What Preparing for the Gaokao is Like
21. Jul, 2010 
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Anyone who’s been living in China for a while has probably heard of what’s known as the Gao Kao (高考 – literally, “high exam”). It’s the rigorous week-long exam that Chinese high school students take before embarking on the first steps of adulthood. I was lucky enough to meet a recent high school graduate named Maomao who shared some information and photos about what taking the test is like.
What is the Gaokao?
It’s similar to the SAT in in the U.S. in that it’s a higher entrance examination, but the sheer numbers of China make this a far more daunting test that determines much of your future. So I wasn’t hugely shocked when I recently heard that several students had met an untimely fate due to the tremendous pressure of the Gao Kao. In spite of knowing so little about what the Gao Kao is actually like, I found a great opportunity to learn more by way of making a new friend in a recent high school graduate named Maomao.
Sascha and I met with Maomao at a tea house in Chengdu and he told us about his journey climbing the academic ladder in China. This is what he sent us afterwards:
Preparing for the Gaokao
After three years of a hard and busy life in Chinese high school, the Gaokao (高考) is coming. The Gaokao is the final exam of high school and is the sole exam that determines which university or college you’ll be allowed entrance to. This makes the Gaokao the jumping off point of life in China.
In the day before the Gaokao, most of us stopped studying and begain to say our goodbyes to high school. Students took cameras to school to capture memories of their peers, teachers and the school environment.
Ordinarily, when final exams come, we won’t waste even a precious moment that could be used to to review test material. Sleeping hours aren’t off limits, either. But the Gaokao is different. Like the Olympic athletes aiming to capture a gold medal, students are instructed to relax our minds and bodies in the week before the fateful exam. All of our courses are halted: teachers come to the classroom but don’t teach. At this point, their job is to answer our questions and help us relax.
This is a photo of me taken by my friend in our classroom. This was our last day there.
Our math teacher came to our classroom remind us again: be careful. which he had told us thousands of times. He's given us this advice a thousand times, but we're no longer bored by it. On the last day we take photos with him.
Many students sold their textbooks before the Gaokao exam: they're heavy and useless now. We shared a depressing joke amongst our other classmates: we used a bag of money to buy our textbooks but in the end after we've sold them, we can no longer afford the bag.
This post is part of a series on making the transition from high school student to college and adulthood in China. Maomao is a recent high school graduate and new contributor to Chengdu Living who’ll be attending the University of Science & Technology, a prestigous college in Chengdu, this fall. We’re looking forward to getting more of an inside look into what life is like for a young adult in China.
Is there anything you want to know about the Gaokao?
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I found this on Facebook! Very cool. I’ve heard about the Gaokao before and came across an article recently which raises a question in my head, which is..
Do Chinese students really see the Gaokao as life or death? Apparently the top performers in the Gaokao haven’t gone on to outstanding careers, according to recent studies. It’s much the same in the US with the SAT exam which is closely tied to college entrance. It turns out that students who perform very well on the SAT don’t necessarily go on to successful careers. Check out this link from last month: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/06/30/gaokao-no-predictor-of-success/
Yes,the one perform well in Gaokao don’t necessarily go on to successful careers
But they do go to a good university
The Grad school I attend actually has a program that brings students from China to our school to get their teaching degrees or an ESL degree and a girl in my “Teaching All Learners” class told us about her experiences with the Gaokao. I felt so bad for her though because she was saying that due to the fact that she didn’t do well on this exam, she couldn’t become a nurse, which is what she’d always wanted to do, so she had to “settle” for being a teacher and coming to America. She also had a really hard time (though was very open minded) understanding why we bother teaching students with special needs in our general ed. classrooms. It was very foreign to her. I did my best to understand her point of view and to absorb some of her experiences through the broken English conversations we attempted. Another reason I felt so bad for her was that the majority of the class (including the teacher) acted “disgusted” with her explanation of how things are done in China (in their educational system)…like their way is so much better or something. It royally pissed me off that they were so pompous! Every system is different and no way is “right”. It’s too difficult for some people to wrap their heads around that though. Sorry for the rant. The article you wrote was really good and I enjoyed learning more about the exam!
When someone from a rich family fall in the exam,he or she would be sent abroad.
This makes a lot of sense – I think many overseas universities that accept Chinese students are in it for the profit. If you’re a Chinese student attending a high profile school like Berkeley or Yale I assume you’d need obvious proof that you have extraordinary ability, but there are a lot of no-name universities in the US that accept Chinese students who pay enough cash.
I have a Tibetan friend who recently went to Los Angeles to study, but it was at some small college that I had never heard of. I checked out their website and it prominently features information (in Chinese) on how Chinese students can apply to the school from overseas. It definitely comes off as a service pandering to ultra-wealthy overseas Chinese who want to send their children abroad and are willing to pay whatever the price is. Not a bad business model provided you can fulfill all of the visa requirements!
Great info though Maomao, thanks for contributing!
Maybe no way is “right”, but the Chinese education system is most certainly wrong.
most of us know it was wrong,but we still work hard for it.It’s the only way to get into a good university
Hey, I was wondering what a good score in the gaokao would be, for example a 7 out of 10 ? My university asked for a 7 out of 10 for our Dutch final exams, but thats quite hard ! For chinese students they only ask a score of 500 which I think is not so much…
btw, without noticing I see this website is based on Chengdu and everything that concerns it ! I’ m actually half ‘Chengdu-nese!’ Its great to see such a website. Im born and raised in the Netherlands but Chengdu is like my 2nd hometown, Almost every year I spent at least 2 months in Chengdu ! I even speak fluent chengdu dialect. Funny to see this article on such a website ! I see you are attending 理工大学, thats great ! I’ll be studying for one year at 西南财大 to improve my reading and writing skills in Chinese !