7 the Gao Kao

Gao Kao, aka, the college entrance examination is the first actual exam that I took to decide my future. From primary school to high school, I was "invited" (Ch4). From junior high to senior high, it was like any other day and the school was actually afraid that we were going to leave for other schools.

How I was just out in the market to be picked is beyond me, but a few factors contributed. I did bad in a mock test. In all other mock tests, I was top 20 in the grade (and we had about 150 people going to Tsinghua / Peking University each year at the time). But I was sick during that one and got something like 200th place. We had many prize winners. And the order the put on level of recommendation was somehow artificially manipulated. And the explanation one vice principal gave to my parents was "he can get into wherever he wants anyway.". Well, I don't blame him for his logic because he got laughed at when he was commenting on a district Gaokao trial when he studied the statistics and made a mathematical observation that the people above 650, 640, 630 etc monotonously increased.

And he was right. I did get to where I wanted. I just didn't know before hand. And it didn't seem too much so either. My biology and chemistry was always the last in the class and they are just as important overall as math and English. But what my father told me was probably right, this is something you'll never have the chance to experience again, the pressure. Well, I can say that after I got top 15 in Beijing but what if I failed...

The story is not over however. I am admitted to Peking University math department. As a lot of PKU students, I didn't know what I wanted or we tried and worked to go to PKU just to go to PKU. PKU has a high drop out rate first of all because of academic pressure and I think more importantly is that not everyone who goes knows what to do next. I didn't quite but I think most of them have figured out after 3 years. For me, PKU was a challenge. I know they have a strong math department and everything but I didn't have any clear goals.

At the mean time, Hong Kong University offered a full scholarship. I don't know how people make life decisions but I just heard they have more opportunities and I was planning on doing math for graduate school in the US so I thought it would be nice if I can adapt to the system early. Besides, they have only three years of university in Hong Kong so they would allow me to stay at PKU for a year. I thought it was a very good deal and the year indeed turned out to build a very rigorous foundation for me for my later math learning and I imagined above a certain level, math is not taught, math is figured out, so the place isn't really the most important factor.