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the complete review - education / economics
The Highest Exam
by
Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li,
with Claire Cousineau
general information | our review | links | about the authors
| Title: | The Highest Exam |
| Authors: | Jia/Li/Cousineau |
| Genre: | Non-fiction |
| Written: | 2025 |
| Length: | 212 pages |
| Availability: | The Highest Exam - US |
| The Highest Exam - UK | |
| The Highest Exam - Canada | |
| from: Bookshop.org (US) |
- How the Gaokao Shapes China
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Our Assessment:
B : solid study and analysis
See our review for fuller assessment.
The complete review's Review:
The 'highest exam' of the title is the gaokao (高考), China's national college entrance exam -- taken, in recent years, by some thirteen million students annually.
As the authors explain and show, how one does on the gaokao remains of outsize significance in the future life of those who take it.
Authors Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li both grew up in China and took (and did well on) the gaokao; both became economists, focusing on empirical (rather than just theoretical and mathematical) economics, and much of The Highest Exam is based on the authors' personal experiences, though it also presents and considers a variety of empirical studies and surveys.
(Contributing author Claire Cousineau presumably helped mainly in fine-tuning the writing and the text.)
The gaokao is the successor to the old imperial exams, used to fill coveted positions in the Chinese civil service and already highly competitive: "During the mid-Qing era (ca. 1800), about 2.5 percent of the entire male population between fifteen and forty-five -- at least 2 million men -- would register for the first level of the exams".
After existing in some form for some 1300 years, the exams were abolished by the Qing government -- possibly, the authors note, one reason then why the Qing dynasty itself fell .....
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the gaokao was introduced -- not as a civil service examination, but rather for those seeking to continue with higher (college) education.
Under the Cultural Revolution, education and the gaokao "remained almost entirely defunct until Mao's passing" -- but it was revived and has again taken on incredible importance.
As the authors note, China is unusual in that: "unless China's student's attend an international school or study abroad, exams are the only way they may be selected into any subsequent stage of education".
Whereas, for example, in the United States, college admissions are based on a variety of factors -- including, in most cases, standardized tests such as the SATs but also school grades, extracurricular activities, and more --, in China only the results of the gaokao matter.
The authors describe it as a 'centralized hierarchical tournament', with only the highest-scoring students -- basically, the top five per cent -- qualifying to study at China's "most exclusive elite colleges" -- those in Tier 1 (out of 4).
(Significantly, while the exam is the same across the nation, students are ranked on a provincial -- i.e. somewhat local -- level, rather than all in one big pot, as each province has a specific quota of university-spots (and, for example: "Regions that are considered important politically, like Xinjiang, also have a higher quota").)
A major feature of the system is that it suggests the possibility of social mobility: anyone, of any background, can move up in the social hierarchy via the boost that gaokao-success offers.
Interestingly, the college education that gaokao success is a ticket to apparently is not all that impressive:
China's students showed virtually no improvements in their critical thinking skills after two years of college. Not only that, but during their final two years, they began to exhibit declining capabilities.What matters is getting into a top-tier college; how a student performs there is apparently of much less importance. Doing well on the gaokao is the marker that counts -- and, as the authors show, it counts for a lot in the future of those who did well (and, conversely, can be a consequential lingering setback for those who do poorly).
The Highest Exam is divided into three parts: 'Family', 'State', and 'Society', examining the role and significance of the gaokao in and on these three different areas. The first two chapters present the personal stories of Hongbin Li and Ruixue Jia, born in a still very different China -- Li in 1972 and Jia in 1984. Both recognize and acknowledge what success on the gaokao made possible, in many ways determining key aspects of their life- and career-trajectories.
The gaokao suggests a purely meritocratic system -- a main reason, the authors suggest, for its widespread acceptance and popularity (i.e. there are few calls to change to a different system) --, including the possibility of moving up in the social hierarchy, as a high score opens the doors, so to speak, for anyone, regardless of background. In reality, of course, -- and increasingly so -- the advantages of coming from a privileged background make for a less than really level playing field even in taking the gaokao (even as the government tries to counter some of that as with, for example, the 2021 ban on all forms of tutoring).
The Chinese system makes for an interesting example, as well as contrast to 'Western' systems. The almost single-minded focus of high school education on the gaokao has obvious limitations, but as the authors show, there are a variety of explanations for its continued strong hold in this particular society and culture. (Drawing on personal experience with his own children, Hongbin Li finds his preference would be to send his children to a Chinese public school through seventh grade, with the greater rigor there making for a useful foundation -- but would prefer sending the kids to an American school from eighth grade on, when Chinese education becomes too narrow, with students: "neither afforded the opportunity nor encouraged to learn content beyond what appears on the pages of their highly regimented exams".)
Quite engagingly presented, 'The Highest Exam is a useful overview of the gaokao and its tremendous significance, on the individual as well as national level. The authors draw on personal experience a great deal, but also offer other information and useful data on the gaokao and its role and significance, as well as interesting interpretations and explanations, providing useful insight into Chinese society, China's economy -- and the maneuverings of the Chinese Communist Party. It should be of interest to anyone interested in contemporary China (and its inner workings)
- M.A.Orthofer, 15 July 2025
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The Highest Exam:
- Harvard University Press publicity page
- Author page at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency
- See Index of books dealing with Economics
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Ruixue Jia teaches at UC San Diego.
Hongbin Li teaches at Stanford.
Claire Cousineau is pursuing an MBA at Duke.
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© 2025 the complete review
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