Oct 23, 2026 · 37 min · 10 segments
Zhongkao, China's high school entrance exam, is a milestone nearly every Chinese student must face. But now, some cities and counties are weighing a bold idea: let students move straight into senior…
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 they're also deciding which kind of university they are getting 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.
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.
Yeah.
Whether you are going to the senior high school and maybe into a university later on, pursue postgraduate and even a doctorate degree, or are you going into that vocational education system?
Mm-hmm.
We're at that time in the past, we don't really have that, you know, go into the post-grad and then the doctoral path.
But now it's under discussion, which is another topic.
I think somehow it kind of just brings up a bright new idea of how this whole educational system, now that we have nine years of compulsory education plus three years of senior high education, can somehow be merged into one.
rather than just treating the end of junior middle school as a major selection point, they're exploring ways to connect primary, junior middle, and senior high school into a more continuous kind of educational pathway for these kids.
and starting in autumn 2025 it removed the entrance score threshold of their entrance score for ordinary high school for eligible local students and all of their 266 junior middle school graduates who applied for the ordinary high school there were all admitted it's like a free pass to high school of sort but 266 students isn't really that big of a number I'll say for a county because, yeah, like if my idea of the whole design is that if the upper like the endurance of educational resources big enough to allocate it to all of these students, 266, then this perhaps is an easier way for both the students, the parents and also the school locally.
And also this kind of reform, specifically for this one, does not mean that you will cancel the high school entrance examination anymore.
Because they are still taking the examination, but their score is no longer the important, you know, the only
threshold, the
deciding factor for admission to ordinary high school.
But now we are seeing more cities are getting involved and thinking about basically the same thing.
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 they're also deciding which kind of university they are getting 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.
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.
Yeah.
Whether you are going to the senior high school and maybe into a university later on, pursue postgraduate and even a doctorate degree, or are you going into that vocational education system?
Mm-hmm.
We're at that time in the past, we don't really have that, you know, go into the post-grad and then the doctoral path.
But now it's under discussion, which is another topic.
I think somehow it kind of just brings up a bright new idea of how this whole educational system, now that we have nine years of compulsory education plus three years of senior high education, can somehow be merged into one.
rather than just treating the end of junior middle school as a major selection point, they're exploring ways to connect primary, junior middle, and senior high school into a more continuous kind of educational pathway for these kids.
and starting in autumn 2025 it removed the entrance score threshold of their entrance score for ordinary high school for eligible local students and all of their 266 junior middle school graduates who applied for the ordinary high school there were all admitted it's like a free pass to high school of sort but 266 students isn't really that big of a number I'll say for a county because, yeah, like if my idea of the whole design is that if the upper like the endurance of educational resources big enough to allocate it to all of these students, 266, then this perhaps is an easier way for both the students, the parents and also the school locally.
And also this kind of reform, specifically for this one, does not mean that you will cancel the high school entrance examination anymore.
Because they are still taking the examination, but their score is no longer the important, you know, the only
threshold, the
deciding factor for admission to ordinary high school.
But now we are seeing more cities are getting involved and thinking about basically the same thing.
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