phones and receivers. The Ministry of Education

said students caught cheating would be stripped of enrollment
qualifications for 1-3 years.

REUTERS/Stringer

A morale-boosting exercise in Hengshui, Hebei province.

Students waved flags and shouted "Come on Hengshui No. 2 high
school, you are the best!"

REUTERS/Stringer

Police tried to contain students as they lined up to register for

the exam.

REUTERS/China Daily

Parents in Shanghai waited for the exams to finish.

REUTERS/Aly Song

Applicants walking outside after finishing their first day of

testing.

REUTERS/Darley Wong

A teacher checking examinees names in Hefel. Because of the

importance of one test, "gaokao-sweatshops" - high schools that
prepare students exclusively for the test - have become
increasingly common.

REUTERS/Jianan Yu

These students took oxygen while studying chemistry at a

hospital in Suining.

REUTERS/Stringer

China Girds for High-Stress 'Gaokao'

Weekend

China is a country full of worried parents and stressed-out, nervous

students. Thats because tomorrow is the beginning
of gaokao weekend.
The gaokao (which literally means high test) is the grueling annual
entrance exam that determines the college every student will attend.
This year, there will be 9.39 million nail-biting test-takers (up
270,000 from 2013) participating in the two-day exam that runs
June 7-8.
With the future of so many of Chinas students riding on the
outcome, cities across the country are taking extra precautions to
ensure everything goes smoothly. Local governments should be
ready for emergency responses to ensure examinees smooth
commute in the case of traffic jams, the Ministry of Education
announced on Thursday, reported the official Xinhua News Agency.
Local governments are asked to prepare for possible natural
disasters such as earthquake, high temperatures, rainstorms and
floods to guarantee that all exams go ahead, the ministry added.
BLOG: The

10-Question Strategy for Integrated Reasoning

In Beijing, more than 70,000 students have signed up for the

weekend test. Concerned that the flood of parents ferrying children
to the exam will cause horrendous traffic jams, city authorities have
designated 12 streets as green channels for test-takers. Over 1,700
of Beijings taxi drivers have volunteered to give free rides to
students, China Daily reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Foshan, Guangdong province,
where more than 44,000 students will take the gaokao, authorities
have banned outdoor square dancing, a popular activity for elderly
Chinese, within 500 meters of testing centers. The fear is that the
accompanying music, usually blaring over loudspeakers, would
disturb the students ability to concentrate.
The test for now has three key areas, including Chinese, math, and
English, but that is expected to change in the next few years. The

education ministry has announced a controversial plan to reduce

the English emphasis, while beefing up Chinese, starting in Beijing.
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UVA Frat Parties Rage On

Some educators, too, are questioning whether it is a mistake to tie so

much of a students future to one exam, and whether the excessive
pressure that places on students is healthy. Chinas high-stress high
school and college examination system is contributing to a wave of
students committing suicide, warned a study released last month by
the Beijing-based nonprofit 21st Century Education Research
Institute.
For now, the role of the test in determining ones future is so
important that so-called gaokao sweatshopsusually boarding
schools that put students through boot camp-like test preparation
have popped up across the country.
Hengshui High School, about 270 kilometers south of Beijing and
with more than 10,000 students, all of whom board, for example,
has won kudos for its record getting students into Chinas best
universitiesbut also criticism for its over-the-top study regimen.
STORY: Full

Transcript of Obama's 2015 State of the Union

Address
Hengshui students are required to rise at 5:30 a.m., starting the day
with 15 minutes of group exercises, before beginning the grueling
daily schedule of 13 classes, all aimed at acing the gaokao, that dont
wrap up until 9:50 at night. The busy schedule is widely criticized
for depriving youngsters of their personal freedom and instead
turning them into robots, reports Xinhua.
Last year, Hengshui got 104 students into Chinas two most elite
academies, Beijing University and Tsinghua University. Four
thousand students from Hengshui will take this weekends gaokao.

And if there was any doubt about the seriousness of Hengshuis

study program, just check out some of the school slogans.
There is no Go Team! at Hengshui. Instead, the best-known school
mantras include: Life is not a rehearsal, because you wont have the
chance to live it all over again, and If you havent died from hard
work, just work harder, Xinhua reported.
Quora User, half-local in Luoyang, Shangha... (more)
35 upvotes by Stephan Si-Hwan Park, Joseph Boyle, Allen Sirolly, (more)

