Comparison Essay

When reading the article “China’s Cram Schools” I noticed a comparison between the Chinese test Gaokao and tests like the standardized tests and the SAT. Both tests put extreme amounts of pressure on the students and teachers, but there may be a few differences between the two.

            The Chinese test called the Gaokao ultimately determines a student’s future. The score that a student gets on the exam defines what University they will get into, or no University at all. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on the student to do well, if they fail, they in turn may be running their future. In addition this test also puts pressure on the teachers as well. The teacher’s salary and bonuses depend of the average grades of the student’s exams. If most of the students do well, the teacher gets a better bonus and vise versa. A situation similar to this is also happening in schools in New York. The SAT and standardized tests put pressure on students and teachers to do well. A students test score is looked at to decide if the student is good enough for the school they are applying to. And teachers are being graded on how well their student scores on the test. This could potentially harm teachers if their students don’t do well. Both countries have tests that cause stress and have great importance on each individual’s lives.

            While the tests are similar, they do have some significant differences. In China the test really determines your future career and way of life, while in America you can still have a relatively good future even if the scores aren’t perfect. This may be because in China there may not be as many opportunities to have a better future but the test may be the one way to gain a good education from a more rural place in China. In America you don’t even have to have one to college to have a successful career.

            Overall, there are similarities and differences between the tests but they both cause pressure and have a large impact on student and teacher’s lives. They create windows of opportunities and also close them, which causes much debate over whether they are really needed in schools.