What's gaokao?

Gāo kǎo

What's Gāo kǎo

The National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or commonly known as Gāo kǎo, is an academic examination held annually in the mainland of the People's Republic of China. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. It is usually taken by students in their last year of high school, although there has been no age restriction since 2001.

In 2006, a record high of 9.5 million people applied for tertiary education entry in China. Of these, 8.8 million (93%) are scheduled to take the national entrance exam and 27,600 (0.28%) have been exempted from standardized exams due to exceptional or special talent. The rest (0.7 million) will take other standardized entrance exams, such as those designed for adult education students.

The overall mark received by the student is generally a weighted sum of their subject marks. The maximum possible mark varies wildly from year to year and also varies from province to province.

Students from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macau Special Administrative Region remain in their respective educational system before the handover so students in these two places do not participate in the Gaokao as the universities there retain their own admission procedure for local students. In return, mainland China's universities have a separate procedure for the admission of those students.

Schedule of Gāo kǎo

Gāo kǎo is held once a year (in recent years some of the provinces in China hold twice examinations a year and the adding one is called Spring Entrance Examination). Old schedule (before 2003) of the National Higher Education Entrance Examination was from July every year. Since 2003, the time changed to June every year. Partial Provincial administrative units determine the time during June 7th-8th or June 7th-9th holding the examination. 

Three subjects are mandatory everywhere: Chinese, Mathematics and a foreign language—usually English but may also be substituted by Japanese, Russian or French. The other 6 standard subjects are 3 sciences Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and 3 humanities History, Geography and Political Education. Applicants to science/engineering or art/humanities programs typically take 1-3 from the respective category. Since the 2000s, an integrated test, science integrated test, humanities integrated test or wider integrated test is introduced in some places. This integrated test may or may not be considered during admission. In addition, some special regional subjects are required or optional in some places. Currently, the actual requirement varies from province to province.