Comments on: The Gaokao: How Would You Fare?

By: Will

Will — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:23:45 +0000

For question 4, as length a and length b are the same, answer A= answer C, and answer B = answer D, therefore logically the only possible correct answers are E,F,G.
However, as none of the other questions can be answered logically – because they all depend on Communist Party propaganda – I can see why Fengzee states B as the answer; the Communist Party definition of “length” is not the same as the definition of “length” used by the rest of the world.

By: Saundra Broca

Saundra Broca — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:06:04 +0000

If you think this test is tough, you need to see the sheer amount of information they pack into a tenth grade examination in the Private schools in India. (Unlike China, India does not have a very good Public school system.) The Indian public school is gruelling. Even though the Indian parents do not pressure their children the way the Chinese parents do their wards, the competition to be selected for the elite Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, National Institute of Design, National Institute of Fashion Technology, XLRI, St. Stephen’s College and St. Xavier’s College etc. is pretty demanding. The advantage is that there is a fair emphasis on rote learning upto the high school graduation … and then a gradual loosening of the strings, so to speak, for creativity in graduate and post graduate institutions. Its quite another matter that most Indian talent, until recently, has migrated to the West to find an open forum for their skills and creativity. This is changing in India. I hope that PBS does a documentary on this interesting phenomenon in India as well.

By: Fengzee

Fengzee — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:31:54 +0000

I am a Chinese student. I think I know why question 4 – the geometry problem – puzzles you so much.

According to what I have learnt in China, I think some of you are right that the question is mis-stated. Actually “a” and “b” are not real numbers indicating length of sections, instead they are vectors which have both length and direction. And a method called “the triangle principle (this phrase is in the Chinese way)” is used to determain how to add up two vectors to get another vector as result. So, the question is in fact asking us to use a and b as a pair of “bases” to express vector AF.

I believe in this way of understanding, B should be the perfect answer. Have any of you figured out why DF:CF is 1:2 (in length), the vector part of the question should not be too difficult.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:34:44 +0000

These may be poor translation from Chinese language.

gao-kao is much more difficult than SAT. Many American students, if competing by gao-kao, would not be qualified for admission to universities in China.

All tests are in 100% Chinese – the only official language of China.

By: Fermi

Fermi — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:08:59 +0000

I used mass points on ADC to find that AF = 4/3 AE
Then Pyth theorem on triangle AOE gave AE = sqrt(5)/4.
So AF = 4/3 (sqrt(5)/4) = sqrt(5)/3

By: sally

sally — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:01:47 +0000

I am really sorry for the Chinese students. The kids are smart and dedicated, but the exam they have to take is too poor in quality. All that time and energy has been spent on learning irrelevant and shallow material. If I was a student in China, I would run to Russia for my education. China is waaay behind in its education policy!!!!

By: Georgio

Georgio — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:15:29 +0000

I disagree with luxury goods answer.

In most cases Luxury goods require more specialized labor than general merchandise. But can you make that blanket assumption about all goods? Take Nike shoes for example that retail for much more than other brands. I guess if you define marketing as specialized labor then they have a point but I think the more correct answer would be that there is a higher perceived value in the product, making consumers willing to pay a higher price regardless of the underlying cost.

By: michael shen

michael shen — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:29:20 +0000

on a second thought there is a simpler method. if you draw a perpendicular from E to AD, and call it G. then it is the easiest to use the ratio method since angle A is shared by two triangles of interest: GAE and DAF, and since GE and DF are paralell and are perpendicular to AD, we can set the following master ratio equation:
AG/AE = AD/AF

ok to find the individual piece:
AG is 3/4 of AD
AE is easily obtained with Pathagoreon theory with given
AD is sqrt2*a/2
AF is unknown,

better yet, once you realize the two triangles sharing that angel, and the fact that AG is 3/4 AD, it is easily solved…answer is sqrt5/3 * a, so G is the answer, which is exactly 0.7453ish

By: michael shen

michael shen — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:56:18 +0000

if you calculate using trig, answer comes out slightly less than 0.75a: 0.7453a. so I don’t know if you are supposed to round off things, but if not the answer is G.

By: tyler

tyler — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:35:12 +0000

The test dosent require you to be up to date in curren events, only history. I remember learning about the silk road in like sixth grade. I also think its funny how communist ideology underlies some of the test questions. any way more power to chinese highschool students. anyone studying more than 7 hours a day in collage is considered a nerd obsessed with a 4.0.

