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[englishgibson]

My students've told me that some Chinese high schools give grad certs after 2 years. According to my students, the third year is only college entry exam prep time. So, they skip a grade to get ready (in English) for western unis which by the way may take them just about the same time (a year). I am frustrated, but I get paid.

Cheers and beers to cutting corners followed by getting hit by a truck

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

I hope it wasnt a big truck.

[dakelei]

I'm not sure about a "certificate" being issued but for all intents and purposes the final year of "gao zhong" is indeed nothing but an intense review of the previous two years' studies in order to prepare students for the dreaded "gao kao," the college entrance exam. It is useless to anyone not planning to attend a Chinese university and I've met a few Chinese kids who more or less stopped going to school when that reality struck them in the face. Quite a few kids are now taking that final year AGAIN and in some cases even a third time when they deem their gao kao score to be not good enough. The system is utter madness to me. Some parents even hold their kids back a year, two or even three. I know kids here who are 13 and in 4th grade and I routinely meet 21 year olds here who are still in "high school." The gao kao score is the SOLE determinant of who gets into university and into which one. (Though because this is China of course having cash or "guanxi" doesn't exactly hurt.) The entire Chinese education system, from primary school right through university, is geared totally toward memorizing crap for exams. When you finish Grade 6 you take a massive exam to determine which junior middle school you'll attend and then take another after Grade 9 to determine which senior school you go to. Then there's the granddaddy of them all, the gao kao. Kids here in China spend every waking moment in school or "studying" yet appear to know shockingly little about anything that isn't on some kind of exam. It's an insane system but does an incredibly effective job of doing what it is really designed to do: Keep kids under control and create adults who are equally passive and easily controlled.

[wangdaning]

Students can chose to go to a vocational school (or zhiye xuexiao) after the first two years. My wife did this, never had to cram for the gaokao. She studied computer software type things. A good option for students not really into English.