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College Entrance Exam in China
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Summer is finally here. It`s the best time for seniors. They have finished 12 years of elementary education. Many will go to college to continue their education. It is same for Chinese students. In 2008, there were 10.1 million Chinese seniors graduated, with less than 6 million will go to colleges. The education system of China is different from that of America. There is no on-going test like SAT where students can take it any time they think they are ready. In contrast, there is an annual countrywide college admission test at June 7 & 8 every year. If anyone failed or missed this test, the only chance will be the next year same time.
This tradition of national test can be traced back to 605AD in Sui Dynasty, when the first Imperial Exam was introduced. It was the Chinese Dream for the educated people. No matter how low your social status is, you can still enter the inner circle of emperor if you can pass a serious of strict tests. The No. 1 scholar of the final exam is called Zhuang Yuan. He will be immediately given a high rank post in government, and considered as the student of emperor. If he happen to be a handsome young man, it is possible to be the son-in-law of the emperor too. So there is an old Chinese idiom saying “A farmer at morning may appear in royal court at evening”.
The Imperial Exam has been a continuous policy for all the dynasties since then. Many famous scholar, ministers, statesmen, and even generals started their rise from this exam. Though it is abandoned at 1905 with the falling of last empire of China, its DNA is still alive and being weaved into various aspects of China today. For example, the national college entrance exam is always considered the way to transform someone`s life, especially those from less developed areas. One major department of Republic of China, which suceeded Qing Dynasty at 1911, was even called Test department.
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Dr. Hong Zhang obtained his Bachelor degree from Tsinhua University of China and PhD degree from University of Pennsylvania of US. He is the founder of ChineseSession.com, an online Chinese School offering 1-on-1 online immersion Chinese class at home with teachers from China. Dr. Zhang is the author of scores of papers and articles at many journals and conference proceedings.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hong_Zhang