Education in China: compulsory school, the Zhongkao, the Gaokao and university admission

In short

China has a nine-year compulsory education system under the Ministry of Education. After it, students choose between senior high school and vocational education. Entry to universities depends mainly on the Gaokao, the National College Entrance Examination, which is taken once a year in early June. Admission is organised by province, so the same score can lead to different outcomes in different places.

School stages

Compulsory education has six years of primary school and three years of junior secondary school. Children usually start primary school at the age of six. Kindergarten comes before it and is not part of the compulsory stage.

At the end of junior secondary school, students take the Zhongkao, the senior high school entrance examination. It is set locally, and the subjects and rules vary by city and province. Chinese, mathematics and a foreign language are always among them. The result decides which senior high school a student can enter, or whether a vocational school is the better fit.

Senior high school lasts three years. Vocational secondary schools offer technical training in fields such as machinery, business and services. Graduates of vocational schools can often continue to higher vocational colleges, and in some provinces they can reach universities through special exams.

The Gaokao

The Gaokao is a national exam, but provinces take part in preparing papers and in managing admission. Chinese, mathematics and a foreign language are compulsory for every candidate. The foreign language is most often English. Candidates then add further subjects, and the model has changed in recent years.

• Older model: students are placed on a science track or an arts track, and the extra papers are a combined science paper or a combined arts paper.
• Reformed models: starting with a pilot group of provinces and cities, a growing number of regions let students choose subjects among physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history and geography. Two schemes are used, often called 3+3 and 3+1+2.
• Subject rules for degrees: under the 3+1+2 scheme, students first choose physics or history, and universities may state which subjects a degree programme requires.

Candidates list their preferred universities and programmes in an application form. Universities then admit students from each province in order of results, within the quota that each university assigns to that province. Some universities also run special admission channels for particular talents, and these have their own conditions.

Universities and further study

Chinese universities are public or private, and a group of them takes part in the national Double First-Class initiative, which supports selected universities and subject areas. Many families look at provincial quotas and at the location of a university as much as its name.

Beyond the bachelor degree, students who want a master degree usually sit the national postgraduate entrance examination, widely called Kaoyan, in late December. It normally has a first stage with English, politics, mathematics for some fields, and subject papers, followed by an interview or second stage set by each university.

Studying in China

Mandarin Chinese is the language of instruction in most schools, and Putonghua is used in classrooms across the country. Minority regions teach their own languages alongside it, and English is taught as a school subject from the primary years. Universities in large cities increasingly offer programmes taught in English for international students, and the Chinese Proficiency Test, called HSK, is a common requirement for programmes taught in Chinese.

Study ideas written for the Chinese route:

1. Learn the structure of the papers from the previous years' published questions, because the format changes little from year to year, while the topics move with the curriculum.
2. In Chinese, practise essay planning and classical text reading in short daily sessions, since writing takes a large share of the time.
3. In mathematics, build a notebook of mistakes and redo each one a week later without looking at the solution.
4. For the foreign language, read short English articles and answer questions in a fixed time, then check the vocabulary you missed.
5. Choose elective subjects by looking at the programme requirements of your target universities in your province before the choice is final.
6. Rest and keep a routine in the last month, as long sessions late at night lower accuracy.

Students aiming at universities abroad often add an English test and an American entrance exam to their schedule, and this extra load should be planned early.

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