In the final year of my high school, I have about 10 45-minute lectures a day from about
8AM to 7PM. 12 PM - 1PM is lunch time. All irrelevant subjects that will not appear in
Gaokao are gone except the Physical Education. My timetable for such 10 lectures looks like:
Physics, Physics, Math, Math, (Chinese), , English, English, [2 special scheduled
lectures]. The scheduled lecture are coordinated by teachers and may be Physics on
Monday, Math on Tuesday, ... We will have at least one lecture slot for PE every week. I play
badminton. Some others play basketballs, footballs and ping-pong. We need to exercise to
stay alive.
We usually have lunch in our school's canteens serving noodles, rice, vegetables, beaf, fish,
etc. And, after school, I have dinner at home while watching news. News are important
because they be may be covered in Gaokao.
At school, we follow teachers' plans. Usually, we go through all basic knowledge of every
subjects in the 1st term and focus on practising in the 2nd term. Our progress and readiness
is usually evaluated by our scores in answering examination papers of past years in
published books containing collections of exam papers. We answer those papers year by
year, province by province (many provinces have different papers), city by city (some cities
may have their own simulated papers), district by district (some districts may have their
own simulations as well) and finally school by school (top high schools have their own
simulations).
Every night, I do my homework and go to bed around 12AM. The homework usually
contains some exam papers, special exercises for particular chapters, some English articles
and Chinese poems and articles to recite, etc. We also intentionally read newspapers, books,
TV reports and educational shows for potential materials that we can use in writing Chinese
essays which is one important part for the Chinese subject.
In the entire final year, my high school organize a overall evaluation called (Monthly
Examination) every month. Our scores of will be used to rank us and serve as an
important metric for evaluation purpose. Higher ranking can guarantee a higher chance to
be recommended to some top universities since some good high schools have the right to
recommend some students to certain top universities. This ranking also indicates our
relative positions so that we can predict our final rankings in the Gaokao which will decide
whether we can get in the university we applied or not.

Before the final Gaokao, my school also designed 3 rounds of final simulations. They are so
well designed! The overall score I achieved in my last simulation is exactly the same with my
final score in the real Gaokao.
Jim Hu, Hangzhou, China
8 upvotes by Jia Liu, Steven Zeletzki, Edwin Khoo, (more)

I am a third-year undergraduate studying in China now. When I was a senior high school
student, I just had classes as usual and then, attended Gaokao (University Entrance Exam).
Of course, it was a hard time, because we spent most of our time in studying. It is really
ridiculous, because most students study for the Gaokao. Anaway, education resources in
China are still limited. Those students living in metropolitans and other economy developed
district, are much easier to go to prestigious Univ. They may spent less time in preparing
and have more chances and time to learn things which they are really interested . But for
those students living in rural areas, they are more dilligent. I read it from newspaper, that
some students study and do exam papers even 14 or 15 hours everyday .
Glenn Qian
6 upvotes by Quora User, Quora User, Benjamin Derville, (more)

I don't really think my case can represent the situation of an average Chinese student, but
I'll write my answer here so that you know there are variations among Chinese students.
First of all, as background information, my high school is known for quality education and
freedom for students. Over half of all students get admission to overseas or domestic
universities before Gaokao. And for those taking Gaokao, preparation starts no earlier than
the last summer before Gaokao.
In the last semester of my high school, I actually got more sleep than before. This is because
a student facing Gaokao has certain privilege over other students. For instance, I didn't have
to leave the dorm before 7 am and do morning exercises every morning, so I could get up at
8 am and then go for breakfast. Every night, electricity is cut off at 10 pm, so I would go to
sleep soon after that.
Though teachers are usually present at every class and ready for taking questions, there are
no more teaching in the second half of the semester. Students are free to study whatever
they think they are weak at. There is one informal simulation exam every week and teachers
would explain answers to students after each simulation exam.
Preparing for an exam so far away is boring, so we need entertainment. While choices were
limited, playing games on the computer in classroom seemed to be most preferred among
boys. We would play KOF one on one during lunch break, while having someone keep
watching for teachers. Sometimes we were caught by teachers, but they would just ask us to
shut down the computer without blaming us too much.
Honestly speaking, that was one of my happiest time. It is far more suffering fighting
deadlines in college than spending the whole year preparing for one exam.
By the way, such way of preparing for Gaokao did not have negative influence on my result.
My Gaokao score was among the top 0.1% in the province.
Anonymous

4 upvotes by Rita Valentina, Dan Tang, Parishrut Pandey, (more)

Well, it depends.For different areas have different version of paper, and the studying
pressure differs from provinces. For example my roommate is from Fujian province and he
said he had 4 hours to play computer every day in grade three. But when I was in grade
three, I had only half-day off every week. No weekend, few holidays.
A brief schedule is like:
Getting up at 6:00 am
Attending classroom at 6:30 am
Reading till 7:15 am for the breakfast
Having class from 7:45 am to 12 am(break and exercising time included)
Lunch and nap from 12 am to 2 pm
Having class from 2 pm to 5:30 pm
dinner
Self-studying from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
That's it.
We had a lot pressure preparing for the Gaokao. For we only got one shoot to get good
grades. For entering the schools we dreaming of, grades is all.
If there is only one way to get himself a better future for a students (in a certain
period), he can never be too hard-working.
Especially when every other competitor knows it, and the competition is fair enough.
PS: I was lucky enough to rank top 100 from 438,000 students in Hubei province, and was
admitted to Tsinghua University. :)
And I admire the days in high school. That was the time when I was addicted to a simple
task while knowing every effort I made will count.
That's the best living(working) condition .Isn't it?

