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.

Asia

China

The National Higher Education Entrance Examination (or gaokao) is an academic examination held annually in the mainland of the People's Republic of China. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. It is usually taken by students in their last year of secondary school, although there has been no age restriction since 2001.

In 2006, a record high of 9.5 million people applied for tertiary education entry in China. 8.8 million of them (93%) are scheduled to take the national entrance exam; 27,600 (0.28%) have been exempted from standardized exams (保送) due to exceptional or special talent. The rest (0.7 million) will take other standardized entrance exams, such as those designed for adult education students.

The overall mark received by the student is generally a weighted sum of their subject marks. The maximum possible mark varies wildly from year to year, and also varies from province to province.

India

When the University of Calcutta was established in 1857, it introduced the Entrance Examination, primarily to decide as to who was eligible for admission to the University. The examination attained the status of a school leaving examination. Subsequently, the name was changed to Matriculation. After independence of India in 1947, the examination system was further revised: the secondary examination after class X was called the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exam and the examination after class XII was called Higher Secondary Examination.

Entrance test is considered as a visa to enter into the corridors of elite institutions or admission to professional courses. If a student gets minimum marks in an academic examination, he will pass. But in the Entrance Examinations there is nothing like passing or failing. It is like competitive examination- acts like filters. It selects best among the students. Systematic planning, rigorous training and hard work are needed to crack the Entrance Tests.

Today entrance to most professional courses in Indian universities (both private and government) are based on multiple choice question entrance exams, on the rationale that since school-leaving scores are based on conventional (long-answer) papers a student's marks in them might be subject to a human examiner's errors, which would be unacceptable in a closely competitive environment where even a mark or two could affect a student's career. This subjectivity is eliminated when the "examiner" is an OMR reading laser. Some of these exams (particularly the IIT-JEE, CAT and AIPMT) are considered among the toughest in the world, with lakhs of students competing for a few thousand seats.

Engineering schools in India usually admit 15% of their students through the national-level AIEEE and the remaining 85% based on their scores in the entrance exam conducted by the state in which the college is located. Government-run medical schools use a similar pattern, basing admissions on the candidate's rank at the All India Pre-Medical Test. The prestigious Indian Institutes of Management conduct a Common Admission Test for their aspirants. The renowned Indian Institutes of Technology conduct the notoriously competitive IIT-JEE and the famous BITS Pilani conducts an online admission test BITSAT which attracts candidates from as far away as Dubai.

Recently, separate exams have been introduced for courses such as law and hotel management. Some colleges such as AIIMS and AFMC and many private medical colleges conduct their own entrance tests. However the college admission procedure in India remains somewhat controversial due to the presence of reservation of seats for "backward" castes.

Japan

In Japan the National Center Test for University Admissions is a nationally standardized entrance exam for higher education that 3rd year high school students or high school graduates take in an attempt to meet admission requirements of the school or schools of their choice. High school students, especially 3rd year students focus almost solely on preparations for the exam, in an attempt to enter the most prestigious universities in the country. Often students attend a cram school which is also known as juku in Japan in order to prepare as much as they can for the exam.

South Korea

The College Scholastic Ability Test also known as Suneung (수능) is a type of standardized test accepted by all South Korean universities. Suneung is managed by the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation. The test is offered on the second Thursday of November. Often, students are escorted by police, especially if students don't think they will arrive at the test centre on time. Since the test is used as an entrance examination for all universities in South Korea, the preparation for it is so secure and strict that since its beginnings from 1993, Suneung questions were never leaked. Questions are made by chosen professors and teachers, who are locked in a hotel with blacked windows, no communication and a full library of questions until the end of Suneung.

North America

United States

For most colleges and universities in the United States, the SAT Reasoning Test and ACT are considered the examinations of choice for admissions at the undergraduate level. Postsecondary schools do not administer their own entrance exams.

Admissions into certain North American graduate schools are often partly determined by the results of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) or Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The GRE (Graduate Record Examination) is one of the most popular admissions tests for general graduate school. The Miller Analogies Test is waning in popularity but is still used for admission to more language-oriented study.

Some American universities and many colleges have rejected these standardized tests. Instead, they evaluate prospective students solely through other means, such as an original essay or the marks the student received in a previous school. Others make the test optional or require students to take the test but do not consider its results in the admission process.

See also

• Selective education
• Vestibular, the entrance exams in Brazil
• Competitive examination
• Standardized test
• Aptitude test
• High-stakes test
• List of admission tests to colleges and universities

External links

• Entrance Exam Dates India
• Entrance Exam information
• Details of Entrance Exams in India