Big day for parents too

By Yan Zhen  |   2008-6-8  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

NEARLY 100,000 Shanghai students joined about 10 million of their counterparts nationwide for the start of the three-day college entrance exam yesterday.

The exam tests students on subjects including Chinese, maths, foreign language, comprehensive ability and an elective course such as physics, chemistry, politics or history.

Test takers will be ranked according to their academic scores and personal intentions to decide which university or college they will enter.

The number of applicants in the city saw the second consecutive drop from the record of 112,000 people in 2006 and 105,000 last year. However, the admission quota has remained relatively steady.

About 80,000 applicants will have the opportunity for admission to local colleges and universities, according to the Shanghai Educational Examination Authority.

At the 134 local exam sites, most students arrived in front of the school gate about 8am yesterday - an hour before the scheduled starting time of the Chinese test.

As the three-day exam period coincided with the first Dragon Boat Festival Holiday, school gates were also packed with crowds of parents who escorted their children.

"My colleagues used to ask their bosses for a day off to accompany their children for the exam, but we are lucky because it won't affect my own work now," said a mother surnamed Zhang who escorted her son to the exam together with her husband.

At Fudan Middle School, teachers carried a student who had a leg fracture to get him to a second-floor classroom.

Many parents waited outside the exam sites until their children finished. Even the downpour in the afternoon did not deter them.