The Gaokao Highway to Hell

Chinas Gaokao college entrance exam, which heavily tests rote memorization and decides the fate of
Chinas youth, is objectively awful. Students know this, teachers know this, the government knows this,
my aunt Agatha knows this. Recently though Ive gained a new appreciation for just how horrific it is.
For the past week Ive been in my girlfriends Shandong hometown staying with her aunt, uncle and
17-year-old cousin Emily.
Emily is a puny 90 pounds with the horrible eyesight common among Chinese youth. If given the
chance, shell talk to you for hours about soap operas and schoolyard gossip.

Two-and-a-half years ago she and her family came to visit us in Nanjing. It was a kind of celebration for
passing the end of middle school test and getting into the towns best high school. Since that trip,
Emilys life has been hell.
This summer shell take the Gaokao. So each day she goes to school from 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM with a
two hour lunch. She gets Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings offusually.
Every night at 10:15, her mom waits anxiously at the front door. When Emily arrives on her electric
bike, she leans on the horn in annoyance. Her mom bolts out the door to open the courtyard gate. No
matter how fast she makes it out, Emily is irritated. Shes running on fumes already and vents at the
routine setback of having to wait ten seconds to get in the house.
When she gets in the front door, her mom hustles her over to a warm footbath shes prepared. Any
precious second thats wasted is a second Emily will lose from study or sleep. But once she sits down
to her footbath, she has a few minutes to unwind. Its the one window where I can talk to her. The
topic, of course, is how miserable her day was.
After we chat for about five minutes, her mom hands her a textbook and I take my cue to head off to
bed. This is just the beginning of Emilys night.
The time that she goes to bed varies. On a rare good night, itll be a little after midnight. I once woke
up to use the bathroom at 2:30 and found her passed out on a book. Im just taking a little rest, she
looked up and uttered pathetically, as if she needed to justify the catnap to me.
If she managed to get all her homework done, her mom will rouse her at 6:30 AM at which point
theyll bargain over whether Emily can have a few more minutes of sleep. Emily never wins this
negotiation. Once shes up, shell do a little morning studying, make quick work of her breakfast and
be out the door (This is what Im told anyways. Ive never actually been awake to see it myself).
Normally, the entire family treats me like a prince. Theyll bend over backwards to make sure I dont lift
a finger while Im there. Meals are placed before me and trips are made across town to get any little
thing they think I might want, no matter how strongly I object (I like to think this is just because Im a
guest, but realistically, I know my foreignness plays a role). All this princely treatment ends abruptly
though when it conflicts with the schedule of the Queen.
After subtracting the commute, Emily has an hour-and-a-half at home for lunch. Ive been told ever so
politely (but in no uncertain terms) that Im to be out of the house during this period. Emily doesnt
have time to be distracted by me. Shell scarf down lunch in a matter of minutes and then go straight
to bed for some precious afternoon Zsunless of course she still has unfinished homework.

After several more hours of drilling and practice tests, shell come home and repeat. As I head to bed I
tell her, Dont work too hard. Im the only one doling out such advice.
My girlfriend has persuaded Emilys parents that the brain needs time to relax, and now theyre
relatively easy on her. During her free Saturday afternoon, shes allowed to watch soap operas and talk
with me for a little while before being directed back to her study desk. Many of her classmates though
have their faces stuffed in their books at every waking moment or have an outside tutor arranged
during this time.
Teachers and parents are perfectly aware of how much stress this puts on the kids. They try to
occasionally organize activities to relieve the pressure and allow some semblance of socializing. But
these occasions are too little and too contrived. Recently they had a class dinner to celebrate the New
Year, but it was more like being let out of the dungeon to have a nice dinner with the other captives.
Yes, the students were happy to have it, but there wasnt exactly a festive atmosphere. Everyone spent
the evening complaining to one another.
Two years ago during the Spring Festival, after Emilys first semester of high school, she was already
feeling the heat. One night while everyone else was visiting a neighbor, she broke down and started
sobbing on my shoulder. Theres so much pressure, she said. Everyone wants so much from me. I
dont know if I can pass. If I dont theyll be so disappointed in me.
Considering how high the suicide rate is for Emilys demographic, I was glad to be the foreigner
disconnected from her world that allowed her to uncork what shed been bottling up.
When I think back to my high school life the parties, proms, sports, pointless time-killing shenanigans
it kills me that Emily wont have any of it. Shell just have memories of soul-crushing routine.
But the lost memories, the stress, the bodily harm it might be worth it if there were something
worthwhile at the end of the tunnel; something truly enriching that sprouted from all that time and
sacrifice.
Yesterday, while studying, Emily asked me when you should say Its my pleasure and when you
should simply say My pleasure in English conversation. It seemed like a pretty pointless question.
There may be a very subtle situational difference, depending on who you ask, but in what scenario
could that very narrow distinction possibly matter? Sure enough though, there was a correct answer
to the multiple choice question.
I flipped through the textbook and found pages full of similar hair-splitting drivel that would in no way
actually improve someones ability to communicate in English. I asked Emily what exactly they teach
her in school all day. We write many passages, she said. And then they tell us how we should write it
better [for the essay portion of the Gaokao].

You know, its not like Mo Yan, she continued. He tells very interesting stories, but we cant write
anything like that. If I write what I want, Ill fail.