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A levels vs Chinese Gaokao vs Korean Suneung vs Indian IIT JEE
How do A levels compare to these Asian exams, whereby students study 20 hours a day and sleep 4 hours on average. According to Asian students from Asia, they came over to western countries because it is far easier. A levels are apparently a walk in park on a sunny day. What are your opinions?
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I don't think anyone would know unless they had completed all 3 Asian exams as well as the A Levels. The Gaokao is notoriously difficult though.
As a previous student of Chinese public school, I can assure you that Gaokao is much more harder than A-level and even some entry exams in Oxbridge such as MAT, PAT etc. And actually the difficulty of Gaokao varies among the districts, for example Beijing has the easiest papers ( though having the best education
) and in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces they have the hardest. I used to be a student in Zhejiang and when I turned to A-level this June I found it rather easy.
) and in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces they have the hardest. I used to be a student in Zhejiang and when I turned to A-level this June I found it rather easy.Original post by Ether Lin
As a previous student of Chinese public school, I can assure you that Gaokao is much more harder than A-level and even some entry exams in Oxbridge such as MAT, PAT etc. And actually the difficulty of Gaokao varies among the districts, for example Beijing has the easiest papers ( though having the best education ) and in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces they have the hardest. I used to be a student in Zhejiang and when I turned to A-level this June I found it rather easy.
) and in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces they have the hardest. I used to be a student in Zhejiang and when I turned to A-level this June I found it rather easy.Why is it difficult? Is it because it is conceptually difficult or just the amount of work to be completed?
Original post by MrMemez1
How do A levels compare to these Asian exams, whereby students study 20 hours a day and sleep 4 hours on average. According to Asian students from Asia, they came over to western countries because it is far easier. A levels are apparently a walk in park on a sunny day. What are your opinions?
i feel like each of it has its hard bits. because there are lot of things you need to take in case of.
first, as an a level student compared to my iit counterparts , i do a lot of self evaluation and its not always spoon feeding for me unlike in their case they have loads of hours of coaching by teachers. compared to them i have really less hours of teaching.
Original post by Wired_1800
Why is it difficult? Is it because it is conceptually difficult or just the amount of work to be completed?
I think Gaokao is difficult in two ways. First, it is the knowledge that it tests. The questions in Gaokao is much harder than that of A-levels. For example, in A-level, they may ask you to differentiate a function and this is the whole question but in Gaokao this is the most trivial step that helps you to solve the further questions. Actually, in the calculus question of Gaokao, it consists of 3 consecutive questions and differentiation is always the very first step of the first question. Second it is the competition. Actually it depends on the provinces as well. In Beijing they have 60,000 students attending the exam each year and about 600 can enter Peking/Tsinghua University (Top universities in China) and in Provinces of great populations such as Henan they have about 800,000 students each year while only about 400 can get in. However compared with getting into Oxbridge, these ratios are pretty small.
Original post by Ether Lin
I think Gaokao is difficult in two ways. First, it is the knowledge that it tests. The questions in Gaokao is much harder than that of A-levels. For example, in A-level, they may ask you to differentiate a function and this is the whole question but in Gaokao this is the most trivial step that helps you to solve the further questions. Actually, in the calculus question of Gaokao, it consists of 3 consecutive questions and differentiation is always the very first step of the first question. Second it is the competition. Actually it depends on the provinces as well. In Beijing they have 60,000 students attending the exam each year and about 600 can enter Peking/Tsinghua University (Top universities in China) and in Provinces of great populations such as Henan they have about 800,000 students each year while only about 400 can get in. However compared with getting into Oxbridge, these ratios are pretty small.
It's basically a 0.01% percent entrance rate. A level problems don't really take lots of problem solving. I mean there are about 10 million applicants taking the Gaokao every year. TBH the kids who are of the lower end of the spectrum of Gaokao would still perform exceptionally well at the A levels.
Original post by Ether Lin
I think Gaokao is difficult in two ways. First, it is the knowledge that it tests. The questions in Gaokao is much harder than that of A-levels. For example, in A-level, they may ask you to differentiate a function and this is the whole question but in Gaokao this is the most trivial step that helps you to solve the further questions. Actually, in the calculus question of Gaokao, it consists of 3 consecutive questions and differentiation is always the very first step of the first question. Second it is the competition. Actually it depends on the provinces as well. In Beijing they have 60,000 students attending the exam each year and about 600 can enter Peking/Tsinghua University (Top universities in China) and in Provinces of great populations such as Henan they have about 800,000 students each year while only about 400 can get in. However compared with getting into Oxbridge, these ratios are pretty small.
Alright, thanks.
Do the exam bodies moderate the grades post-examination due to the numbers and level of competition?
Original post by MrMemez1
It's basically a 0.01% percent entrance rate. A level problems don't really take lots of problem solving. I mean there are about 10 million applicants taking the Gaokao every year. TBH the kids who are of the lower end of the spectrum of Gaokao would still perform exceptionally well at the A levels.
Well not exactly, since the kids of lower scores cannot even go to a proper university in China... They are just the same to the kids in the UK. I don't think we Chinese are genetically superior. I think it's the competition that pushes Chinese kids to study hard, and those who fail to be engaged in it just cannot get a high score as well.
Original post by Wired_1800
Alright, thanks.
Do the exam bodies moderate the grades post-examination due to the numbers and level of competition?
Do the exam bodies moderate the grades post-examination due to the numbers and level of competition?
I forget to state that students only compete within the province. We are now applying a new method to represent the scores. For example first 1% students get 100 and the following 2%(1%-3%) get 97 and the following 3%(3%-6%) get 94, etc. However these only apply for the optional subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Politics, History, Geography and Technology(a subject only exists in Zhejiang). For the compulsory subjects Chinese, Mathematics and Foreign Language(Mostly English) we do not apply this method. Then we sum all of the marks up to get a final score which determines which university you can get in.
