Students gear up for college entrance exams
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China's upcoming annual college entrance exams, which will be taken by students across the country from June 7 to 9, have got the nation's pupils in a frenzy as they prepare to take the difficult tests.
Seventy-thousand of Beijing's high schoolers recently signed integrity commitments ahead of the exams. These students pledged not to cheat or plagiarize during the tests.
Examinees who seriously break their commitments will be disqualified from taking the exam and will be prohibited from signing up for next year's exam as well, an official with the Beijing Education and Examination Institute said Thursday.
In China, students and parents face intense pressure ahead of the college entrance examinations, which can have far-reaching effects on students' future careers, depending on their scores.
Teachers, parents and other people across the country are trying their best to create a stress-free environment for students as they prepare for the arduous tests.
In the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, the provinces of Hebei and Shandong and large cities such as Beijing, Nanjing and Tianjin, construction and environmental authorities have created temporary regulations that state that crews working at noisy construction sites must halt their work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. starting from June 1, creating a silent environment for examinees to study and sleep.
Liu Yuelan, head of the Tianping Street community committee in Shanghai, is going door-to-door to tell the community's residents to avoid making excessive noise during the exam period, in order to create a less stressful environment for students.
Test venues across China are gearing up for the exams as well. Metal detectors will be used at most of the test venues to prevent examinees from bringing in electronic devices that may be used to help them cheat.
Even the country's public transportation system is chipping in. Fleets of "exam escorts" are established in most of China's provinces, providing students with a relaxing way to get to and from their exams.
In Fuzhou, the capital city of east China's Fujian Province, about 500 taxi drivers will be offering their services to students for free.
Yang Zhuotian, a taxi driver from Shijiazhuang, the capital city of north China's Hebei Province, has been part of the city's exam escort fleet for five years.
He said that he has prepared stationery for students to take last-minute notes and medicine to prevent heat fatigue.
More than 9.57 million students competed for 6.57 million places in China's universities and colleges last year. Although national education authorities have not yet released the exact number for this year, the estimated number of examinees is about 9.20 million.
