School Entrance Exams -1st Grade

Are you saying students after highschools?

I mean before students enter the first grade. Below is a quote from the article.

"Students here take exams to enroll in the first grade, the sixth-grade, the tenth-grade, and then universities, and every exam is "tense" and "competitive," the scholar said.

Ah! I understand.
We have kindergarten, elementary (6yo - 10 yo, 5 grades), secondary (11yo - 14yo, 4 grades) & high school (15yo - 17yo). After high school is university or college. It can be either 2 years to 5 years or longer for majors like lawyer, doctor, pharmacist,...

In order to enter each school, we have to pass entrance tests. The most important test is to enter universities. In order to take that test, pupils have to pass high school's final test. There used to be 6 subjects: Math, Literature, English (fix for every year) and 3 other subjects changing every year  (like History, Chemistry & Geography). Pupils who don't study English at high schools (another long story) can take another subject, e.g. Physics.

After pass this test with the score not lower than the basic score they set, they will take entrance test to the university they like. Each uni. has different subjects, e.g. (A group) Engineer: Math, Physics, Chemistry or (C group) Law/Tourism/: Literature, History, Geography or (H group) Architect: Literature, Drawing,...
There are totally 19 groups depending on which uni. they choose.

After they pass, they can enroll to the uni. to learn basic subjects for every students, normally in 2 years. After that they will take a test to enter the specific branches they choose to study. For example, I took group D, studied 2 years at English Department of HUFLIT, then I chose to be an Interpreter (in English) while my friends chose to be Tourist guide (in English).

There are so many other examinations, tests: mid-term tests, 15mins tests every week, 1 hour test ever month, final year test,...

Why we scoff at them? They are unrealistic, impractical & have no thing to do with the career we're gonna do later in our life. Okay! A very little.

Many 3rd year students don't know how many spare parts a bicycle has. Many graduated students don't know how to write a CV. Many English Department students are so shy and scared to speak English.
That's the point!

Before my daughter started Grade 1 last year, she was given simple tests to find out her competency in basic reading, writing and rithmetic.

preschool
Understand your child can enroll at 1.5 years of age