the national higher education entrance examination, or the gaokao, is the people's republic of china's national-level university entrance exam. all high school students in china must take the gaokao in their last year of school, and much of their time in high school is spent preparing to take the exam. like many other asian countries, such as japan, south korea, and india, the gaokao has been well-known internationally for being a very difficult exam because many students do not get a high enough score to attend university in china.