Could you pass the 2017 Gaokao?
The Gaokao is one of the toughest university entrance exams in the world, and Chinese students spend years preparing for these three fateful three days. All students are required to sit exams in Maths, English and Chinese, as well as exams in either humanities or sciences.
This being China, the Chinese exam is really where the money's at, being worth 40 percent of a student's total grade. Students are asked to write an essay in response to a prompt, which is often bizarre, cryptic and unpredictable. Last year the question was:
'With the development of modern society, the details of people's lives are more easily exposed to the public eye and critiquing other people is a more common phenomenon. These critiques also have a greater impact on the individual and society as a whole now more than ever. People have different opinions about the concept of "commenting on other's lives". Write about what you think in an original composition.'
Us in the 2017 Gaokao.
This year it was all about predictions:
'To predict is to deduce what will happen next. Life is full of uncertainties. Some people are happy to accept predictions about life, others are simply indifferent. Write your thoughts on this.'
Right. Easy. Just a few thousand characters predicting people's attitude towards, um, predictions. Maybe?
And then there's this gem from the maths exam:
A simple volume calculation question... Hm.
All we can say is we're glad it's not us who just emerged from the exam halls around the country, and we hope that those who have are having of freakin' big beer to celebrate.