An update on reforms to China's Gaokao university entrance examination

Summary:

Earlier this year, 9.4 million Chinese students took part in the Gaokao exam, China's university entrance examination. Among this number, around 340,000 of these students in Shanghai and Zhejiang province were the first cohort to sit the final exams of the new reformed Gaokao format being trialled in these regions.

The new-format Gaokao was introduced in these two regions for students who entered upper secondary school in the 2014-15 academic year, in response to a perception that the examination was too inflexible. The most obvious change to the examination is that, instead of choosing to study Arts or Sciences alongside compulsory Chinese, Mathematics and English components, the revised examination allows students to select three individual subjects from a list of six or seven: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, Politics, and (in Zhejiang province only) Technology. Some university programmes require students to have studied a particular subject or one of a group of subjects (for example at least one of the three sciences); however, more than half of programmes had no specific subject requirements for 2017 entry.

In Zhejiang, examinations in these optional subjects are held twice, and students are allowed two attempts with the higher score counting towards their final Gaokao results, while students in both Shanghai and Zhejiang have two chances to pass the English exam. The reason for this reform is in order to reduce the pressure of a single high-stakes examination period.

When the reforms to the Gaokao were first announced, it was expected that the new-format exam would be extended across the whole country for students entering high school in 2017-18 academic year. However, the Ministry of Education has now announced that the reforms will be spread out more widely than originally anticipated. Most provinces will not hold their initial new-format Gaokao exams until 2021 or beyond, meaning that the students that entered high upper secondary school this year will still take the combined Arts or Sciences papers. Detailed roll-out details by province are provided in the table below:

With the exception of Xinjiang, which has not yet released details of Gaokao reforms, all of these regions will follow Shanghai’s lead in allowing students to choose three from a list of six optional subjects, in contrast to Zhejiang’s seven.

Although feedback on the new format has generally been positive, most schools have not been able to offer every possible combination of subjects due to scheduling issues, instead limiting students to around seven or eight options. Another negative effect has been a decline in the number of students taking certain subjects. Local media have reported that only 30 per cent of Shanghai students and 27.5 per cent in Zhejiang chose to take the Physics paper, which is seen as a more difficult option. (Although the subject examinations are graded on a curve, Physics is seen as attracting stronger students which makes it more difficult for the average candidate to receive a high score). This is despite Physics being the most commonly required subject among undergraduate programmes in both Shanghai and Zhejiang.

Analysis by Kevin Prest

The main effect of Gaokao reforms from the perspective of UK universities is likely to come when institutions consider Chinese applicants to their undergraduate or foundation programmes. Applicants’ wider choice of subjects under the new Gaokao will bring it closer to the UK system, although the overall number of subjects studied is still wider as candidates must take Maths, Chinese and a foreign language (almost always English) in addition to their three optional subjects.

As with the current situation, the new Gaokao will continue to vary by region and a given score in one province is not necessarily equivalent to the same score from a different province. For example, the new Shanghai Gaokao is scored out of 660, while a maximum score of 750 has been used in Zhejiang and will be the most common score across most other provinces. A few provinces will give scores out of 700. These different scores reflect a difference in the weighting of different parts of the exam, with Shanghai allocating 70 points to each of the optional courses while Zhejiang gives up to 100 points for these sections.

Although a major aim of the reforms is to reduce the pressure of the Gaokao exam the British Council has not observed any effect of the reforms on alternative qualifications such as A-levels or the International Baccalaureate. The Gaokao is still seen as an extremely stressful and high-pressure exam, and some students from wealthy families prefer to follow international qualifications to avoid this.

Sources:

1. Report from China Education Online on the progress of Gaokao reforms (in Chinese): http://www.eol.cn/html/g/report/2017/report3.shtml

2. A summary including details of and links to individual provinces’ Gaokao reform plans (in Chinese): http://gaokao.chsi.com.cn/gkzt/gkgg2017

3. “Experts gather to consider comprehensive reform of college entrance examination “ – Shanghai Daily (in English): http://www.shanghaidaily.com/opinion/Experts-gather-to-consider-comprehensive-reform-of-college-entrance-examination/shdaily.shtml