<p>“The gaokao is about the most pressure-packed examination in the world,” says Ari Wolfe, an English teacher in Guangzhou who tutored students for last weekend’s exam, “given the numbers, the repercussions, and the stress involved.”</p>
<p>---------Ari Wolfe was my English teacher last year, I’m in that school mentioned above in Guangzhou. What a surprise to see his name here, as well as the article, on CC…</p>
<p>Well Gaokao is indeed very stressive, but when you are in the middle of it and don’t know there is a educational system as flexible as the in U.S., you wouldn’t feel that bad…it’s kind of a…tradition that we know we had to go through since we were a child because our parents already took Gaokao and with far more greater stress. Now I’m accepted by Cornell so I’m free from the pressure of Gaokao… for which I’m really happy. But actually many of my classmates(about 50 in my grade) are preparing Gaokao and applying for U.S colleges at the same time and many who are accepted are still preparing for Gaokao~ I’d also say, hard and fearful it might seen to foreigners and to many of us as well, Gaokao is really something that here everyone feels they should experience once in their lives. Like baptism or so…people think they grew more mature out of this “hardest exam in the world”</p>