Among those occasions most memorable to Chinese people, the moment when they receive their scores to the college entrance examination ranks up there with their first kiss and their wedding day in terms of importance.

 

According to the results of a year-long national survey published yesterday, more than 40 percent of the 5,000 respondents said reading their university admissions letter was one of the most exhilarating experiences in their lives. Nearly 90 percent said their performance on the national examination had changed their lives.

 

Seventy percent of them said winning a spot at a university through the college entrance examination was one of the few ways for common people to improve their life.

 

The survey, carried out by the Examination Center affiliated to the Ministry of Education, the China Youth Daily and test-service provider ATA Inc, received answers from 38,087 people in six selected provinces and sampled 5,000 of them.

 

The survey was intended to shed light on the changing lives of Chinese people on the 30th anniversary of the resumption of the national college entrance examination. The authorities reintroduced the exam in 1977, after the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) ended. Before that, young people had to be recommended to universities by their work units or be born into a revolutionary family to have a chance to continue their education.

 

In the past three decades, 36 million people have been admitted to universities after taking the college entrance exam. They have "combined to be a force pushing forward China's reform and opening-up," Dai Jiagan, director of the Examination Center, said.

 

Fifty-eight percent of the test-takers from relatively poor families said their fate had been "fundamentally" changed by the results, while only 16.2 percent from richer families said so.

 

More than 60 percent of the people from the 19-24 age group said they could not see any other path to success beyond the exam and university-level study.

 

Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed said they had suffered from insomnia on the eve of the test, and 32 percent of the 600 high school teachers who were also included in the survey said they would recommend that their students take the test again if they failed the first time around.

 

(China Daily June 28, 2007)