Often dubbed as the most grueling and formidable exam in the world, the gaokao determines which universities its takers are able to attend and can have lifelong consequences on Chinese students, whose higher-education experience, or lack thereof, will affect their job prospects and social mobility.
Like many other standardized tests, the gaokao is notorious for the pressure and impact it has on Chinese students. Exam takers need to compete with millions of other candidates to enter prestigious universities with further pressure from schools and families, who want their children to perform their best.
While the gaokao is commonly accepted as a relatively fair way for Chinese universities to select students, there exists the issue of social and regional imbalance where wealthy students from urban areas have greater access to educational resources than less affluent students in more rural regions.
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