Explaining Gaokao: China’s University Entrance Examinations

Gaokao, literally “high exam”, is the common name for China’s university entrance examinations, the hurdle almost every Chinese student must pass to be admitted to a domestic university. It is administered once a year, in early June of every year across the country.

This is how Gaokao works currently, as described to me by my cousin who is currently a junior in high school.

First, let’s discuss what the actual examinations are. Each student sits six examinations. The content of the examinations is essentially a super-final of all content taught in three years of high school (Chinese high school is year ten, eleven, and twelve). Three subjects, Chinese language, mathematics, and English, are required for all students, each worth 150 points. Then, the student chooses three out of six additional subjects: history, politics, geography, physics, chemistry, and biology. These additional subjects are graded on a letter grade scale (A, A-, etc.) which is then converted to a number out of 70, for a total of 210 points. Points from the six subjects are added up for a total out of 660.

This number, and only this number, determines which university students are accepted to. It is used to compare students to others that applied for the same universities. Each province has their own examinations, as their curriculums often differ, and students are only compared to those from their province.

It is worth noting that students are not completely free to choose which additional subjects they sit. When applying to universities, students also declare their majors. Often, majors will have requirements regarding which examinations students must take to be eligible. For example, to major in medicine, which is at the undergraduate level in China, universities typically require students to sit both the chemistry and physics exams.

Next, the role of this score in sorting students into universities. Prior to the examination, each student fills in a list of desired universities, ordered by how high their point cutoff is expected to be (based on past data). Naturally, more competitive universities have higher cutoffs. From the university’s point of view, they rank all students who applied and take the highest scoring X students from each province. The last student’s score is the cutoff, and the remaining students then compete for their next choices. From the students’ point of view, they are admitted to the first university in their list for which they meet the point cutoff.

Lastly, it bears mentioning that there are other paths to university. A common one is winning high awards in academic competitions. Another is excellence in sports or the arts. However, these are reserved for truly exceptionally talented students, and the vast majority go through Gaokao.

The Gaokao system is somewhat controversial. It is certainly very hard on students and their families. If you ask me, as a bystander who didn’t go through the process, I think Gaokao is both fair and unfair. But one must keep in mind that for a population as big as China’s, it’s hard to come up with a more elegant solution.