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The Highest Exam

How the Gaokao Shapes China
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Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2025

About this book

An Economist Best Book of the Year

Combining personal narratives with decades of research, a vivid account of how the gaokao—China’s high-stakes college admissions test—shapes that society and influences education debates in the United States.

Each year, more than ten million students across China pin their hopes on the gaokao, the nationwide college entrance exam. Unlike in the United States, where standardized tests are just one factor, in China college admission is determined entirely by gaokao performance. It is no wonder the test has become a national obsession.

Drawing on extensive surveys, historical research, and economic analysis, and informed by Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li’s own experiences of the gaokao gauntlet, The Highest Exam reveals how China’s education system functions as a centralized tournament. It explains why preparation for the gaokao begins even before first grade—and why, given its importance for upward mobility, Chinese families are behaving rationally when they devote immense quantities of money and effort to acing the test. It shows how the exam system serves the needs of the Chinese Communist Party and drives much of the country’s economic growth. And it examines the gaokao’s far-reaching effects on China’s society, as the exam’s promise of meritocracy encourages citizens to focus on individual ability at the expense of considering socioeconomic inequalities.

What’s more, as the book makes clear, the gaokao is now also shaping debates around education in the United States. As Chinese-American families bring the expectations of the highest exam with them, their calls for objective, transparent metrics in the education system increasingly clash with the more holistic measures of achievement used by American schools and universities.

Reviews

Explain[s] why the test so dominates China’s education system and society. The authors direct this lively and informative volume at foreign readers who want to learn about gaokao culture, elements of which might appear in local American schools as large numbers of Chinese students go abroad to study.
-- Maura Elizabeth Cunningham Wall Street Journal

In this well-written and thought-provoking book, Jia and Li explore the means by which the gaokao shapes family life, politics and society in China. The authors draw on their own personal experience to show that it allows those from underprivileged backgrounds to rise to important academic positions, as well as to the top of social, economic and political life…The Highest Exam is the definitive account of the gaokao and should be read by all those who want to understand Chinese society.
-- Daniel A. Bell Literary Review

A useful overview of the gaokao and its tremendous significance, on the individual as well as national level.
-- M. A. Orthofer Complete Review

Paints a landscape of vast inequality passing itself off as meritocracy—an exposé of an increasingly powerful global nation and a warning to any society, east or west, that still believes in teaching to the test…[this] detailed history of China’s educational testing system illuminates the nation’s values in a competitive world.
-- Kirkus Reviews

If you want to understand Chinese society, education is perhaps the best place to start. And Chinese education is all about the gaokao, the college entrance examination. With The Highest Exam, Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li have done a remarkable job of combining their personal stories with eye-opening statistics and analysis of the larger system. This is an important, thoughtful book.
-- Peter Hessler, author of River Town and Oracle Bones

China is unique in many ways, but we don’t know which aspect is the most significant. This book proposes that its examination culture is the key, opening up a whole new way of thinking about the economic differences in the world. Profound and fascinating in equal measure.
-- James A. Robinson, Nobel laureate and coauthor of Why Nations Fail

China’s nationwide college entrance exam, which looms large over the life of students and families, is rarely discussed in depth outside the country. Now, Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li examine the roots and implications of this exceptional Chinese institution, expanding the discussion in unexpected ways and demonstrating its global significance. Drawing on their own life stories, they offer an account that is moving, personal, and often even funny. Highly recommended.
-- Barry Naughton, author of The Chinese Economy

In this fascinating book, Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li combine their professional expertise as economists with their personal experiences of studying in China and parenting in the US to examine the Chinese education system, which they characterize as a centralized hierarchical tournament. They show how it both shapes and reflects Chinese society—and increasingly influences the education experience in America as well.
-- Alvin Roth, Nobel laureate and author of Who Gets What—and Why

Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li have written a remarkable book that combines history, data, and personal experience to paint a unique, deep, and rich portrait of the Chinese education system and its culture. They show us not only its implications for China, but how it sheds light on education beyond China and its role in society.
-- Matthew O. Jackson, author of The Human Network

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    Frontmatter

    i
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  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    vii
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    Introduction

    1
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  • Part I: Family
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    1. Obsession

    19
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    2. Rules of the Tournament

    47
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    3. The Payoff

    73
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  • Part II: State
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    4. Political Logic

    93
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    5. Centralization and the Rise of STEM

    114
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    6. Education and Global Power

    131
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  • Part III: Society
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    7. Values and Institutions

    151
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    8. A Mirror of Society

    169
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    9. The Exam Empire Expands

    189
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    Notes

    215
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    Acknowledgments

    233
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    Index

    235
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 9, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9780674301849
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674301849
eBook ISBN: 9780674301849
Keywords for this book
gaokao; chinese education system; college entrance exam; standardized testing; educational competition; academic pressure; chinese society; educational inequality; social mobility; meritocracy; economic growth; chinese culture; communist party; chinese politics; educational reform; comparative education; entrance examinations; chinese youth; parental pressure; academic achievement; education economics; human capital; educational investment; educational policy; examination system; chinese families; educational resources; test preparation; academic status; social stratification; educational access; tutoring; educational stress; chinese middle class; educational excellence; urban education; rural education; cultural values; educational opportunity; educational achievement; chinese nationalism; James Liang The Demographics of Innovation; Yong Zhao Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?; Eli Friedman The Urbanization of People; Vanessa Fong Paradise Redefined; Teresa Wright Party and State in Post-Mao China; Susan Shirk China: Fragile Superpower
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