The Hardest Test in China

Audio editing by Eric Schneider
Motion graphics by Vincent de Langen
Everything else by Evan

This includes a paid sponsorship which had no part in the writing, editing, or production of the rest of the video.

Video supplied by Getty Images

[cy]

My dad, a 50-year-old oncologist, told me he still occasionally had nightmares about failing the Gaokao..

[ashaazsy]

I'm scared of failing the gaokao and I'm not even Chinese

[ericwang]

My father was able to go to a university by being the 8th of the 8 students that scored high enough in his school in Gaokao, became an engineer and moved to one of the tier 1 city in China. My uncle (my father's brother) did not make the cut and eventually became a worker in the local factory, in a small town in rural China. We went back to visit them from time to time, and the quality of life is literally night and day. They are the living proof that Gaokao can either make or break a person, and why people value it so much.

[_simon.s_]

Now I understand why students went so far as to rip their textbooks and throw it out the window before the exam. Gaokao is no joke.

[KaitiansCountryballs]

Hardest tests around the world
China: Gaokao
India: College entrance exam

UK: Citizenship Test

[melvinmathew]

Almost all Asian countries have such systems, it is one of the only method for upward social mobility, the Japanese and South Koreans have their super intensive cram schools, the Indians have

[yunyao]

The gaokao itself was not that hard for me, but everything around me was nightmares. Before entering high school, I was doing well in the volleyball team, chorus, Olympic math and physics, I was confident and optimistic.

But in high school, nobody cared if I had passions, if I had good characters or anything, they only valued you by your mark and rank.
My mom didn't let me eat nice food or buy anything just because she expected me to rank 50/1000 however I only ranked 70/1000...
We had 2 hours break at noon for lunch and sleep, however, everyone in the dorm studied and discussed, which made me unable to sleep. My roommates didn't feel guilty, they judged me for not studying instead.

I became sensitive, negative and introvert. But fortunately, I did it. After gaokao, I felt loss and extremely tired, I didn't feel like to do anything, I lay on my bed for a month and a half, no talking, no eating, no phones, just drinking water, dazing and sleeping. I lost 15kg during that time.

After that, I suddenly became normal, shopping, singing, playing games like a normal person. It sounds strange, but yes, everything about gaokao looks like have never happened to me, it is like a long long dream, or, a nightmare.

[charlesren]

My dad's gaokao result sent him to one of the best major (chem engineering) in the best uni (qinghua) from the hardest province (jiangsu) and just imagine the stress me and my brother got. My brother went to wuhan university which is already most students' dream but my dad was a bit disappointed.
At age of 17 i chose to not do gaokao and went abroad, eventually got admitted by a medical school in Australia.
My dad said:“not bad”
lol

[IanChristopher]

The hardest test is the blood test
I never get an A

[KersheckStudios]

When I asked my parents why they emigrated to Canada one of their top reasons was so I wouldn’t have to take the gaokao 🙏🏼

[WalkandSki]

I am from a normal Chinese family. 3 years after my Gaokao. I still woke up through intensive test nightmares. However, everything seems so easy after that...

[janie]

Imagine getting a 700+ score if you guessed on all the multiple choice questions

[RabbitLLLord]

GaoKao is indeed the worst nightmare I’ve ever had in my whole life. MaoTanChang is only an example of this kind of institutions in China, and its students are only an example of all the Chinese students facing GaoKao. Sometimes when I slept, I dreamed that I went back to my high school, sitting there, worrying about how to prepare for GaoKao. That kind of nervous and depressed feeling suddenly went back to me and I roused from sleep. I hate this exam since this exam was supposed to serve as a way for poor family to increase their social mobility, but it can be seen that, if without proper change, this exam will fail to serve this purpose. No matter how hard students in MaoTanChang study, the average number of students going to Tier 1 and 2 universities is still relatively low compared to the average number of students in a good high school in Beijing. You will find that it is not how hard you study that decides your performance in GaoKao, but your overall quality, like your family education, your study environment, the number of good universities in your cities (this is essential, Beijing students are way easier to get into 985 or 211 universities than students in other provinces), so it turned out that it depends on your parents income level, education level, your cities, etc. Overall, GaoKao has become really hard so that only studying hard for 3 years in your high school is not enough, you need to have a good parents and family that raise you wisely, which is less likely to happen for poor students. Therefore, this exam is becoming more and more good-family friendly and thus from helping poor people, it becomes to a tool for people with higher social hierarchy to stabilize their positions. Also, like me, if I cannot do good in GaoKao, my family is good enough to send me to US for a good university, which cannot happen in the case of poor family. So, GaoKao doesn’t hurt any rich family. However, there seems no solution to this problem. China needs a way that at least looks like creating a path for everyone, otherwise those 1billion famers and workers will have their children no education which means that they don’t have hope and thus will create chaos to this society. It is changing, seems like China now is promoting “tire 4” schools, more like professional schools, teaching you cook, haircut, etc, so that you can find a job after college. After all, going to any universities that lower than 211 level, basically will not find you any job. (I am not an native speaker so please ignore my grammar mistake, I just wanna say that GaoKao is a really terrible choice that China has to make, and without an economy as strong as US or equivalent western economic body, finding a better solution is not really feasible)

