The Civil Exam System

Given that our group did a report on the civil exams, I feel like we weren't able to say enough about them. I wanted to talk about that and talk about how the Gaokao is a different version of the civil exams.
The website was filled with a ton of information on the civil exams. Included on the website was the effect of the civil exams on the people. The exams were mentally breaking because it took a certain special individual to pass the exam. There might even have been people who passed by way of cheating. With the amount of time the exams took, it is obvious that many people would have to cheat to pass the exam. It must have been a struggle to pass while cheating. While the exams covered a lot of information, I feel that it was justified to give special clothing to the people who passed the test. The government job was one of the highest positions a person could have so to get into a job means the person holds a lot of prestige. To hold a position in government based on a test is not very wise. It takes a lot more than passing a test to serve the people; the test is based off of governmental deeds but a position in government is more about passing a test. But, that was the case when those tests were prevalent and I can't argue that. There is great reason for abolishing the exams and that's why they were abolished. However, I feel the abolishment was short-lived because the Gaokao seems like another relative version of the former civil exams. The Gaokao puts so much pressure on the students today that there are so many people committing suicide due to the all-or-nothing mentality that the Gaokao puts on the students. With the Gaokao, many people prepare their whole life to have the prestige of gaining access to one of China's top universities. Many people won't pass and it's not because they don't know the information. Many will fail because of the pressure; many will fail because the amount of time it takes to prepare can be mentally breaking. While people are studying a lot, it's the amount of time that produces a burn-out effect on the students. So, while the civil exams were abolished, the Gaokao needs a refining direction because the exam asks too much of the children.






http://www.sacu.org/examinations.html