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Editor’s Note: International Voice is a project that The Daily Orange’s Opinion section founded in partnership with WeMedia Lab, a student media organization at Syracuse University serving international students on campus.

As one of 9,750,000 students who attended the 2018 National College Entrance Examination of China, also known as the GaoKao, I took the toughest exam in my life. 

The Gaokao begins on June 8 each year, and almost all graduating high school students nationwide are expected to participate in it. It is a test that determines where you are eligible to attend college. However, unlike the application process in the U.S., the scores of Gaokao directly determine the rank of colleges that the student can get in. 

The Gaokao is held once a year, meaning graduating students only get one chance to rank high enough to attend their dream college. Due to the fierce competition and its large scale, the Gaokao itself has already become a huge phenomenon. 

Similar to the SAT, the Gaokao contains several sections. Among those, the nightmare for me in this exam is Chinese. “Chinese is so hard to learn,” I would complain with my friends almost every day in our senior year of high school. It covers not only the grammar of modern Mandarin but also grammar of ancient Mandarin before the last dynasty collapsed. To get a high score in the Chinese test, one not only needs to know ancient Chinese – such as how the Chinese characters are created in six ways – but also the historical context of each dynasty to analyze the poems and articles. This knowledge might be basic to college-level Chinese study, but it was overwhelming to 17-year-old me.

It is cruel, but it is fair

The staff regulating the GaoKao ensure that this test is taken seriously and without dishonesty. As a national exam, the whole country starts at the same time to eliminate cheating. Regardless if the student is in Shanghai or Handan, they start the test at the same time. Additionally, to prevent participants from hiring someone else to take the exam for them, each participant is required to verify their identity by fingerprint and face verification. 

Before we enter the testing room, which is under strict supervision, every participant needs to verify their identity through a system. Participants are not allowed to bring their phone or smartwatch inside, and security guards and metal detectors ensure that this rule is followed. The procedures were so strict that I felt like I was crossing a national border instead of a simple examination room. 

Every high school has provided mock exams dozens of times prior to the formal exam, so what happened next was not new to me. However, it was no less intimidating. 

Students enter their assigned classroom and seats, just like the SAT test. After that, the examiner announces guidelines and uncovers the test papers. With a sharp ringing of the bell, the whole school will sink into deep silence. Exams have begun. 

Wendy Wang | Contributing Photographer

The essay question

While American high schools teach more content than what’s in the SAT, Chinese high schools center their lessons around the Gaokao. Teachers will cover all the content in the first two years and spend the entire third year helping students review and practice for the Gaokao. 

The essay is one of the largest parts that focuses on Chinese subjects. In my school, teachers will analyze the past Gaokao exams, trying to figure out a pattern. By analyzing the past essay question, my Chinese teacher figured out a connection: Since 2017, the essay question had been related to nationalism. 

To be prepared for the exam, one needs to be more sensitive to what is going on in the country. To do so, we were required to watch daily political news, such as China Central Television news.

Other subjects include English, mathematics, physics and chemistry. For every subject, students will be allotted an hour at the least. Unlike the SAT, all the subjects are combined in a four-hour long exam that lasts for three days. 

It is not difficult to imagine how hard it is for students in those three days. For me, I barely used my phone or engaged in any entertainment. Besides taking the exam, all I did was review, eat and sleep. 

Some students will even book a hotel next to the examination hall so they can save time on transportation. During those three days, almost all the hotels and restaurants near those examination halls are filled. 

Life after Gaokao

As you can imagine, life after Gaokao is colorful for every participant. There’s no school, intense parental control or peer pressure. All of my classmates were either traveling or “staying home forever.” Although the whole memory of Gaokao is bitter, the sweet memories of that summer will always come after it. 

Looking back on my three years of high school and the GaoKao experience of millions of students in China, I can’t say if it is worth spending such strenuous years of our teenage years on the test, but I know it is a unique, shared memory that I don’t take for granted.

Wendy Wang | Writer
Ava Hu | Editor
WeMedia Lab

Published on April 6, 2021 at 11:15 pm