China's Postgraduate Entrance Exam (Kaoyan): Inside the World's Largest Grad-School Gauntlet
Most foreigners know the Gaokao, China's brutal college entrance exam. Far fewer know its graduate-school sequel: the kaoyan (考研), the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination. Every December, millions of Chinese university graduates file into exam halls across the country for a two-to-three-day ordeal that decides who gets to keep studying and who must face a brutal job market. Understanding kaoyan is understanding modern Chinese anxiety about mobility, credentials, and the future.
What Kaoyan Actually Is
Kaoyan (全国硕士研究生招生考试) is the standardized gate to master's and doctoral study at Chinese universities. Unlike undergraduate admission, which flows largely from Gaokao scores, graduate admission combines a December written test (初试) with a spring interview and review (复试). A candidate applies to specific universities and programs, not to a centralized system, and may apply to several — though the written exam is sat on a single national date.
The exam's scale is staggering. Candidates numbered about 1.65 million in 2015, climbed past 3.4 million during the COVID-era "study surge" of 2020, peaked near 4.74 million in 2023, then eased to about 4.38 million in 2024 and roughly 3.88 million in 2025 as the labor market and admissions policy shifted. Even after the dip, it remains one of the largest single standardized exams on earth.
The Structure of the Exam
The initial test typically includes four papers over two to three days:
- Politics (政治, 100 points): Marxism, Chinese politics, and current affairs — memorization-heavy.
- English (英语, 100 points): Reading comprehension, writing, and translation; "English I" is harder than "English II."
- Specialized subject I (150 points): usually advanced mathematics (数学一/二/三) for science and engineering tracks, or a discipline foundation paper.
- Specialized subject II (150 points): the candidate's target field — economics, law, computer science, literature, and so on.
Total: 500 points. Those clearing the national line and a university-specific cutoff advance to the re-exam (复试), which weighs interviews, English, and research potential. Final admission blends the two scores. The whole pipeline stretches from December to the following spring.
Why Millions Sit for It
The dominant driver is the job market. China's annual cohort of new higher-education graduates hit about 11.79 million in 2024 and roughly 12.22 million in 2025. With youth urban unemployment a persistent worry, a master's degree is widely seen as a buffer — a way to wait out a weak entry-level market, signal quality to employers, and access better-paying sectors like tech, finance, and the civil service.
Credential inflation compounds this. As bachelor's degrees became near-universal among urban youth, the master's became the new differentiator. Some use kaoyan to switch fields entirely (escaping "useless major" anxiety), while others chase a prestigious "double first-class" university to erase a humbler undergraduate brand. The phrase "学历贬值" (devaluation of academic credentials) captures the fear that motivates much of the frenzy.
The Repeaters and the Coaching Industry
A striking feature is the share of repeat candidates. Observers estimate that roughly half of all kaoyan test-takers are "second-timers" (二战) or beyond, having failed once and committed another year — often while nominally working, job-hunting, or holed up in a "boarding cram school" (寄宿考研) that supplies a desk, a bed, and silence.
This has spawned a sizable industry: online and offline coaching (estimated in the tens of billions of yuan annually), "exam-room hotels" booked a year ahead near test centers, and an entire content ecosystem of livestream tutors. For many, kaoyan is less an exam than a lifestyle interlude — a liminal year between student and adult.
Costs, Mental Health, and Policy Shifts
The human cost is real. The pressure contributes to anxiety and burnout, and the "gap year" of preparation can become a multi-year deferral of adulthood. On the policy side, 2020 saw a deliberate expansion of master's admissions to absorb COVID-era employment shock; since then, authorities have emphasized professional master's degrees (专硕) over academic ones, aiming to align graduate training with industry needs rather than pure research.
Admission rates hover around 20-25% overall — of roughly 4.38 million 2024 candidates, about 1.3 million were admitted. That selectivity, combined with the rising cost of preparation, makes kaoyan a high-stakes bet with no guaranteed payoff.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many people take the kaoyan each year? A: After a steep climb to a peak near 4.74 million in 2023, numbers eased to about 4.38 million in 2024 and roughly 3.88 million in 2025. Even after the decline, it remains one of the largest graduate-entry exams in the world.
Q: How is kaoyan different from the Gaokao? A: The Gaokao decides undergraduate admission through a single score; kaoyan is a graduate exam combining a December written test with a spring interview, and candidates apply to specific universities and programs rather than a centralized system.
Q: What is the admission rate? A: Overall admission runs around 20-25%. Of about 4.38 million 2024 candidates, roughly 1.3 million secured places — making it highly competitive despite the large absolute numbers.
Q: Why do so many candidates repeat the exam? A: A weak entry-level job market, credential inflation, and the desire to upgrade to a more prestigious university or switch fields push many to take a "gap year" (or two) to retake it. Repeaters may make up around half of all test-takers.
Q: Is a master's degree worth it in China today? A: It depends on field and university. For competitive sectors like tech, finance, and the civil service, a master's from a strong school still signals quality and can defer unemployment — but with admission around 25% and rising preparation costs, the return on investment is increasingly debated.