<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.okcu.edu/students/2009g.ppt]This[/url”>www.okcu.edu/students/2009g.ppt]This[/url</a>] PowerPoint sheds some additional light on the GaoKao. A few interesting things: it doesn’t just test things you can cram and study relentlessly for. There is an essay on the Chinese portion of the exam, and one of the two prompts is “᾿Walking as things wear away”. Unlike the IITJEE, which tests only science and maths in a multiple choice fashion, the Chinese government seems to regard some more subjective, perhaps more creative aspects to the student as important. Unsurprising if you know Chinese culture and history. </p>
<p>Secondly, this exam doesn’t seem to be the definitive admissions criteria for students. As you’ll notice on slide 11, some of the toppers who could’ve secured a place in Tsinghua or Peking (the top universities in China) chose not to attend. This seems to suggest that there are other factors taken into consideration, and the fact that there are toppers who “failed to get into any university” seems to lend further credence to the argument… though that category itself raises red flags. I have a friend from my American international school who is not even Chinese and goes to HKUST. He got in with AP courses and SATs alone. Perhaps that’s part of the school’s aim at diversification and global name recognition, but from what he’s told me, there are plenty of internationals at the school anyways. Also, there’s a kid from there who’s going to Grinnell. Wow… of all places in America, the middle of Iowa. Good for him/her.</p>
<p>Gaokao chemistry is like AP chemistry, except it’s kinda obligatory. </p>
<p>then they add Gaokao chem + Gaokao physics + Gaokao bio + Gaokao math + Gaokao chinese + Gaokao english + Gaokao history + and etc… = your sum score, if that sum meets say the minimum threshold of Beijing University, you might be accepted. </p>
<p>and yeah the Gaokao chinese writing part, unlike SAT or AP’s argumentative a/o expository, you can write prose, poetry, in ancient chinese (which is sorta like in latin), etc. its all weird</p>
<p>Yep, it really is that way…One test basically determines your life…
My cousin went through the whole process, although he was never super serious about it. I think it really depends on how seriously a person takes the test. Of course some students go over the top, but isn’t it kind of like that everywhere? Yet, I do imagine it must be incredibly stressful…</p>
<p>Not only in China,but other countries adopt the same system, no EC’s, your GPA do not count ,it looks like a federal exam to select state public employment.</p>
<p>I currently live in Beijing, I’ve studied here for the past 8 years.
One morning during this year’s “gaokao” a mother was hit by a car while she was accompanying her daughter to the test center. The mother fell into a coma and lost a lot of blood. And yet everybody encouraged the daughter to go take the test instead of accompanying her mother to the hospital.
This was in the news and everything.</p>
<p>By the way, here’s what students had to write about in Beijing for their Chinese essay for those who are interested.
There’s a text telling you about this elderly man who works for the railway. Everyday he walks over 5 km in the mountains just to clean up and rocks/branches that fell on the tracks. He would also prevent boulders from falling onto the tracks. Everytime a train passed by he would stop what he was doing to salute, and the train would honk its horn in response. You’re supposed to write a minimum 1000 character essay concerning this text.</p>
<p>That actually doesn’t sound too hard, no matter the level of philosophical thinking the graders expect. 1,000 characters actually seems pretty short - they’d better make the most of it.</p>
<p>@emberjed
Except for the fact that Chinese characters are much more semantically dense than characters in languages with alphabetic writing systems. A 1000 character text in Chinese could very easily be more than twice the length of a 1000 character English text.</p>
<p>1000 Chinese characters roughly equal to 500 words in English, if anyone is interested. But students are given over 1hr to work on this instead of 25min in SAT, so more polished words and deeper thoughts are expected. Personally I like neither sat essays or gaokao ones, though. They don’t show true ability of a student.</p>
<p>And gaokao isn’t all that scaring as you think. With all the teachers and classmates working really hard together, senior year will pass quickly. I actually think US’s college application is more competitive and stressing, with all those over achievers competing you and colleges so random in admission. Gaokao is only about scores, which is TOTALLY under your own control.</p>
<p>I bet you don’t know how essays are marked in China lol That’s something completely different from the SAT essay marking system I guess.
And actually working really hard can’t secure a place in top unis. One of my middle school classmates worked 15hrs/day in her final year of high school and failed to go to top-tier unis. Working hard doesn’t necessarily give you a good results in gaokao and thus it’s much more competitive and stressful than the US application though this is caused by the insanity of the whole system.
I did know a lot of very talented students who didn’t get into Peking U but might easily get accepted by Princeton or Harvard if they could have prepared for SAT. They could be counted as genius in specific fields but did poorly in something like Chinese literature, and unfortunately Chinese literature etc. is the ones that could not be avoided in gaokao lol
And yeah this is the major reason why it’s more competitive and stressful, no one could choose to only major and be tested in what they are good at. It is not a test about general writing, logical etc. Everyone is required to take the standardized SUBJECT-CORRELATED exams.</p>
<p>From what I hear and have seen, it’s unbelievably stressful both psychologically and physically. And sadly, it’s a huge waste of time in terms of finding “talent” since the highest scorers are great at memorizing but naught else. </p>
<p>Just imagine taking a more comprehensive and harder version of the SAT, but instead of your GPA, ECs, and recs, the score you receive on your SATs determines what school you will attend, and due to the sheer number of applicants/students/graduates, that might very well define the rest of your life. Oh, and you only have one shot at taking the test. </p>
<p>Nearly every academic and extracurricular achievement that you ever had means diddily-squat compared to one test. And even one point lower means you’ll be ranked tens of thousands of places below others. Pressure, anyone?</p>
<p>If it is so hard to get into Chinese universities, why are there so many foreign students studying in Chinese high schools? At Beijing High School #80 where my son is studying Chinese, there are hundreds of foreign students planning to stay in China for university studies. Many are Korean but there are students from other countries as well. Why?</p>
<p>^ Difference of circumstances. You could also say there’s so many foreign students studying in American high schools, and trying to apply to American universities. </p>
<p>If you are staying in China indefinitely, you don’t have much choice but to apply to their schools as well.</p>
<p>Beijing students are easier to get in top schools. But for students not in big cities, the situation is different. I don’t think US students can imagine pressure that Chinese students are under. </p>
<p>I can promise Gaokao is 10 times harder than SAT.</p>