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Ms. Cui complains that other, fitter, students can put in longerhours than she can preparing for the gaokao, China s massiveuniversity-entrance exam that is seen as crucial to not only thestudent s own future, but that of their whole family. The gaokao is like a battle. I envy the students who are inbetter physical condition, the 18-year-old says during a shortbreak from last-minute cramming at her home in Hebei province,outside Beijing. For the past six months, my parents have beentelling me to take pills to help me sleep better but I alwaysforget to take them, because I m already too exhausted by the timeI go to bed. For Ms. Cui and 9.15 million other Chinese senior high schoolstudents, the battle nears an end Thursday as theysimultaneously put pencil to paper and begin writing the two-daytest they ve been dreading, and preparing for, all year. The stakes for gaokao, which means big test, could scarcely behigher. The outcome determines whether a student will get auniversity education and the hope that better jobs will follow. Ina society where government policy restricted most families to justone child, the test is often the one chance a poor, rural familymight have at moving up the social ladder. With just 6.85 million university spots to go around (plus some atthe University of Sydney in Australia, which this year became thefirst major foreign university to say it will consider gaokaoscores from Chinese applicants), competition is fierce. In 2010, China s two most prestigious post-secondary schools,Beijing University and Tsinghua University, together admittedalmost 600 of the 80,000 applicants who took the test in Beijing,according to the Shanghai Daily newspaper. The same universitiesadmitted just 200 of the 195,000 test-takers from northeasternHeilongjiang province. The gaokao is the most important gate in life, said Wang Yang,an independent filmmaker who recently released a documentary basedon more than 70 hours of filming students preparing for the event. To students from the poor countryside, [the gaokao] is theonly possibility of changing their rural identity and looking foran opportunity in the big cities. As of Thursday, almost nothing the student accomplished previouslyin school matters. Forget the grades: all success begins or endswith the test. Parents are bombarded with medical and nutritionadvice about how to best prepare their kids for the test days.Doctors are known to hand out birth control pills to help femalestudents avoid an untimely period. The test is taken in four, two-hour chunks over the two days onefor each of math, science, Chinese literature and English with athree and a half hour lunch and study break each afternoon. Despite it all, there s little evidence that the pressure-packedgaokao is a good way of identifying the top students universitiesare looking for. In 2010, the state-run China Daily newspaperreported on a study that traced the top 1,000 scorers of the past30 years. None had gone on to a notable career. Nonetheless, local newspapers were filled in recent weeks withreports of the lengths some students (aided in many cases by theirteachers and parents) go to in order to ensure a good score. Police reportedly broke up an exam-cheating ring and arrested 1,500people involved in selling electronic devices such as wirelesstransmitters and clear plastic earphones that would allow atest-taker to communicate with helpers outside the exam room.Photographs were circulated online of a classroom in central Hubeiprovince where teachers had hooked 30 students up to intravenousdrips, reportedly pumping them with amino acids believed to helptheir brain function. Meanwhile, copies of the big test were being kept in securelocations and under armed guard, according to the Ministry ofEducation, which promised that 94 per cent of exam rooms around thecountry would be under video surveillance to prevent cheating.Nonetheless, alleged copies of the test were still being soldonline for up to $1,000 each. The gaokao is the only hope many Chinese have for verticalmobility, so [the students] are under great pressure, said ZhuDake, a professor in the Institute of Cultural Criticism at TongjiUniversity in Shanghai, who said that student suicides are notuncommon. A degree from a top university can mean an almostguaranteed post in the civil service or, even better, a job at aforeign firm. Failure to go to university means they will lingerat the bottom of society. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Swimming Pool Chemical Dispenser , Swimming Pool Leaf Skimmer Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Swimming Pool Cleaner.
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