By: Di

Di — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:24:34 +0000

I really appreciated this documentary for bringing an understanding of the differences between cultures. As was mentioned in other comments, and was hinted at in the documentary, China’s education is learning from the US to favor more creative tests and individuals. Hopefully that goes well. I’m very happy to see from the documentary the new generation of Chinese people who are going into the government. She is very well educated, positively motivated, and from an agrarian family no less! The current government still has remnants from the Cultural Revolution, but as education changes and new generations move in, the direction of national policy will automatically shift as well.

I however, dislike the animosity in some of the comments posted. I especially disliked the obviously hostile approach of the interviewer at the end. If a documentary is aimed towards building mutual understanding, then ending with such a biased and negative interview leaves only a negative lasting impression despite the bulk aim of the documentary.

P.S. The class president girl is cute.

By: R. Towa

R. Towa — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:00:53 +0000

Well, I didn’t study high school in China but I studied it in Africa, we do learn trig in high school, and I had to rely on a theorem of Thales to come up with the answer and yes, I agree, the answer for question # 4 is (G), here’s how I got it:
I started by finding the length AE, which is sqrt[(1/4)*a^2+(1/16)*a^2]=a*sqrt(5)/4; from that, I use the basic theorem of Thales recognizing that the angle AEB is the same as the angle DEF and that we know EB=(3/4)*a, ED=(1/4)*a and AE from our derivations above so that the only segment that is unknown is the segment EF, as such, the tangents of the angles AEB and DEF are the same and expressed as followed:
[(3/4)*a/(3/4)*a]=[(1/4)*a/x], wherein x represents the unknown segment EF, which could easily be solved for and added to the previous segment AE and we obtain the answer a*sqrt(5)/3 without much of a hassle or eternal head scratching. Who said only chinese schools were difficult? I think the rest of the world follows that model, survival of the fittest brains. And yeah, even in the U.S., the future of most people is determined by age 17 or 18, the entire documentary was based on kids who wanted to enter two schools only (the best schools obviously) where only the best of the best could enter. The equivalent to that scenario in the U.S. is a situation where most of America’s students wanted to enter MIT, Harvard or Stanford; hence, the students constant comparison with Harvard and MIT. The show does say or claim that those that fail to enter those schools are doomed for life like some here interpret it to say. In the U.S., if by 18 or so, one fails to make an impact with their hard earned grade, participation in countless extracurricular activity, and a perfect SAT score, with college admissions’s constant quest for the well-rounded students, I’d say that kid is doomed for life as well (that is if that’s dream included admission to Harvard, MIT, or Stanford). They’d have to attend a less prestigious school (i.e. not Harvard or MIT or Stanford). As such, the real difference is two-folds, in the U.S., we’re not hung up on the Harvards and MITs of this world, our local community college or university is good enough. The second aspect is basic economics, as the interviewee said at the end of the show, they are not that many white collar jobs in China, hence, the students best chance to achieve them comes from entering a university with the caliber of Harvard or MIT while in the U.S., we still earn decent money doing a white collar job with our degrees from any other school. Those two are the take-home message from the show from my view.
In fact, last year, there was a controversy over the rejection from MIT of an extremely brilliant asian american student, who mind you, had a perfect GPA, perfect SAT, etc. Yet, the student didn’t achieve his life-long goal of making it MIT. I’m sure he’d say that he had as much pressure as all the students in this show. Life just isn’t easy or fair. We all know that.

By: D. Mee

D. Mee — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:25:02 +0000

I think G should be the right answer for Q#4… And it took me five minutes to figure it out, even though I studied advance math for graduate students in United States. Back in high school when I was in China it shouldn’t cost me more than one minute…

Very simple, triangle AEB and DEF are symmetrical (because lines AB and CD are in parallel, and AEB=DEF), and we could easily know DE=1/3BE, then DE=1/3AB. Since we know AB=a/sqrt(2), we know DE, and we know AD=AB, then the value of AE is very easy to calculate.

By: MIT

MIT — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:11:25 +0000

within the question i do not understand how one can say answer in not above, both A and C are correct in the problem. each answer will give the same amount with in the equation, which means a and b ere equal therefore both A and C are correct.