Entrance examination

An entrance examination is an examination that many educational institutions use to select students for admission. These exams may be administered at any level of education, from primary to higher education, although they are more common at higher levels.

China has an entrance competitive examination in order to enter colleges or universities for undergraduate education. This exam is named gaokao in Chinese. Of 11,000,000 candidates, there was a failure rate of 25% in 2012.

France is the country that surely uses the most competitive examinations. Some education professionals tend to say that the "Concours Général" (not mandatory, as the Baccalauréat is) in the last year of High School (Lycée) is the most difficult to take worldwide with only 250 places in all subjects for 15,000 applicants (there is a failure rate of 98,3%). There are also an entrance competitive examination in order to enter medicine studies: (1 preparation year, 10 mandatory years after competitive exam, failure rate of 85%); "grandes écoles" of engineering (2 preparation years, 4 mandatory years after competitive exam, failure rate of approx. 50%), and "grandes écoles" of business (2 preparation years, 3 mandatory years after competitive exam, failure rate of approx. 25%). In France, the fact of having succeeded in one competitive exam is highly recognized by the society, and shows you are part of the national elite.

In India, entrance examinations are chiefly confined to medicine, engineering, and management. These range from the BITS Pilani admission test and IIT-JEE where only one in a hundreds can hope to get admission to state level entrances which are many and varied. The competition has led to a situation where many students neglect their school studies and focus solely on 'entrance coaching' which is time-consuming and expensive. This has led many states to scrap the entrances and base admissions on the school leaving marks which, unfortunately are none too reliable. Experts point out that in a country where many different boards are present common entrances are essential, but application skills rather than cramming should be stressed on. Frequent changes in the pattern of examination are essential since sticking to a 'standard text' or 'standard pattern' alone will the coaching industry and the rote-learners.

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Wikipedia