In China, students have to take a test in their senior
year of high school called the gaokao. The gaokao is the only thing that Chinese
colleges look at when considering perspective students. If a student does not
get into any colleges then they must become manual workers. College is their
only chance to do anything else. The gaokao is unfair in many ways. It limits growth
in creativity of students, it puts the students under extreme amounts of stress,
and it is not an accurate portrayal of the student’s full intelligence.
The gaokao stifles growth in creativity of Chinese students.
Students spend 10th and 11th grade learning only what
will be on the test. They then spend all of their senior year studying and
memorizing that material. School is supposed to be a place to learn to think
for yourself and be creative. Students in China are only learning how to take a
test and memorize facts. In New York, students in elementary and middle school
have to take a Math and English state exam, testing them on the Common Core. I
am a middle school student in New York and in two days I will begin the English
state exams. My scores will influence which high school I get into. These tests
are a much less extreme version of the gaokao. Our teachers have to devote a
very small part of the school year to studying for these tests. As we studied
for the English state exam, our teacher constantly told us not to use the
analyzing and deep thinking we had been learning all year, on the tests. She said,
“The test makers don’t think you should know that yet. Make sure you do it in
your school work and everywhere else, just not on the test.” The test makers in
New York are stifling our creativity by setting such low standards. The test
makers in China are stifling those students creativity by not even giving them
a chance to go above their standards.
The
gaokao is extremely stressful on Chinese students. If they do not get a high
enough score on the test, they don’t get into college. Even one or two points on
the test can change their whole life. There is too much riding on the gaokao. The
students taking the gaokao are still teenagers, but yet there are forced to
take one single test to determine their entire future. Teenage suicide rates
have been known to rise around the time of the gaokao. If students would rather
die than take this test; that should be a huge red flag that the gaokao is too
stressful. In some Chinese schools, classes start around 6 a.m. and don’t end
until around 10 p.m. High schools in New York City are also known for being
stressful, but our classes usually start around 8 a.m. and end around 3 p.m.
This is significantly shorter. Knowing the stress high school kids in NYC feel,
I can only imagine how much worse it is for kids in China.
The gaokao is an
inaccurate portrayal of the student’s full intelligence. The test is only
really testing them on how well they can learn and memorize something. While
this can be important, it should not be the only thing colleges are have a
bright future ahead of them. But, if they have trouble with their memory, read
too slow or have horrible test anxiety they might fail the gaokao. Unless they
have enough money to go to a private college or study abroad, they have no
chance of going to college and having a better life. With a test score you can’t
get a feel for a student’s personality, how they interact with others and how
creative they are. Just because their score is good enough for that school, doesn’t
mean it is a good match. A single number should not replace a person and their “intelligence.”
The gaokao, the Chinese college entrance exam, is an extremely
unjust way to select students. The test dictates what the students learn in high
school so they have no chance to learn how to be creative. It also puts extreme
amounts of stress and pressure on the students because it is their only chance
to do something other than manual labor and the test doesn’t accurately show
the student’s full intelligence, only how well they can memorize the subjects
on the test. The gaokao is unfair and should not continue being given in China.
