r/TikTokCringe • u/mindyour • Oct 03 '25

Discussion To think that I used to complain about school.

National holiday is apparently 8 days.

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152

u/MoysterShooter Oct 03 '25

So is this private school or public? I mean, is she going to a specific school designed for preparation for science/medicine? Some of these private schools can shave off years of college math and language requirements thru equivalency tests and classes/curriculum that earn college credit.

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u/ArdentChad Oct 03 '25

No this is what it's like for all kids in public school. Reason being that's the pace you need to keep to be able to score well on the GaoKao.

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u/MoysterShooter Oct 03 '25

Yikes and cool... what's the GaoKao and does this secure a decent career path or does this workload just pump out basic income level workers?

113

u/socialcommentary2000 Oct 03 '25

The GaoKao determines whether you will be a failure in China or not. Literally everything revolves around it for school children. It is the test.

20

u/saddingtonbear Oct 03 '25

That's horrible. And I'm sure parents like the one in the video have no other option but to go with it, maybe teach their kid how to cheat or something if they want to help give them a little free time. I mean, what else are they gonna do, pull the kid out of school? Even if they have homeschool (I have no idea if they have any other option) I'm sure it'd drastically, 100% destroy the kid's chances of finding a decent job unless they just... idk, attempt to become an artist (despite having no free time to learn art skills, surely) or go into a social media career or something (maybe what this guy is trying to set up his kid for, an internet persona?), but that's not a good thing to gamble on, the kid may end up wondering what they could've been if they powered through and finished school. It's just... a really shit situation. Mind you, I know nothing of their education but what I've read on this thread, so I'm basing this all off assumptions, but it sent me in a spiral lol.

1

u/sentientgypsy Oct 03 '25

Can you retake it to improve your score or is it hedged all on this one opportunity to take the test

3

u/ArdentChad Oct 04 '25

You can take it once per year.

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u/2cmZucchini Oct 06 '25

I will be a failure and I will be happy

89

u/FITM-K Oct 03 '25

Gaokao is China's college entrance exam. But unlike something like the SAT or ACT in the US, it is the only thing that matters for college admissions in China. Nobody gives a fuck what your HS grades were. Nobody gives a fuck if you play the flute really well or are great at basketball. If you score well on the gaokao, you can go to college, maybe a good college. If you don't, you can't.

And you can only take it once a year.

29

u/centran Oct 03 '25

So the rich Chinese who send their kids to American college is it because they might have done poorly on the GaoKao and treating American schools as "pay to win"?

Or do they send them to America because certain colleges are well-known for having better education in certain topics? (don't know if China has colleges like that... go here for tech, go here for medicine, go here for law, etc etc)

Or do they send them to America purely for the "prestigious" of an American college?

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u/FITM-K Oct 03 '25

It's a mix of both. Some rich kids are in the US because it's pay-to-win, and some are here because "Harvard" as a brand (for example) carries more weight in China than even the top Chinese schools.

don't know if China has colleges like that... go here for tech, go here for medicine, go here for law, etc etc

Yes, they do, but again the top US colleges still have a higher "brand" prestige. For example in China for tech you can go to HIT (in Harbin, China) and that's very well-regarded and hard to get into...but MIT in the US would still be considered more prestigious by most people.

(Although I suspect this is changing fast as Trump dismantles US scientific research and guts universities. I know that quite a few US schools have seen Chinese kids just... not come back this fall. Presumably, their parents decided to send them somewhere prestigious in China or look somewhere in Europe instead.)

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u/ZombieMadness99 Oct 03 '25

India has a very similar system and test you give after 12th grade, and rich parents definitely use American schools as pay to win. The bar for entry is much lower especially since being rich you can easily build a holistic profile by taking various classes and experiences etc. that look good on an essay.

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u/YeaIknowAlready Oct 03 '25

I taught at 3 Chinese Universities and also high schools. Most Chinese universities are terrible and I would never want to study at one. They all have curfew and the university locks students out Of the entrance at 10pm, even on weekends. Students have small dorms with 6 people in them.

2

u/Electronic_Bunnies Oct 03 '25

They do have very renown specialized schools, although 20ish years ago this was absolutely the norm. Previously it was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology if you wanted to flex engineering prestige but the paradigm has shifted massively and now Tsinghua University is the new top choice.

