All articles tagged with #gaokao
Zhang Xuefeng, China’s famed education influencer known for blunt, math‑and‑money‑driven career advice, died at 41 of cardiac arrest after years of exhausting work. His death prompted reflection on China’s hypercompetitive education system and debates over whether his hard-nosed guidance helped or tempered young people’s ambitions, amid prior controversies and state censorship pressures.
Chinese AI companies have temporarily disabled certain chatbot features during the nationwide gaokao exams to prevent cheating, including disabling image recognition functions in popular apps like Alibaba’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Doubao, as part of efforts to ensure exam fairness amid concerns over AI-assisted cheating. The shutdowns are driven by social media reports and aim to maintain the integrity of the highly competitive college entrance exams.
Liang Shi, a 56-year-old man from Sichuan, China, has taken the country's grueling college entrance exam, known as the "gaokao," 27 times over the past 40 years, but has yet to achieve a high enough score to enter a top university. Despite studying hard for the exam, Liang's score this year was lower than the previous year, leaving him disappointed and considering giving up. The gaokao is notoriously difficult, with pressure piled on students who spend months in advance cramming for the exam.
A record-breaking 12.91 million high school students in China took the two-day "gaokao" college entrance exam, which is the only way to get into the country's top universities. However, the spike in candidates has raised concerns among students already facing an uncertain economy and dwindling opportunities, with some arguing the high competition will gradually decrease the value of a college degree. China's youth are the most educated in decades, but they also face a growing mismatch between their expectations and opportunities, with urban unemployment surging after three years of pandemic restrictions hit small businesses hard.
A record number of nearly 13 million Chinese students have registered for the country's notoriously difficult college entrance exams, known as "gaokao," which began on Wednesday. The exams are critical for entrance to China's most prestigious universities, and students spend between 60 and 150 minutes on each subject with the exams lasting up to four days. Many students take additional tuition to boost their performance in the exams, but there have also been reports of cheating. This year's exam-takers have spent the bulk of their high-school years under pandemic restrictions, meaning many of their lessons took place online.