You mean actually expecting students know how to add & subtract?

With more than half of its international students coming from China, USF has enrolled 33 Chinese students through the gaokao programme, which requires test scores, a high school transcript and a one-on-one English interview with a university professor.

About 377,000 Chinese students are studying at American universities, accounting for more than a third of international students in the US, according to government data.

Dutcher, the University of New Hampshire vice-president, said: “We are recognising at UNH how vigorous the gaokao exam is and the calibre of the students who perform well in gaokao exam, and it is the calibre of students that we are interested in at UNH.”

“We want to make sure we continue to bring in students who are going to be academically successful at the university and we want gaokao to be a new part of our admission to consider that,” she said.

Another factor is that most public universities in the US are seeing a drop in domestic applicants because of declining instate demographics and funding cuts. “So more international or out-of-state students are expected to fill the gap,” Chen said.

Most of the 50 US states have cut public college and university budgets, eating into student services and raising tuition.

Candidates are required to write an essay that will be kept in a time capsule, to be opened in 2035 by teenagers that turn 18 that year. It provides extra information that students can use as a guide – “2020, moderately prosperous society is fully implemented; 2035, socialist modernisation is realised”.

Sichuan candidates have to write an essay according to three slogans. One of which is “At Shenzhen in year 1981, time is money, efficiency is life.” No information is provided on how the time and geographical context matters.

Candidates are required to write an essay that will be kept in a time capsule, to be opened in 2035 by teenagers that turn 18 that year. It provides extra information that students can use as a guide – “2020, moderately prosperous society is fully implemented; 2035, socialist modernisation is realised”.

Shanghai students came across a more philosophical conundrum – they are asked to share their thoughts on “being needed”.

“In life, humans are not just concerned about their own needs, we also long to be needed,” writes the prompt.

The year before that, Anhui candidates scratched their heads over an essay prompt that seemed to be testing their knowledge of science instead. The paper described students observing the wings of butterfly under a microscope and coming to the conclusion that “butterfly’ wings are initially colourless, they only reflect different colours under the light because of their microscopic structure.”