Gaokao and university admission in China

How the gaokao is scored, how admission works, and the other routes into university and vocational college. The rules differ by province, so check yours.

What the gaokao is

The national college entrance exam (普通高等学校招生全国统一考试, the gaokao) is held every June, and most students enter university or a higher vocational college through it. It runs province by province: your provincial exam authority sets or chooses the papers, marks them, publishes the score lines and runs admission for students registered in that province.

Subjects and scores: 3+3 and 3+1+2

Every candidate sits Chinese, mathematics and a foreign language, 150 points each; the foreign language can be English, Japanese, Russian, German, French or Spanish. Since the reform the State Council set out in 2014, there are no separate arts and science streams: students add subjects of their own choice from the senior secondary academic tests.

3+1+2 (most provinces): physics or history as the first-choice subject, scored out of 100 as a raw mark, plus two of chemistry, biology, politics and geography, each out of 100 as a graded score. The total is 750.
3+3 (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hainan): any three of physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history and geography; Zhejiang also offers technology. The total is 750 in most of these, 660 in Shanghai and 900 in Hainan.
A few regions still use the older arts and science streams (文理分科) while they move to a new model.

Batches and preferences

Scores come out in late June. Each province then sets minimum score lines (控制分数线) for its admission batches (批次): usually an early batch (提前批) for military, police and other special programmes, an undergraduate batch (本科批) and a higher vocational batch (专科批). Many provinces have merged the old first and second undergraduate tiers (一本 and 二本) into one batch. You fill in your preferences (志愿) after you know your score. Most provinces use parallel preferences (平行志愿): candidates are taken in score order, and each goes to the first choice on their list that still has a place. In the new-model provinces a choice is often one major, or one group of majors, at one university, and you can list dozens.

Other routes into university

Two routes combine the gaokao with a university's own assessment:

Strong Foundation Plan (强基计划, since 2020): selected leading universities admit students to basic subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, philosophy and ancient Chinese scripts, and to some key technology fields. You apply before the gaokao, the university shortlists by gaokao score and runs its own tests, and the gaokao counts for at least 85% of the combined result. It replaced the earlier independent admission (自主招生).
Comprehensive evaluation (综合评价): in some provinces, universities combine the gaokao score with their own tests or interviews and your senior secondary academic test results. Each university's admission rules (招生章程) give the weighting.

Routes into higher vocational colleges

Higher vocational colleges admit many students before the June gaokao through classified exams (高职分类考试), which judge general knowledge and vocational skills together (文化素质+职业技能). Graduates of secondary vocational schools take a test of general subjects and skills; senior high graduates take a vocational aptitude test, with their academic test results counting for the general part. Admission by a single college (单招), usually in spring, is one form of this. You can also enter through the higher vocational batch of the gaokao.

Rules differ by province

National rules set the framework; your province decides the subject model, the timetable, the score lines, the batches and how many preferences you can list. Check your provincial education examinations authority (省级教育考试院) and each university's admission rules for the year you apply. We do not list university cut-off scores.

Official pages (Ministry of Education)

Facts from the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (www.moe.gov.cn): 国务院关于深化考试招生制度改革的实施意见 (2014), 教育部关于在部分高校开展基础学科招生改革试点工作的意见 (2020) and 普通高中课程方案（2017年版2020年修订）, written in Peernovo's own words. Score totals and subject models as each province publishes them; rules differ by province.

Questions

Why are there no university cut-off scores here?

Each province and university publishes its own admission scores for one year, and they change every year. Check your provincial exam authority and the university's admission website.

Is the gaokao the only way in?

No. The Strong Foundation Plan and comprehensive evaluation combine the gaokao with a university's own assessment, and higher vocational colleges also admit through classified exams and single-college admission.

Can I use a gaokao score to study outside China?

Some universities abroad accept gaokao results and each sets its own requirement. For Australia, our converter gives an indicative figure only; the university decides.

Vocational colleges, majors and qualifications in China · Careers in China

Converting a gaokao score for study in Australia (indicative)