The others are probably harder
Original post by Wired_1800
Alright, thanks.
Do the exam bodies moderate the grades post-examination due to the numbers and level of competition?
Do the exam bodies moderate the grades post-examination due to the numbers and level of competition?
Plus, we have 3 different uniform papers for most of the provinces where more advanced provinces use the harder one. For other provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin they have their own papers. And even provinces using the same paper have different threshold for the same university. For example, in Henan it requires 700+ to get in PKU/THU but in other provinces with the same paper it might be 680 or 670 or even less.
Original post by Ether Lin
I forget to state that students only compete within the province. We are now applying a new method to represent the scores. For example first 1% students get 100 and the following 2%(1%-3%) get 97 and the following 3%(3%-6%) get 94, etc. However these only apply for the optional subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Politics, History, Geography and Technology(a subject only exists in Zhejiang). For the compulsory subjects Chinese, Mathematics and Foreign Language(Mostly English) we do not apply this method. Then we sum all of the marks up to get a final score which determines which university you can get in.
Wow, that would be difficult.
Original post by Ether Lin
Plus, we have 3 different uniform papers for most of the provinces where more advanced provinces use the harder one. For other provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin they have their own papers. And even provinces using the same paper have different threshold for the same university. For example, in Henan it requires 700+ to get in PKU/THU but in other provinces with the same paper it might be 680 or 670 or even less.
Alright, thanks
As someone doing A levels, I can’t believe someone would even compare A levels to those subjects, they are much much more difficult, you don’t need to do all 4 those types of exams to find out. Just check out their contents and you’ll see. If you have kindle premium you can get free copies of Korean high school maths books, I’m doing Maths A level and out of curiosity I checked out those Korean maths textbooks... even their textbook content was much harder. Plus they have to score almost perfect scores like 100% to 97%? to score the highest grade, the exam timing is also really intense... where as our grade boundaries are much lower, like 76% or something for A* in maths, it slightly changes every yr... but it’s much easier content, much more relaxed and much lower grade boundaries
Original post by Bluerainy
As someone doing A levels, I can’t believe someone would even compare A levels to those subjects, they are much much more difficult, you don’t need to do all 4 those types of exams to find out. Just check out their contents and you’ll see. If you have kindle premium you can get free copies of Korean high school maths books, I’m doing Maths A level and out of curiosity I checked out those Korean maths textbooks... even their textbook content was much harder. Plus they have to score almost perfect scores like 100% to 97%? to score the highest grade, the exam timing is also really intense... where as our grade boundaries are much lower, like 76% or something for A* in maths, it slightly changes every yr... but it’s much easier content, much more relaxed and much lower grade boundaries
I am so lucky!!!
But at the end the same development would happen for both countries (Britain and South Korea) they are at the same rank and even some countries will have lesser development like for example (India IIt Jee)so what is the point of doing hard exams that students are not improving or the country is not developing also the same concept is there in Third World Countries Kenya Tanzania Mali Sudan (by the way I am an African)but this is not improving the country much it may also be totally opposite because the person may not be able to enter the college / university and then show his abilities
IIT JEE is far more tough than Suneung and Gaokao if we are on feild specific to engineeringI have tried all three(sample and previous years of Gaokao and Suneung and I have myself cleared JEE advanced years ago)Gaokao questions needs you to cram a lot... And I mean a lotHeck, even for a math question, you have to cram a lotSo Gaokao is actually a test of memory more than calculations and derived scienceSuneung is like a rapid game about just solving question effectively as possibleJEE is torture hall. First of all, a student should have ability to unwind questions into simpler form, then deduce what they really have to do and then answer it within 40 second.Even my Chinese and Korean friend were stuck and failed in it(just sample test for a try) and both of them have cleared Gaokao and SuneungBut then again, it really depends on person to person.For me, it's JEEBecause of 40second window in which you have to untangle, deduce, remember formulaes and then solve the questionBut then again, I am from the time when there was AIEEE(all india engineering entrance exam) and IIT JEE (IIT joint exam) and not today's JEE mains and advanced kind of thingsI have seen the new exam format of JEE advanced and it's tough as the old onesThe JEE mains is actually easier
Well Gaokao maths is by far harder than A level Further Maths because it tests problem solving skills in addition to the knowledge base. In fact Gaokao questions have a similar difficulty (and sometimes style) with competitions such as AMCs and (the easier questions of) AIMEs when it comes to the "precalculus" questions (trigonometry, logarithm, inequalities, probability...). The hardest question each year tends to have a background in college mathematical analysis and requires mastery of functions and techniques in differential calculus to solve it.
However I feel that the difficulty of GK maths is decreasing... A decade ago there were some questions that literally no one taking the exam succeeded in solving them. After 2015 even the hardest questions in national papers had became easier and the thinking required tend to be less than a typical STEP 3 question.
However I feel that the difficulty of GK maths is decreasing... A decade ago there were some questions that literally no one taking the exam succeeded in solving them. After 2015 even the hardest questions in national papers had became easier and the thinking required tend to be less than a typical STEP 3 question.
Original post by Zoom_KR
apparently it's Gaokao>Suneung>=Indian ITT JEE>A Levels
since i know both suneung system and a levels, i can say that a levels questions are much easier than suneung questions at least
since i know both suneung system and a levels, i can say that a levels questions are much easier than suneung questions at least
I would say the JEE exam is tougher than Gaokao, as someone who prepares for the exam and tried some of the previous year gaokao papers I can confirm this.
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