[kaelhasturn]

I went to Canada for college just to skip this lmao

[periodictable]

Back when I was 5 years old, my parents debated on whether or not to come to Canada, and in the end they decided to drop everything and come to Canada with a blank slate, not even knowing how to really speak English... But looking back words cannot describe how thankful I am for them making the decision to come here.

Just for perspective, my both my parents had very wealthy jobs in the provincial government in the area we lived in China, and after coming to Canada, we lived below the poverty line for many years. But it was totally worth it in my (and my parent's) point of view. Having rich parents and money doesn't mean bulls**t if you have to be studying 10+ hours a day just to have a chance at getting into university. (Or, in my parents perspective, if I got mental health issues and stuff like that) At least in Canada I had the time to hang out, relax, learn life skills, and find myself, even if we didn't have much money or material goods. The change in life, for me at least, was priceless, now that I look back in hindsight.

Edit: I should pick my words more carefully- we weren't overly rich, like we had enough to have a house and everything but we weren't like millionares or anything. It was just a lot more than what we had when we came to Canada.

[benchen]

One of the reasons my mum ended up selling everything she had in China and taking me with her overseas before I started my high school was due to Gaokao. Instead of trying my hardest to shoot for Tsinghua and PKU, I settled for a decent university near me, who gave me a generous scholarship. Some times I wonder if I would have been more self-disciplined and end up in a better place if I went through the Gaokao process. At the end of the day, I understand why this testing system exists, and know that I am definitely privileged to have a mother that cares about my well-being and can actually afford it. I truly feel for my Chinese brothers and sisters and as this year's Gaokao nears, I wish all of you the best of luck! 祝大家高考顺利，中一本进清北！

[yl]

The test itself is not hard. The hard thing is to manage the anxiety. When you are told that this one test would make or break you, and your whole family, you start to have nightmares about 1 million things that could go wrong. I took Gaokao 18 years ago. I had an emotional breakdown 5 days before Gaokao around 2 am because I was too anxious to go to sleep. My mom put in sedatives into the mix of supplements I took every day, including the 3 Gaokao days. It's a decision she made herself, and she didn't tell me and the rest of the family until much later after. I felt 60% of myself. I felt a disconnect with the group anxiety for these few days. I did well in the test and got accepted by my dream university. However, I have to say that my classmates who failed Gaokao are doing well now, sometimes, much better than I do in terms of making money, rightfully so.

[stg-tfns]

For anyone that doesn't know how important the Gaokao is, apart from measures mentioned in the video, the local police force will be sent out to conduct special traffic arrangements, escort school buses that bring candidates to test venues, occasionally even picking up candidates that face difficulties in arriving at the venue on time; the venues are often guarded by swat teams, while the exam papers themselves are classified as top-secret documents until the beginning of the exam, being printed and sealed in prisons, and being escorted by Armed Police Force members, which are effectively the military.

[frydfish]

I'm getting scared just thinking about this test that I'll never take.

[niu]

I got 633 points in 2016 in Sichuan Province. I ranked around 5000 among 570k students which means I was around top 1%, and I got accepted into a university ranking 30 in China. There were about 200 students who have the exact same score with me(633), so for every failure for a multiple choice(5 points), I may be beaten by more than 1000 students in my province.