ask a college student about the holocaust, she will hardly know anything about it.

In regards to the subject matter of the post, I’m a bit conflicted. Sure, there are problems with the Chinese education system. Training kids to take the test is not a good use of time. That’s always a problem with standardized tests, even back in the West. Some teachers panic too much about them, and “teach to the test”. The mark of an excellent and worthy standardized test is that you don’t have to specifically “teach it”, the students will naturally be able to perform well on it just by doing the course material over the course of the year. Making these tests, and whether or not they should even exist at all, is still a huge topic of debate in the west (I remember having heated arguments in university education classes about this).

That being said, there has to be a way for China to weed out the millions of applicants they get every year, and a standardized test does that job. And since any decent teacher cares about his/her student’s welfare, it’s not surprising that kids are being taught how to pass the test instead of learning other things more critical to being a life-long learner.

It’s a bit of a conundrum. Although, I had an idea when I was reading some of the posts here on ChinaSmack. Someone said making a better test would mean needing an army of people to mark it (or something like that) – how about all of those university graduates who don’t have jobs, can’t get jobs, have no hope of finding jobs? Put them to work marking new, more authentic standardized tests. Of course, they would need to be trained how to do so, which means more jobs for the people doing the training.

In regards to the state of the Chinese education system itself, I’d like to offer one note of optimism. I’ve been teaching here in China now for 3 1/2 years, at a dual diploma school. I’ve seen, slowly but surely, changes happening in the Chinese side of the school. These changes are encouraging because I see less emphasis being put on exams, and more being put on assignments; I also see more willingness to display creativity in the classroom on the walls. Yes, these are small steps, but like Kai said, the changes in our system in the West didn’t happen overnight; and in fact, things are still changing in our education system almost every year as we struggle to find “the perfect way” to educate young people.

And somehow tuition at Jiao Tong is only 20000RMB. So I’m stuck with that or Fudan. Because my parents insist. Despite me going to school in the States and international schools for most of my life (apart from one year in a Chinese elementary school).

But thanks everyone, your help is much appreciated.

> I seen my cousin been though this process and took one of her practice exam just for the hell of it. (failed the Chinese part miserably, aced the English part; barely passing Math part, did okay in the mixed portion. I was a junior in college at the time.) Comparing it to its American counterparts (I only talking about SAT here, but for a solid application a good collection of AP tests are pretty much a must), I have this to say:

Hmm, just how good are the English exams? I admit that your English is pretty good, but there are a few glaring things in your posts I simply wouldn’t mention if you hadn’t said that.

> I seen my cousin been though this process
“Seen” should be “saw,” unless you really meant that you visited them (in which case you would say that you “visited them during this process”).

> memorizing vocabularies like sesquipedalianism (which itself is an exercise of sesquipedalianism)

Should be “memorizing vocabluary” (or “memorizing words”) and “exercise of” should be “excercise in.”

> And the Math portion, which in themselves are ridiculously easy compare to what’s been used in College, and comes with traps and trick are will never faced in college or real life.

This whole sentence is strange. You can’t just change “themselves” to “itself” and “compare” to “compared” to fix it, even if you also make “math” and “college” lower case (neither one is a proper noun). Besides, while the problems are ridiculous examples, being able to use math in real world situations is helpful. Of course, my degree was in math and I use it every day (albeit in a job unrelated to mathematics).

> However, unlike China, SAT isn’t really taught as centerpiece in public school during junior and senior in High School.

You can’t teach a centerpiece; it’s an inanimate object. You should just say, “SAT isn’t the centerpiece of public schooling during the junior and senior year of high school.”

> Now how does that different than China, except the American one costs more?

This should read “Now, how is that different from China except that the American one costs more?”

> At least the Chinese tests have some slightly more useful questions that those stupid analogies they have on the SATs. (Why is that a measurement of anything!!!)

In theory, they test exactly how well you understand the definitions of those words. But I agree. They’re stupid.

> If I sounded mad, it’s because I’m studying for the GRE right now. I can’t believe after 4 years of college and 1 year work experience. I have deal with the same $%*# again, rather something more useful or relevant.

My condolences on the GRE. You can’t put that period after experience, though. It should read, “I can’t believe that, after 4 years of college and 1 year of working, I have to deal with the same $%@^ again, rather than doing something more useful or relevant.”

> Their kept it for simple reason of lacking an alternative.

True. But you meant to write, “They keep it because they have no alternative.”

> However, I would hate to see college entrance been based entirely on a pretty personal statement that the student probably never wrote or ability to throw a football around….

The word “been” should be “being” and ability should be “someone’s ability” (because, otherwise, your clauses don’t match). That said, I agree with you that college admissions are already based too much on some of those things. But as long as the sports teams bring in money for the school, I’m afraid that will continue.

> It depends on your major, and rather or not you wonna take the foreign student classes or the real one

The slang version of “want to” is “wanna,” but I don’t recommend using it. Ever. Saying “want to” is never inappropriate, but saying “wanna” can be inappropriate.

> And you’ll a better education than if you did with foreign student class in China

This should read, “And you’ll get a better education than if you went to a foreign student class in China.”

Even though I pointed all this out, I will mention again that your English is very good overall. I only pointed this out so that you don’t get complacent about improving your English after acing those tests :)

Jamar, are you comparing tuition between what native Chinese students are paying or what a real international student would typically pay? Are you comparing that to public universities in the States or private universities? Do you qualify for any tax-breaks or cheaper in-state tuition at any universities back in the States?