Senior High School Entrance Examination

Senior High School Entrance Examination
Traditional Chinese 高級中等學校招生考試
Simplified Chinese 高级中等学校招生考试
Secondary Education Exam
Chinese 中考

The Senior High School Entrance Examination, or commonly known as Zhongkao (中考), is the academic examination held annually in the mainland of the People's Republic of China to distinguish junior high school graduates. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all education institutions at the senior high school level, such as common senior high schools, secondary skill schools, vocational high schools, technical high schools. It is usually taken by students in their last year of junior high school.

Before the Senior High School Entrance Examination, every province will hold two simulation examination twice, few places even three times. The Senior High School Entrance Examination usually make out problems by province, but few provinces transmit the power of making out problems to cities. This exam is the second examination system recovered after the Cultural Revolution. It takes place in early June every year, however in few place it takes place in late June or even early July.

In 1980, the decades that just recover the exams, the Graduation Examination of Junior High School and the Senior High School Entrance Examination are the same exam. If the students failed the Senior High School Entrance Examination, then they cannot graduate from the junior high school, even if there are senior high school who want to admit them. These students will be refused by the senior high school for the reason "failure in graduation from junior high school" (初中肄业), that is what is commonly called “sending back the document” (退档). However some places has the system of makeup exam of the Senior High School Entrance Examination. Since mid-1990s, the Graduation Examination of Junior High School becomes separated from the Senior High School Entrance Examination, but some provinces and cities such as Shanghai combined the two exams again.

Make out problems and register the score

Generally speaking, the Senior High School Entrance Examination is made by provincial educational examination institute. However, in recent year, exams are made by counties and cities except the municipalities directly under the Central Government.

The exam is usually written examination, physical education (PE) additional examination and policy additional score. The former two are standard score of the Senior High School Entrance Examination. So-called "policy additional score" is the points addition to the Senior High School Entrance Examination for the provincial, civic, countial "Triple A Student", student speciality that gains certificate, the children of disabled veterans, minorities, overseas children, etc. Although the policy is not the same, yet some the children of disabled veterans, minorities, overseas children always have 1-3 points additionally. The additional points will not be more than 30 points.

The place to take the Senior High School Entrance Examination

In different places in mainland China, there are different subjects, points and difficulty in different places. Generally speaking, the exam has Chinese, mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, history, politics, physical education (PE). Some places have geography and biology. In most of the places, history and politics are open-book examination, and some places even are allowed to take all paper material. The Senior High School Entrance Examination in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (新疆维吾尔自治区), the non-Han students are allowed to bring textbooks and Xinhua Zidian (新华字典) when having Chinese exam.

Subjects and scores of Senior High School Entrance Examination in different parts of the People's Republic of China

Beijing Municipality (北京市)

Shanghai Municipality (上海市)

Chongqing Municipality (重庆市)

Nanjing City (南京市)

Shenzhen City (深圳市)

Yichang City (宜昌市)

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (新疆维吾尔自治区)

Tianjin Municipality (天津市)

Hebei Province (河北省)

Zhejiang Province (Curriculum Reform Zone) (浙江省（课改区）)

Heilongjiang Province (黑龙江省)

Guangzhou City (广州市)

Harbin City (哈尔滨市)

Huai'an City (淮安市)

Fuzhou City (福州市)

Difficulties

The Senior High School Entrance Examination is easier than National Higher Education Entrance Examination. The difficulties coefficient is 0.1-0.8 (i.e. students will get 70%-75% of the full marks in average).

Problems

The Senior High School Entrance Examination and the National Higher Education Entrance Examination are an important symbol of examination-oriented education in mainland China. Although some places participate in "Curriculum Reform" and the Chinese authorities insist that the Senior High School Entrance Examination has become more focused on ability rather that rote memorization, yet the Senior High School Entrance Examination is still considered a product of the exam-oriented education system; it does not conform to the so-called quality-oriented education by the Chinese authorities. The Senior High School Entrance Examination is much easier than National Higher Education Entrance Examination. It leads students admission difficult because of much too little differences in scores. This exam is scored in such a way that hundreds or even thousands of students obtain exactly the same score.

The Senior High School Entrance Examination determines which senior high school students will be admitted. The quality of the senior high school is also an important issue of the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, so students who fail the Senior High School Entrance Examination do not get a second chance. However those who "stay in the old grade" (留级)[nb 1] are permitted to retake the test, but will be penalized (e.g., points are subtracted from their test scores).

In mainland China the Senior High School Entrance Examination is considered to be second only to the National Higher Education Entrance Examination. People often believe that scoring well on the exam is the only way to success. Therefore, the Senior High School Entrance Examination has caused an "industry of the Senior High School Entrance Examination" (中考产业), such as educational counseling books and reference books, to flourish. It has also, however, led to a proliferation of cheating. During the Senior High School Entrance Examination, many invigilators have found "cheating equipment" among students, such as micro-earphones, mini-microphones, and "Cheating Pens"[nb 2],.[9] Besides these instances of cheating during the exam, there has also been a rise in other forms of misconduct, such as exam theft, teachers who give out answers to the exams, and teachers who help students to bypass the invigilators. In Hunan, a student was murdered when he refused to cooperate in a cheating ring.[10]

In many places in mainland China, the Senior High School Entrance Examination also has several undesirable effects outside of the test. For example, if a student does not achieve the basic score line for a senior high school in the Senior High School Entrance Examination, then the parents may bribe the school so that their children may attend. Around the time of the Senior High School Entrance Examination in 2011, several students who were qualified to enroll into the provincial model high school were not enrolled. After verification, it was discovered that the reason was because many of the students that did not reach the score line were enrolled into the provincial model high school illegally, thus occupying the placements that legal students would have received.

Notes

  1. ↑ This is a Chinese educational jargon term which stands for the students still staying in the old grade abnormally in the school. For example, first year you are in Grade One, and second year you should be in Grade Two, but some students in the second year are still in Grade One, which is called "stay in the old grade" (留级)
  2. ↑ Xian Ying Pen (显影笔), a device for hiding the answers and blocking the eyes of invigilators

References

  1. ↑ 北京市2012年高级中等学校招生考试工作方案解读(simplified Chinese)
  2. ↑ 重庆中考毕业升学“两考合一” _ 重庆市政府公众信息网(simplified Chinese)
  3. ↑ 深圳市2012年中考中招政策和日程安排公布，深圳招生考试办公室(simplified Chinese)
  4. ↑ 2012年湖北省宜昌市中考成绩回归分数制(simplified Chinese)
  5. ↑ 新疆乌鲁木齐市2007年中考科目分值现已确定(simplified Chinese)
  6. ↑ 初中毕业生学业考试(simplified Chinese)
  7. ↑ 2007年河北省中考推迟两天，石家庄热线，文章出自《燕赵都市报》(simplified Chinese)
  8. ↑ 哈尔滨中考时间25日至27日 6万余名考生赴考(simplified Chinese)
  9. ↑ 中考高考临近 隐形“作弊笔”悄现哈尔滨，人民网(simplified Chinese)
  10. ↑ 中考时未配合作弊 湖南一中学生惨死同学乱棒下，人民网(simplified Chinese)


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