billed by Chinese state media<\/a> as \u201cthe world\u2019s toughest\u201d college entrance exam due to its high stakes, competitiveness and intensity, with students pouring everything they\u2019ve learned in 12 years into a handful of subject tests that each last less than two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMore than 13.4 million students registered for the exam this year, surpassing last year\u2019s record of 12.9 million to make it the biggest \u201cgaokao\u201d ever held in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinese students spend years cramming for the punishingly difficult exam, as a high score is the only way to get into the country\u2019s top universities. The exam includes subjects like Chinese literature, math, English, physics, chemistry, politics and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The overwhelming majority of students get just one shot at the grueling test, unlike US students who can retake SAT exams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the specter of China\u2019s slowing economic growth and soaring youth unemployment has piled on the pressure to perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, the first day of the exam, parents waited anxiously outside school gates after sending their children off into exam halls. Many parents and teachers were dressed in red, the color of victory in China, and some held sunflowers \u2013 deemed an auspicious flower for academic success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities have rolled out a slew of measures to maintain order and stability around the examination sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNN: \u00a0 A record number of high school students across China have begun sitting a highly competitive exam that could decide their future in a country grappling with a slowing economy and diminishing opportunities for young graduates. The two-day national college entrance exam, known as \u201cgaokao,\u201d is the world\u2019s largest academic test. It has also been billed by Chinese state media as \u201cthe world\u2019s toughest\u201d college entrance exam due to its high stakes, competitiveness and intensity, with students pouring everything they\u2019ve learned in 12 years into a handful of subject tests that each last less than two hours. More than 13.4 million students registered for… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39915,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39913\/revisions\/39915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}