søndag 22. mai 2022

China’s graduate entrance exam offers hope – and few guarantees

Chen Yuying remembers the freezing afternoon last December, when she was sitting in the back of the classroom watching other students writing. Shielded by her glasses and facemask, she quietly burst into tears. For the past two days, she had tried her best to stay calm and fully focused on the exam. But after finishing answering all the questions, she was overwhelmed by mixed emotions and thoughts.

She figured she did a fairly good job in the test and was confident about achieving her only goal for the past year – to “land” or to be accepted by a master’s program. Yet some of her friends might not be as lucky, and she was afraid their pathways could thus get further and further away.