The Gaokao

I became interested in the gaokao when my correspondent, Severine, mentioned it in her response. When I looked it up, I was shocked to find how different China's college admission procedure is from America's. The more I found out about the gaokao, the more I became interested.

The gaokao is China's national college entrance exam. The two-day exam determines not only where the students will attend college, but also what they will study. Severine describes it as "A very important exam in China. Students like me have to pass the Gaokao and get a good grade then go to a university." (Dong) Students are under a lot of pressure to do well, and spend most of their high school years preparing for the test. According to Custer, "The final year of high school, especially, is often focused intensely on preparation for the exam, and it isn't unheard of for parents to quit their jobs to help their children study during this year. This pressure has even been linked to some case of depression and suicide among Chinese teens." (Custer)

Students taking the gaokao exam.

Extreme measures are taken to prevent cheating. Cameras are placed in every classroom, and students have to go through security scanners, like the ones in airports, as well as use finger print scanners. Wearing bras has even been banned to prevent students from sneaking in cameras and receivers. Every year around 9 million graduating seniors take the test, which takes place in June. Of the 9 million students only about 7 million will have high enough scores to be admitted to a university. (Schrock) Students who are not accepted to a college can either choose to enter the work force or repeat their last year of high school.

American teens, including myself, dread taking the ACT and SAT, but after reading about the gaokao I consider myself lucky. In China, your acceptance to college depends solely on a test score that you only get one chance to take, but in America not only can you take the ACT/SAT as many times as you want but colleges look at more than your test score. Not only that, but we also have the ultimate say in where we go to college.

Works Cited:

Dong, Severine. "Re: Autobiography Correspondence." Message to Caroline Knetzer. 7 Nov. 2014. E-mail.

Custer, Charles. "The Gaokao." About. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://chineseculture.about.com/od/historyofchina/fl/The-Gaokao.htm>.

Schrock, John Richard. "The Gaokao-The Test Where Time Stands Still -University World News." RSS. 13 June 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014 <http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140612091916875>.


"China exam season: questions to make you quail." Telegraph Online 9 June 2009. Student Resources in Context. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SUIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=News&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA311645754&source=Bookmark&u=spri34014&jsid=41c596ea209ad4b46cb6a6473af7434a>.