China's Toughest Test Our World

documentary strand, Our World. From Shanghai, this week's programme

profiles the lives of three of the nine million students throughout

China this year, preparing to take the country's notoriously tough

university entrance exam, the gaokao.

It is a New Year at Zhabei Number 8 High School. For some pupils, the

drumbeat of the levy this study is reaching a crescendo and this will

be the toughest deal of their lives. This is the story of one school. A

small part of the extraordinary national effort as more than 9

million students prepare for China's university entrance exam,

For this teacher's class of final year students, there is less than

one year until the final moment. For Chinese students, their

academic career and very life chances depend on their performance

in the university entrance exam for gaokao. Our cameras have been

allowed in to witness the next nine months of exhausting preparation.

This 18 the world is one of the teacher's model students. She is

hoping to attend a prestigious Top Gear University and needs to score

Eat is a long school day from 7am until 5:30pm. -- the tears. But

even then there is no time to relax. It's not cheap to live in Shanghai

and the family car migrants who moved from the Western Sichuan

province. They have made big sacrifices for her education,

recently moving house and paying higher rent in order to live closer

She does an extra six hours of study every night and still she

says there is not enough time to Shanghai is top of the world in

terms of its maths, science and leading test scores, according to

one Idlib to study carried out by the OECD. The Organisation for

Economic Co-operation and Development. In terms of the

ability of its intake, Zhabei Number 8 High School is slightly

below the city average but it still sends 80% of its students to

university. The city's educational authorities are proud of how they

have narrowed the gap between the most advantage at disadvantaged

students. But of course there are gaokao casualties and sung, like

this one, made the difficult choice of repeating their final year in

the hope of improving their test scores. And Finn Class everything

is geared towards including scare - - test scores. It is of constantly

trilling papers and perfecting answers. But over time I notice

something else. One can't help but be impressed. The students in this

school are meant to be the struggling once and yet the

discipline and concentration on display would be the envy of many

elsewhere with more resources and Each class spend the day in its own

room, visited by a succession of teachers for the various subjects.

And as the first term progresses, time is marked by this constant

ritual of study. Punctuated at regular intervals by the school

bell, the fizz -- civilising sound Off course, like school systems

everywhere, there are students less well stupid -- suited to exam based

learning. This student is a refreshing antidote to the

stereotype of China's results obsessed student masses. He has set

his sights relatively low and plans to study interior-design at a

second here private college. And so he is cons -- coasting, confident

he will make the marks he needs and is doing barely any extra study

It's important to stay alert. Every day, the whole school stops for a

moment to take part in these eye exercises. For the senior students,

it is a brief respite from the gaokao treadmill. There is almost

no new learning it will this year. Every class is focused on revising

and perfecting only what is already been learned. Day-in, day-out for a

full nine months. The teachers feel the pressure too. Not least because

their end-of-year bonus depends on In terms of results, Zhabei Number

8 High School is one of Shanghai's most improved schools. But the head

teacher worries that the Chinese system puts too much emphasis on

tests, leaving little room for Ha you suggesting that although

they show great success in exams, the real picture is that there is

One new has the rare day off from coming to get the result she failed

to get last time round. How old high-school friends are already at

university while she repeats her high-school year. She is there to

get a glimpse of the future she She failed to get the gaokao great

she needed by only a narrow margin but it has cost her a whole year.

How old classmates are now enjoying university while she is still at

school. If she does pass second time around, she wants to come here

It's springtime in Shanghai and for the final year students, the

looming gaokao is the only cloud on the horizon. The mock tests come

around every month and are made as real as possible. The gaokao itself

will take place over two days in June with papers in maths, English,

Chinese and a fourth of the student's own choosing. The

pressure is really beginning to China's policy makers admit the

system puts too much stress on families and robs children of their

social life. So why then is it proving so hard to change? We have

a - more than 2,000 years. We have more than 2,000 years of

compensations, a you cannot say in one night all the -- of xmination,

you cannot say in one night all the behaviour should change. If you

spoke to parents of maybe a 7-year- old student in Shanghai, that

parent is thinking that in another 10 years time their son or daughter

will be preparing for the Gaokao, do you think that young child in 10

years time will be facing 6-7 hours of extra study, weekend schooling,

or do you think it will change in that time? Yes, I think it will

surely change. For example, in this year, our Government already had a

slogan, let the students let every day have one more hour to sleep,

and one more hour to do sports. So this is the struggle of this year.

