As part of China’s global competitiveness programs, foreign language curriculums have become part of college degree programs.
A particular emphasis is put on English as the international language of business. College students who are majoring in English are thoroughly trained in understanding, speaking and writing English.
Standard tests are administered to gauge proficiency. Students are ranked based on specific standards. Examinations are comprised of reading comprehension, writing, audio comprehension and translations.
The recent college English test level 4 and 5 last Saturday, however, drew complaints from exam takers because of some changes in the exam procedures. This is the first time that students were dissatisfied with the way the exam was administered.
The complaints were particularly focused on the sections on listening and translating English audio.
According to the online survey conducted by the Chinese microblogging platform, Sina Weibo, about 23.1 percent of the 3,835 students who took the test were disappointed for not having finished the exam, and 17.4 percent of the test-takers did not even write any answer because of the new rules on time limits.
One examinee said exam-takers have had to submit their papers as soon as they finished listening to the audio, before they could even begin to translate it.
The national college English test committee had previously announced the changes in August but its impact was only realized at the time of actual implementation.
Most of the changes were seemingly minor, such as reducing the listening time from 35 minutes to 30 minutes. The shorter listening period, however, meant that most examinees did not have ample time to answer the test questions.
The changes to the bi-annual national exam are just among the few made since the 1980's when the first national English proficiency test for undergraduates was conducted.