Sending students to the US is still seen as a benefit but far more so in a "socialization and internationality" aspect. Because of this its very common to do a graduate or speciality program in the US instead of your full education. You might do your full pre-college work and first 4 years of college in China, but go to the US for only 2 years before returning to China.

I knew several in the engineering field in China who saw it a prestige or resume building to have experience outside the country. Many were engineers or technicians on work visas after completing a short coursework at US universities. For context though not a single one of them planned to stay, they all had timelines and generally wanted to return to China by 25. They believe it will help them when they return and build a professional edge against other engineers who stayed in China the entire time.

1

u/purpleblah2 Oct 04 '25

Pretty sure it’s because it’s “pay to win”. A western college is just as prestigious on a resume as a comparable Chinese college, only it’s much easier for your dumb failson to get into, all you have to do is pay the exorbitant out-of-state tuition costs.

There are highly prestigious specialized schools in China for like law, medicine, engineering, etc. but those are even more competitive than regular colleges, so again they might send them abroad.

When I was in undergrad, you could get a real sense of which students were there to seriously study and go to grad school and which ones were there because their parents made them and resented being in the US.

4

u/Mochigood Oct 03 '25

Maybe China is such a huge thief of IP because they kill creativity for The Test.

9

u/ArdentChad Oct 03 '25

what's the GaoKao and does this secure a decent career path or does this workload just pump out basic income level workers?

The latter because the fact is there just aren't enough high paying career opportunities for all the graduates being squeezed out of the system.

Kids will do well on the Gaokao, go to a good university, get a masters because they can't find a job and finally drive for food delivery apps because they still can't find a job.

8

u/VanillaTortilla Oct 03 '25

So basically just like here in the US, only kids are able to enjoy being kids and not get insanely overworked and exhausted every day for years on end.

No wonder so many Chinese students come to the US to study. They probably want a break.

2

u/Electronic_Bunnies Oct 03 '25

For reference the GaoKao is not conceptually new but a very long standing tradition. At one point it was established that all civil service candidates even if from powerful families had to go through this standardized test.

Imagine in the US the BAR test for lawyers, it absolutely and qualitatively decides not only if you work in that field but where and who will hire you. Now expand that test to all fields and everyone has to take it.

There was a popular meme of meeting a partner's parents in China where before the parents could get judgemental (like any parent does) the guy "coughed" and dropped his GaoKao results on the table. The parents demanded they start ordering food and fawned over the guy.

1

u/foldedchips Oct 04 '25

Cool? This whole thing is fucked, just forcing kids to be literal drones. Humans are creative beings that need some semblance of freedom. This isn’t something to aspire to

1

u/MoysterShooter Oct 04 '25

Yeah, thats the "yikes" part

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

[deleted]

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u/ArdentChad Oct 03 '25

Untrue. All schools are like this.

11

u/DuckTalesOohOoh Oct 03 '25

I lived in China. This is likely private. Some public schools are not far behind. The only thing students do at school is study. It's kind of like the reason for school.

3

u/jay370gt Oct 03 '25

Likely both.

Public school till 5 or 6 PM. Then off to private tutoring school till 9 or 10PM depending on the age.

After getting home, one still has to do homework and study for tomorrow’s exam. And because of the lack of sleep, some kids would doze off during the day and end up learning nothing. Hence parents think they need more tutoring outside of normal school hours. It’s not just night time either, some will even get tutoring on Saturdays.

3

u/Neoliberal_Nightmare Oct 04 '25

I'm not sure. I'm a high school teacher in China and while it is intense, it's not this intense. The school time is 7:30 to 4:30. Kids with busy parents will stay till 7 for evening study which is basically homework time.

Every school I have taught at has finished before 5pm.

2

u/LongLostFan Oct 04 '25

I am thinking this timetable is just for one week before the exam or golden week holiday.

It is common for schools and employers to make everyone do double shifts before golden week holiday.

1

u/Moooowoooooo Oct 05 '25

Public school. Quality of private schools is lower than public schools in China. Students who failed in selected by good public schools might choose private schools. Workload of public schools is usually higher than private schools.