>>10570
>Chinese SAT (Gaokao)
Warning, long spiel incoming
You have two exams like these. The first is the middle school SAT, zhongkao, which determines which high school you go to, since education in china is only manditory to 8th grade (6+2)
If you do badly on the gaokao, it severely limits which school you can get into. It also discriminates by the distribution of an era (eg; Beijing score mean > Tibet, and therefore easier for tibetan to get into good school). If you thought affirmative action in the west was bad, the gaokao makes it so a tibetan can get in by basically passing how to read and write to the best schools in china.
The issue of the gaokao versus the SAT is that there is no end to the scope, in otherwords, they can, and will quiz you on some completely obscure literary piece from the Han dynasty that never popped up before. Because much more learning is required to read and write in chinese versus english, basic literary profficency is achieve in 6th grade ish. The math/science portions don't have as much as the bullshit regarding "obscure" bs. but for example, gaokao format for literature
Required:
News and documentary verse, modern poetry, narrative prose, ancient (before Song prose that is not poem), scientific articles, Sui Tang poems, Yuan Qu (song), Song Ci (freeverse poem), traditional songs, Han wei 6 dynasties poems, famous novels (1,2,3 sections), literature and art thesis (it asks some incredibly hard questions depending on year), bibliography of ancient people **this is actually really hard, because there's just SO many and its complete memorization, missing a major will loose point. Three example questions given below:
Write the description of Zhao Yun from the late Han dynasty in Sanguozhi.
Answer (translated): "Zhao Yun, Courtesy Zilong, From Zhengding of Changshan. Height around 8 chi, died in 229 (you have to give the traditional date not the BCE/CE, but I forget). Posthumorously known as "Mariquis of Shiping".
Served under Gongsun Zan before joining Liu Bei, fought bravely at Changban, saved (his) liege's heir. Known as one of the 5 tiger generals, remarked by Liu Bei to be full of courage (daring)." Romantsized in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "
Cite the origin of the phrase "He who is wicked in many ways, shall end himself"
Ans: Phrase originated from Zuozhuan in the spring and autumn period.
At the beginning of , Zheng Wugong married Yushen (and said Wu Jiang . Sheng Zhuang Gong and Gong Shu Duan Zhuang Gongmao was surprised by Jiang's family, hence the name "Waisheng", which was then evil . Ai Gongshu Duan, want to establish it, urgently please Yu Wu Gong , Gong Fu Xu. And Zhuang Gong ascended the throne and requested the system (8). The public said: "System, Yanyi is also , Uncle Guo is dead , Tuoyi is fate ." Please (imperial uncle) , let it live, and call it "My uncle from the imperial capital."
Ji Zhong said : "The capital, the city crosses a hundred pheasants (14), and the country is harmed. The system of the first king: most, but one of the participating countries : middle, one of five; small, one of ninth. If you don’t do it, you will not be able to bear it (16).” The public said: “Jiang wants to do it, how can he eliminate harm (17)?” He said: “How tired of Jiang's ? It’s better to do it earlier. So (19), there is no enlightenment to nourish the vines. The vines are difficult to figure out . The vines are still inevitable, and the king’s favorite brother?" Gong said: "If you do more wickness, you will end yourself eventually.
Recite and explain the poem, "Seven Step poem" and state author and date comprised, write an explaination of the usage of the poem et al.
Seven Steps Verse, written by Cao Zhi, first attested in 430.
People burn the beanstalk to boil beans,
filtering them to extract juice.
The beanstalks were burnt under the cauldron,
and the beans in the cauldron wailed:
"We were originally grown from the same root;
Why should we hound each other to death with such impatience?"
People burn the beanstalk to boil beans,
The beans in the pot cry out.
We are born of the selfsame root,
Why should we hound each other to death with such impatience?"
this is a rough translation from wikipedia, it would be considered INCORRECT because it merged several commands and sentences, you MUST keep the original four would structure exactly.
I'm not bothering to explain it, they've used rare ass shit from some obscure tang poem before and my parrents and I all went "What the fuck" because it was so obscure you'd need to major in Tang poetry as a masters to actually know it existed lol.
>tl;dr, Imagine telling the average american to recite classical latin, and pull obscure works out of your ass that are so rare you have never heard of them, and doc them points if they made a single miss spelling, then, make sure they have 1 hour to do 30 of such questions in WRITING only.