GaoKao
There is the most important and biggest exam in China -The National College Entrance Examination (NCEE). The Chinese name is GaoKao. The GaoKao is an exam after Chinese students finish the three year senior high school.
Why is the biggest?
There is one weekend in June in every year, there are almost 10 million senior high school students enter this exam. On that weekend, some high schools will be GaoKao test locations. The environment around GaoKao locations will be very quiet, because that is good for the students to take the exam. Before the GaoKao begins, the students must be checked for electrical devices on their body.
Why GaoKao is important?
Before the GaoKao begins, the students have started preparing for the GaoKao since they are in high school. Most students who will take the GaoKao only sleep 5 hours a day in the three years of high school. Many students in normal families think the GaoKao is the only chance to change their future. They must study very hard for preparing for the Gaokao. Because the final grade of GaoKao decides the students will in what levels of the Chinese universities attend.
The grade level of GaoKao (600):
Level 1: 450–429
Level 2: 396–354
Level 3: lower than 354
When grade is in level 1, it means the students graduate from the level 1 university will have a good job. However, if their grade is in level 2 or 3 universities, that means your future will be done, because the students did not go in level 1 universities means that you can’t find a job after graduation in the future. When the students have a poor grades on GaoKao, they may repeat GaoKao again next year. Some students cannot accept that they have a bad grade of GaoKao, they may kill themselves, give up to stay at home and go to the construction company to move bricks.
In China, moving bricks is a toilsome work and getting less money job. The workers who move bricks work 10 hours a day. There is no break except the one-hour lunch time. They work a day, and have a break the next day. Every month the workers can get $300. This job is despised by the Chinese people. In China, people think that the loser will be moving bricks.
When the grade of GaoKao comes out and it is not high, some families, which have economic strength to support their child, send the child abroad for studying. If the parents find the grade can not get into level 1 universities, they will send to their child go abroad immediately.
In addition, other families, who think GaoKao is so stressful for their child, will send their child abroad to study senior high school. Those families will send their child into an international senior high school in China for preparing to study in the foreign country. I studied at an international senior high school, and I did not take the GaoKao. In China, there is a sentence to describe the people who do not attend the GaoKao: the life of people who do not attend the GaoKao is not satisfactory. However, I do not think my life is unsatisfactory, because my family choose the path for me to go abroad. My life is full.
