Differences between college entrance exams in China, US

According to the recently published "2012 China SAT annual report", less than 7 percent of the Chinese high school students who participated in the SAT, the U.S. college entrance exam, only got 1,800 points, the effective score to apply for a U.S. university; only 2 percent got 2,000 points or above, which is the score required by prominent universities.

Some experts said this is due to the lack of training for critical thinking in Chinese education. Compared to the Chinese college entrance exam, the SAT papers may lay more emphasis on critical thinking skills.

However, this does not directly support the result of only 7 percent of students passing the SAT and is not fully convincing.

The pass line of 1,800 points in the U.S. college entrance examination does not mean the commonly understood pass line of 60 percent of the 2,400 points. In fact, it represents 75 percent of 2,400 points, thus is a higher standard. Even in the Chinese college entrance examination score system, 75 percent is not a low standard.

In most provinces of China, the highest possible score is 750 for the college entrance exam, then 75 percent represents 562.5 points, which is basically equivalent to the standard for enrolling in the "tier 1 universities". The enrollment rate to such universities is less than 10 percent.

That is to say, 7 percent of Chinese students passing the SAT is not a very low rate. In fact, it is consistent with the "tier 1 universities" in China. It is, therefore, should not serves as direct evidence for Chinese candidates "lack of critical thinking".

Then, what are real differences between China and the United States college entrance exams?

The answer is the scores of the U.S. college entrance examination is a necessary condition to apply for college, but not all sufficient conditions for university admissions. Aside from SAT scores, the universities value the candidates' extracurricular activities and application letter; it cares more about the candidates' actual ability and "examines" what kind of person he is, the personality and his dream.

In fact, this is exactly why many leading American universities often refuse admission of candidates with high SAT scores. According to media reports, Princeton University refused more than half of candidates with scores near full marks.

The differences in admission system and the examination system are the root causes of the differences between Chinese and American college entrance exams.