Taiwanese students share exam nerves and influenza virus
Taipei (AsiaNews)
- Over 150 thousand students in their last year of high school are facing
entrance exams for university in these days in Taiwan (nicknamed "学 测" full name 大学 学科 能力 测验). While
younger students are on vacation for the Chinese New Year which will be
celebrated on February 10.
Young
people undergoing the exams, will find out next month whether they have won a
place in university, with a second round
of exams for those who don' make it in the first, held in July there (指 考, short-form大学 入学 指定 科目 考试).
The
January exams do not concern students of technical schools, who have their
special session of exams during the month of May (统 测, 四技 二 专 统一 入学 测验).
The
exams consisted of a test in Chinese, Maths and Applied Sciences with themes including
the Curiosity mission to Mars and Tohoku tsunami in Japan in March 2011.
With
regard to English, the students were asked to come up with rather specialized
terms such as the terminology for hospitalization, catching many by surprise.
An
interesting fact is that students with disabilities are more numerous this year
than in previous years, so blind students and other students who have
disabilities have the opportunity of entering university, if they pass, in
greater numbers.
A
rather curious fact is that during the last week there was a strong outbreak of
the Norovirus (诺罗 病毒), and many students were
infected during the tests. "The
first day the students wearing medical masks could be counted on one hand,"
says one of the examiners "on the second day the majority, in our school, were
wearing a mask, but it was a sign that the infection had already occurred ". Hours
in the same room with a crowd of nervous students makes the examination halls
perfect germ factories.
And
if access to the best universities remains a difficult task if you do not have
a good education and a good base score, "on the other hand, there are
universities," says Prof. Chen "in every corner of the island, but it
is said that it is better for the students to not go on to higher education if
they can find a job now, rather than studying without real interest, graduating
and being unemployed in the future".
As
every year, the more apprehensive mothers accompanied their children to school
and waited for them with packed lunches to face the second part of the day:
"Instead of losing weight because of the pressure of exams, our students,
normally very
attentive to their figures, put on weight during this week, "said the
headmaster of one of the women's institutions in Taipei, but the mothers will
not be dissuaded:" if you do not eat well, your brain does not work well.
"
In
Taiwan, the school cycle includes full six years of primary school (小学), three years of
junior secondary school (国 中), three years of high school (高中) and normally four
years of college (大学) and seven years for medical students.
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