About 13.35 million (133.5 lakh) students in China appeared for the Gaokao 2025 exam on Saturday, June 7, bringing the entire country to a grinding halt.

The exam was held across thousands of centres across the country and saw a slight decrease in the number of takers from 13.42 million students in 2024, India Today reports.

Gaokao, the national college entrance exam in China, is known to be one of the toughest exams in the world. As it serves as a gateway to the top colleges in the country, Gaokao can make or break students’ careers in the country.

Given its importance, city municipalities introduce temporary traffic rules during “Gaokao Day” to keep the roads clear for students to travel to their exam centres on time. Students can also avail of free transport facilities.

The exam is also highly surveilled and monitored to prevent cheating, with some centres having Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered cameras to catch unusual activities. Even the local police authorities are involved in the monitoring, using high-tech drones and other tools to watch over the students.

In the meanwhile, anxious parents of the students appearing for the exams waited outside the centres with water, snacks, drinks and even flowers, hoping to get their children’s spirits up.

Interestingly, Gaokao is bigger than the biggest exams in India, with a higher number of students appearing. To put to scale, the number of candidates is higher than the number of students appearing for the last Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) Class XII board exams, where 16.92 lakh students appeared, or the last Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main session with 12.58 lakh candidates.

Ever since it was reintroduced in 1977, Gaokao has served as a path for economic and social mobility for millions of Chinese citizens.