高考: My experience and opinion on Gaokao
2016-06-06
13 years ago I had our nation Gaokao, which is known as GCE A/L . It is very similar to the Gaokao. A make or break event for most of our poor or middle class school kids. Anyway the exam was not easy. The preparation was the toughest. I had to scarify lot of things. I separated from Television, internet and playing. Got up every day 4 AM and studied until 6 - 6.30 AM. Then leave for school. Then to the tuition class where additional support given to me. Week ends? What is week end? There was no such a thing in that time. It was not the exam which was furious. The competition. Anyone who got an interest to learn could pass the exam, with a bit of effort. But passing was not enough. We wanted to be among the best to be filter out for the best university.
I saw many of my friends giving up the interest while the work load was piling up everyday. I did not give up. I knew this was the only way to break the poverty cycle my family was entrapped. I was correct, my effort was not wasted. I passed the exam with a good score and I was selected to the top technical university of Sri Lanka to follow Engineering. I won the scholarship and the whole engineering education for 4 years was free. Without existence of this scheme, I will never be able to enter to that university or pursuit an Engineering carrier.
I was trained in one of biggest company in the world, British American Tobacco. I worked for a billion dollar company company, MAS Holdings. And now I am enrolled with a PhD program of a top 100 University in world, Zhejiang University. None of these things will happen to be if I did not go through that competitive exam. Although there are debates on this kind of highly competitive and stressful exams, I strongly believe we need this kind of tough test to filter out the hidden gems which have been trapped in poverty or distanced places.
Today my labmate Guo dechao told me, the china the most competitive exam will be occurred tomorrow for a batch of a millions of kids. I wish all the best for Chinese kids to do their best and bring out their talents to the top universities of China. You may be going to gaokao tomorrow. Or may be your friend, a sibling or a student is going to exam tomorrow. Tell them not to hate it. Not to fear it. Not to despise it. For sure, it has taken a huge part of your most beautiful period of life. However, it is worth of it if you really take the most of it.
Good luck kids!
Looking at the young and beautiful faces who were in line to entering into the examination center and the parents who were patiently standing at the outside the school gates, it's kind of the most beautiful pictiure and you will never forget it once you see it and have a little bit indepth discussion with the relevent persons about it.
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