This year, the Chinese College Entrance Exam, otherwise known as the Gaokao, falls between June 7th and 9th. More than 17 million 12th, 13th, and even 14th graders (some retake the Gaokao if their scores are unsatisfactory) will be taking it across all 34 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government. In this issue, we'll explore some specific aspects of this exam from start to finish.

First, on timing, unlike the SAT, the Gaokao is usually only taken once a year. However, in certain jurisdictions such as Zhejiang province, it can be taken twice for certain subjects - once in January and another time in June. This is not likely to proliferate, though. When do students begin preparing for the exam? Again, it differs across schools and regions. The typical timeline starts around May in the previous year when students begin what's called the Round-one Reviews. Yet, in some other schools, the reviewing process begins as early as May two years prior to the exam. Such schools employ a 2+4 grade system with two years of middle school and four years of high school. Chinese students usually finish learning everything they need to learn in the first two years of high school. The final year of both middle school and high school, 9th and 12th grade respectively, are used exclusively to review what has already been learned while improving students' test-taking skills.

Now, for geographical variations, the Gaokao has a global reputation for being hard and competitive, but what many don't realize is that not all Chinese students take the same exact paper in June. In fact, in only select subjects is the national paper adopted. Even for these three subjects (math, Chinese, and English), there are a handful of different national papers on offer. And as provinces implement educational reforms, they may switch from one set of papers to another, requiring teachers and students to readjust. As far as difficulty level goes, a general rule of thumb is that it gets more difficult in provinces with large populations and few top-tier universities. For example, the biology and chemistry papers in Shandong province, one of China's most populous, are generally believed to be the hardest.

Finally, for pacing, the exam takes place over three days with a total of 9 subjects. In reformed provinces, students choose their subjects from two baskets of subjects, one from physics or history, and then two from biology, chemistry, geography, and politics. Because the Gaokao has to allow all students within a province to take the same test at the same time, testing schedules will vary depending on which subjects you pick. Some people may even finish their exams before the three days are up. Generally speaking, it is less stressful in terms of pacing compared to many mock exams, some of which conclude with 6 exams in a single day. Two days are more typical in 10th and 11th grades.

Ever since I heard the legend of the three fates threading everyone's future with their needles and yarn, I have been wondering how they could keep up each year on June 27 as the lives of 17 million people are changed, for better or for worse.