9.39 million student stress out for China's Gaokao weekend!

Topic: Gaokao stress weekend - Parents and students are stressed-out in the gaokao weekend.

Background: The gaokao (“high test”) is the tough annual entrance exam that determines the college every student will attend, thus determining one's future. This year, there will be 9.39 million test-takers (up 270,000 from 2013) participating in the two-day exam that runs June 7-8. 

The test for now has three key areas, including Chinese, math, and English, but that is expected to change in the next few years. The education ministry has announced a controversial plan to reduce the English emphasis, while beefing up Chinese, starting in Beijing.

With the future of so many of China’s students riding on the outcome, cities across the country take  extra precautions to ensure everything goes smoothly. Local governments are expected to be ready for emergency responses to ensure examinees’ smooth commute in the case of traffic jams,as per the Ministry of Education. Local governments are also asked to prepare for possible natural disasters such as earthquake, high temperatures, rainstorms and floods to guarantee that all exams go ahead.

Beijing Green channel for test takers: In Beijing, more than 70,000 students have signed up for the weekend test. Concerned that the flood of parents ferrying children to the exam will cause horrendous traffic jams, city authorities have designated 12 streets as “green channels” for test-takers. Over 1,700 of Beijing’s taxi drivers have volunteered to give free rides to students.

Foshan: Meanwhile, in the southern city of Foshan, Guangdong province, where more than 44,000 students will take the gaokao, authorities have banned outdoor square dancing, a popular activity for elderly Chinese, within 500 meters of testing centers. The fear is that the accompanying music, usually blaring over loudspeakers, would disturb the students’ ability to concentrate.

Coaching: The test in determining one’s future is so important that “gaokao sweatshops”—usually boarding schools that put students through boot camp-like test preparation—have popped up across the country.

Hengshui High School: About 270 kilometers south of Beijing and with more than 10,000 students, all of whom board, for example, has won kudos for its record getting students into China’s best universities—but also criticism for its over-the-top study regimen.

Hengshui students are required to rise at 5:30 a.m., starting the day with 15 minutes of group exercises, before beginning the grueling daily schedule of 13 classes, all aimed at acing the gaokao, that don’t wrap up until 9:50 at night.

Last year, Hengshui got 104 students into China’s two most elite academies, Beijing University and Tsinghua University. Four thousand students from Hengshui will take this weekend’s gaokao. And if there was any doubt about the seriousness of Hengshui’s study program, just check out some of the school slogans.

There is no “Go Team!” at Hengshui. Instead, the best-known school mantras include: “Life is not a rehearsal, because you won’t have the chance to live it all over again,” and “If you haven’t died from hard work, just work harder,” Xinhua reported.

Source: Dexter Roberts, Date: June 06, 2014, Bloomberg;  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-06/china-girds-for-high-stress-gaokao-weekend