Gaokao

And it's exactly.

So the Gaokao, just so people don't know, the Gaokao is equivalent.

It's your college entrance test.

It is like the biggest test you ever take in China.

And it's like a two or three day examination, depending on where you are in the country.

But yeah, people study their whole lives, you know, to take that test.

And so, you know, if you pass the Gaokao and you're going to get into big school, like massive deal.

Yeah, that's so wild because I mean, the idea I think about in food sometimes like it's like in the US, sometimes there's just like really crappy food, right? Like we allow certain things in our food production line that China would have never allowed.

We have more teams here, so we do that.

And then with the activities, for example, in China, they have very important tests, the Zhengkao to get into high school and the Gaokao to get into college.

And you have to spend hours and hours studying and preparing for this.

There's not a lot of time for extracurriculars because you need to do well because that's going to determine your future.

We call it 中考.

So will this new school system take the pressure off the students and perhaps their parents too? But will the schools themselves be ready for such a new change? And today I'm sitting down with Yushan and Yusheng for this very important, I think it's sort of the second most important exam throughout our educational experiences after Gaokao.

And I guess all of us have taken part in the Zhongkao exam, right?

Yeah.

And then after nine years of compulsory education, students typically take the exam after around 15 years old.

And their results play a very central role in determining whether they enter an ordinary academic high school or a vocational secondary school.

So for many families, this means the pressure of competing for educational opportunities begins well before the university entrance examination, which is the Gaokao.

Yeah, and also I think it's the first time as a 15-year-old, as a teenager, you are facing sort of a life choice.

If you missed our previous podcast, it was how high stakes college exams can change your life.

Our speaker was Stanford economics professor Hongbin Li, who discussed his new book, The Highest Exam, How Gaokao Shapes China.

He expressed why this high stakes exam is critical.

for the Chinese in our college admission process, as well as getting a job.

We call it 中考 .

So will this new school system take the pressure off the students and perhaps their parents too? But will the schools themselves be ready for such a new change? And today I'm sitting down with Yushan and Yusheng for this I think it's sort of the second most important exam throughout our educational experiences after Gaokao.

And I guess all of us have taken part in the Zhongkao exam, right? So let's first explain what exactly is Zhongkao.

Yeah, so for generations of Chinese students, the Zhongka or senior high school entrance examination, it has been a major also turning point because it's kind of decided which kind of high school you're going to get in.

And then after nine years of compulsory education, students typically take the exam after around 15 years old.

And their results play a very central role in determining whether they enter an ordinary academic high school or a vocational secondary school.

So for many families, this means the pressure of competing for educational opportunities begins well before the university entrance examination, which is the Gaokao.

Yeah.

They were both tall and thin, they wore glasses, they were both kind of quiet and nerdy, and they both loved video games.

But Henry and Pan, of late, had not had a chance to spend much time together because they were both very busy studying for something called the Gaokao, which is China's national college entrance exam.

This test is sort of like the SAT in America, except realistically it's way more high stakes because it's literally the only thing that some colleges in China take into account for admissions.

And so if Henry and Pan wanted to get into good colleges, they needed to ace this test.

Like no one could recall who Pan Bowen was except for Henry and Lee.

Henry would eventually visit a psychiatrist because this was obviously an enormous trauma for him.

And the psychiatrist would tell him that the stress of studying for that Gaokao exam had caused him to hallucinate a multi-year-long friendship with a fictional person, Pan Bowen.

Now, Henry did not believe this.

And today's episode is How High-Stakes Chinese College Exams Can Change Your Life.

Our speaker is Stanford economics professor Hongbin Li, who will discuss his new book, The Highest Exam: How Gaokao Shapes China.

I want to find out why a high-stakes exam is critical for the Chinese in their college admission, as well as getting a job.

And I want to learn why this exam is believed to be the one thing in Chinese society that cannot be corrupted.

Hongbin, can you please begin with six minutes of opening remarks?

The book I wrote with my coauthor, Ruixue Jia, is on China's Gaokao, the highest exam.

So this is the college entrance exam every kid needs to take to go to college in China.

Scheduled in early June, between two to four days.

The second one is the one you just mentioned, and that one is, is equity, and part of the book goes into the, um, the history of the examination system that lasted through most of China's dynasties.

China's been a meritocracy, and so the question you're asking is, is it still a meritocracy? And, you know, after the revolution in 1949, the advantages, uh, uh, those, uh, being clearly students from families of workers, of farmers, and of the military, and that changed when Deng Xiaoping took power in the late '70s, uh, and there was more of an emphasis on the academic side rather than the political side of education, and therefore, you begin to see the, the re-implementation of the Gaokao exam, of the National College and University Entrance Exam.

And when that started to happen, it clearly was, in many ways, a meritocracy because 80%, well, even more than 80% of the population was rural.

So in terms of your opportunities, most students, uh, were, you know, in, in rural either village or township or, or counties' primary, secondary schools, and there was a certain amount of, of equity.

But as urbanization occurred, as the GDP growth was averaging close to 10% a year, you began to get the emergence of a middle class, and the students who attend post-secondary education, their chances are still, I would say most c- cases hinge fully on the Gaokao scores.

There's some experimentation, particularly close by Hong Kong, the Southern University of Science and Technology when it was first established by Zhu Yuanxin, who was the president of the, uh, China University of Science and Technology formerly, and he came over to establish a new university.

He said, "No Gaokao scores.

We're gonna identify people who are creative and innovative," and so on.