Last Thursday and Friday, 10 million Chinese high school students took the infamous national university entrance exam. Their score not only determines whether they can go to college (the universities can take only about 5.7 million new students) but also decides whether a student can pursue their preferred major – everything rests entirely on their exam score. An article in Slate describes it as “China's SAT—if the SAT lasted two days, covered everything learned since kindergarten, and had the power to determine one's entire professional trajectory.”
The exam is certainly one reason why I’m glad I’m not Chinese. People tell me that childhood is much more stressful than adulthood in China. The work culture is pretty laid back in most places, and seniority, not merit, determines your career progression, so the world of work is not so competitive. But high school certainly is full of stress and cutthroat competition. Classes are divided into different levels by academic results early on and there are so many students competing for so few spots at the top universities, and then so many graduates competing for the best white-collar jobs. Those who go to universities abroad need not only academic talent but also money and face other obstacles.
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