Global Courant
BEIJING — Millions of Chinese students will take notoriously tough entrance exams on Wednesday, the first since the country lifted zero-Covid rules that forced classes online for months.
The Chinese Ministry of Education says that by 2023, a record number of nearly 13 million students will be registered for the exams – known as “gaokao”.
“I’ve been getting up at 4 a.m. every day except Sunday for the past four years to study,” Jesse Rao, a high school senior, told AFP.
“I’ve done everything I can, but I still feel a little nervous.”
High school students are tested in their Chinese, English, math and other science or humanities subjects of their choice, the tests are critical to securing coveted spots at China’s top universities.
Many parents spend hundreds of dollars on expensive cram schools or hire graduate students to sit with their kids while they study late into the night.
Adding to the stress, this year’s exam candidates spent most of their high school years under pandemic restrictions, which ended abruptly in December.
“Last year I struggled to take classes online,” Ms. Katherina Wang, a high school student from Shanghai who has endured two rapid lockdowns in the past two years, told AFP.
“Our teachers gave extra lessons in the evenings and weekends and helped us catch up!”
The high stakes have led to elaborate deception attempts, from parents hiring graduate students to take the test on behalf of their children to exam takers carrying electronic devices to communicate with outside experts.
Several provinces will install scanners with facial recognition capabilities by 2023 to ensure candidates do not hire proxies to take the test on their behalf, the state-run Global Times reported.
The scanners will also detect “electronic equipment such as (hidden) mobile phones, earphones and electronic watches” that can be used to cheat, the paper said.
Exams last up to four days, depending on the province, and take between 60 and 150 minutes per subject.
The maximum score is 750, with a score of over 600 required for a place in the country’s top universities – a ticket to personal and professional success in China for years to come.
Very few make it: In 2022, only 3 percent of exam candidates in the country’s most populous province of Guangdong scored more than 600.
