A high score in the two-day “gaokao” college entrance exam is the only way to get into the country’s top universities, and most Chinese students get just one shot at the grueling test, unlike US students who can take the SAT several times. A crowded field of nearly 13 million registered gaokao candidates, and the specter of soaring youth unemployment, has piled on the pressure to perform.
But the effects of the shrinking population will take years to manifest in China’s educational system and job market. Some online users lamented that the number of test-takers, and rival job seekers after graduation, will likely keep increasing in the near future. A user on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, recalled taking the gaokao in 2000 when there were only about 3.75 million other test takers. “When it comes to my children’s generation, there are 12.91 million , almost four times as many.