At Java No.8, sport is a low priority. To piped music from the

school's loud speaker system, this twice-daily routine ensures a few

minutes of stretching. (MUSIC PLAYS)

Final year students are excused from having to go outside. They do

the short bout of physical exercise indoors, or sometimes skip it

altogether. And as for the promise of an extra hour of sleep a day -

this probably isn't what the Government has in mind. The

exhausted students snatching a nap between lessons. It's early on

Sunday morning. Ma Li is preparing to go to a private tuition class.

Such classes are expensive for families on an average wage, but

there is little choice. The Gaokao is a competitive exam, the higher

you score, the better the chance of a good university place. For those

children who don't go to the extra lessons, they risk falling behind.

The Gaokao is fast approaching. The school canteen still offers a brief

schap from the classroom. Now there are only -- escape from the

classrooms, now there are only a few more lunchtimes yes. Ding

Zhenwei is staying with his aunt to be closer to the school. But he is

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 40 seconds

Almost anyone who's been through the Gaokao will sympathise. These

are dark, tough days, and counting down the hours not even the most

relaxed student can escape the weight of expectation. Gaokao Day

is a national event. In towns and cities across the vast country the

scene is the same. The road blocks ensure that not even traffic noise

disturbs China's stressed out students. "I'll meet you over

there", Ma Li's mum explains, then her daughter heads off. It's the

moment she's been preparing for her whole school life. Teacher, Gin, is

here, a comforting, familiar place for her pupils as they pass the

security checks. Our cameras are allowed no further. We join the

ranks of parents at the school gates. Many choose to stay, waiting,

as if by simply being here they can will their children to succeed

inside the exam hall. It's almost as if after 18 years of investment,

bringing up to child, this is the moment when that product is meeting

its quality control moment. How successful have they been in

raising their children. Add to that the fact that for many of this gern

I suggest, the cultural -- generation, the cultural revolution

that robbed them of a chance to learn, you can see why it really

does matter. Meanwhile, enterprising salesmen offering

everything from careers' advice to half-price pizzas, make the most of

the opportunity. Suddenly there's a commotion at the school gate. One

young man has been brought out of the Gaokao, clearly unwell. He is

given medical treatment. He's in no state to return to the test. It's a

deep, personal tragedy. The Gaokao takes place once a year. There are

no other chances to Rae take. As he's driven a-- retake, as he's

driven away, he knows all that preparation, work and revision have

been in vein. The tests take two full days. The scene is the same

for each paper. Anxious students, ainks parents. Ding Zhenwei --

anxious parents. Ding Zhenwei on his way to the final paper thinks

it's gone well. What has been the worst paper so far? Maths. Good

luck. There's a final wave from Wong Yu, and there's two more hours

to go. And when it is all over, the relief is palpable. It's a Joyous

moment, another generation of Chinees students survived the

Gaokao ordeal. The results will come later, of course, but for now,

their parents are rightly proud. The students take the chance to do

the things they have been unable to do for months. This is their first

summer of freedom. For many, the first time in their whole scoor

careers that they don't have homework or private -- school

careers that they don't have homework or private classes to go

to. The end of year photo is the last moment for classes together as

a group. A few weeks later, the results are in. Ma Li, an exemplary

student has scored enough Gaokao to make it into her chosen university

to study logigistics. There's good news for Ding Zhenwei, he set his

sites relatively low and got enough. He's now off to study interior

design. As for Wang Yu, desperate to pass second time around, she's

made it. She did better than last year, and is preparing to study

advertising at the same university as her old classmates. Talk of