Written by Hairong 2022 Cohort
Students all experience the same nightmare; they have endless tests with a clock ticking before them. The anxiety makes them sweat; sleepless nights are the norm. In China, the most vital exam is the annual college entrance examination held in June. Many consider it the one test that can change your whole life. According to recent research, 9.2 million people joined the college entrance examination in 2021, but only 5.73% could attend a first-tier university. Enrolling in the finest school means having a brighter future after graduating. People who do not earn satisfying results would take the exam one more time the following year. Such a decision needs courage, half of the candidates suffer from depression because of preparing for this exam. In the same year, 20% of the students re-joined the exam, including Shangjun, a 32-year-old high school student who has retaken it 12 times since 2009.
Shangjun was born in a village. Since a young age, his father has always told him the same story about how a person was admitted to Tsinghua University and got an official job building a road for villagers. Shangjun was the most promising person in their village to realize this vision. He was the top student in the township and was admitted to the best high school in the county.
His turning point was a strange illness; he felt it difficult to concentrate, as if living in a hazy dream and could not prepare for the exam. After taking his first college entrance exam, he was not accepted to the university. Without hesitation, he chose to retake the exam. Unfortunately, the strange health scare appeared in the next year and the next until he finally achieved a decent score.
During his preparation, his family advised him not to retake the exam, but he secretly went back to high school and continued to study. In 2013, he went to Beijing, and during the tour, he confirmed his suspicions that a high score was the only way for a poor family to change their fate. Ten years later, he got a little better every time he took the test. His best result was accepted by the China University of Political Science and Law, still a far cry from Tsinghua University.
When the interviewer asked why Shangjun had taken the test repeatedly, he smiled shyly and said he wanted to be a student at Tsinghua University. He did not worry about being laughed at but mentioned he was scared of those dreams, dreams that “I often couldn’t finish the test questions or forgot to bring a certain tool. In the examination room, there were still two minutes to hand in the paper, but I could not find a piece of eraser.”
In 2021, the acceptance rate for Tsinghua University was 0.032%.
reference:
https://www.pishu.com.cn/skwx_ps/bookdetail?SiteID=14&ID=12369491
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/364216590https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404824090656768605