Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Spot the difference: Maths test in China vs. England

This article from the BBC website made me chuckle.




The first question is aimed at pre-entry university applicants in China.

The second question is aimed at 1st year students already at university in England.

Now, I'm not a maths whizz by any means (perhaps because I went through the English school system rather than China's?) but the difference between the two tests is surprising. So much so that it has raised concerns that English standards are not high enough.

If you can solve the Chinese test question, a £500 prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry is on offer (and perhaps a place at a Chinese university, I presume?).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've made similar entry on the topic in my blog and some other forums.

One poster contends that although "standards of competency among British A-level students is low has no bearing on the fact that the standard of teaching at British universities is second only to US universities and certainly higher than teaching standards at Chinese universities"

I then points out to the gist of the issue that it focus on "the quality of graduates that the two countries' are producing and also the potential of China overtaking the UK because of it."

Anonymous said...

I got the answers. I have been studied in the UK since A-levels, but i had done two years high school in china. Perhaps the teaching emphasis on different areas is variable. I still find difficult studying Biology.