As a student in China’s public school system, my husband would go to school around 8am and would finish by 6pm. Took an hour nap then was back to his homework/studies until midnight. This persisted from middle school through high school. There were no letter grades - everyone in the class received a percentage and everyone’s grades and ranking for each test was on display, forget confidentiality. It was not enough for a child to get 95% on a test, they would be reprimanded by their parents if someone else got a 98%. The kids would even lie to each other saying that they never studied to psych each other out about not being as smart, or just to influence others not to study if someone else made it look easy. He was interested in basketball at school (as well as tall and talented) but could never develop it as a real hobby because if he was caught spending any time at home playing outside his parents would reprimand (beat) him and then make him go back in to study. He says he spent about half his time on homework, half on studying, but either way it was relentless and unforgiving because everyone had to compete for the top spot in the class to have any future in the Chinese universities. He gladly came to America instead and graduated a few years ago with a degree in accounting from a state university… I think for all our faults, at least we can say our education system is not as cutthroat as this. The amount of perseverance and dedication that goes into it without becoming depressed or suicidal is simply astounding…