Spring wind得意马蹄疾, seeing all the flowers of Chang'an in one day.

For students who have studied hard for ten years, this is a dream, and also a source of motivation.

If the ancient imperial examination was the only path for the children of poor families to "change their destiny," then the current Gaokao is an excellent channel for students to "leap over the dragon gate." Of course, this often means fierce competition.

Recently, data released by the Ministry of Education showed that the number of applicants for the 2024 Gaokao is 13.42 million, an increase of 510,000 over last year's figure, which has grown by nearly 1 million, setting a new record.

Specifically, the number of applicants in various provinces compiled by Beijing Gaokao Online shows that the number of applicants for the Gaokao in 30 provinces and cities across the country has increased to varying degrees year-on-year. Among them, Henan, Shandong, and Hebei are still the major provinces for the Gaokao, with 1.36 million, 1 million, and 880,000 applicants, respectively; followed by Sichuan and Guangdong, with 830,000 and 760,000 applicants, respectively.

Image source: Beijing Gaokao Online

The intensity of this year's Gaokao can be seen from this. Facing such a large number of candidates, how to ensure the fairness and justice of the examination has become the focus of attention from all walks of life.

So, with the continuous advancement of technology, what kind of "cutting-edge technology" will be used to escort the Gaokao this year?

AI Technology Escorts the Gaokao

Introducing cutting-edge technology into the Gaokao seems to have become a trend.

In recent years, in order to prevent various cheating methods and ensure the smooth progress of the Gaokao, education departments across the country have introduced various hardcore cutting-edge technologies. For example, in the 2023 Gaokao, many places equipped intelligent security gates at the entrance of the examination sites to ensure that external electronic devices were undetectable. In addition, police drones, drone detection equipment, radio monitoring vehicles, magnetic dart guns, "sonar police," and other technologies were also used.

The use of high technology in the Gaokao has also benefited a number of technology companies to some extent. According to data from Tianyancha, there are currently over 360 existing companies with "Gaokao" in their names. Among them, more than 40 related companies were newly registered from January to May this year, an increase of 48.1% compared to the same period in 2023.

Image source: Screenshot from Tianyancha's official website

This year, high-tech is also being used for Gaokao security. On May 29, the Gaokao test papers were transported by China Post from Beijing to various parts of the country. During this period, in order to ensure the safety of the test papers, in addition to the conventional police escort and armed police escort, each escort vehicle was also equipped with an intelligent tracking system, using the BeiDou satellite system for full-process tracking to ensure the safe arrival of the test papers.

In addition to the intelligent tracking system, AI technology will also be introduced during the Gaokao in many places. According to media reports, Beijing, Guangdong, Yunnan, Hainan, Fujian, and other provinces and cities have implemented a series of technical defense measures based on AI technology. For example, in Yunnan Province, comprehensive monitoring is conducted before, during, and after the examination - using intelligent recognition technology to ensure the authenticity of the candidates' identities and utilizing AI monitoring systems to conduct surveillance of the examination rooms without blind spots. After the examination, video intelligent analysis is used to timely detect and handle violations.

Moreover, to assist the Gaokao, Guangdong Mobile has deployed AI real-time intelligent proctoring systems at 386 Gaokao examination sites. In fact, AI proctoring is not a new thing. As early as the 2020 Liaoning General Gaokao, artificial intelligence technology was introduced to monitor suspected violations during the examination.

However, some netizens still commented on Weibo: "Everything is AI, isn't the Terminator era coming sooner or later?" "It's getting harder to cheat every year"... At the same time, a candidate from Hebei questioned how many people are hoping to change their destiny through the Gaokao, but is the Gaokao really fair?

The issue of fairness has always been a focus of attention from all walks of life, but with the introduction of AI technology, it has also taken a big step forward in achieving fairness in the Gaokao from a side perspective.

The Tenth Year of the New Gaokao Reform

In addition to improvements in security technology, it is worth mentioning that this year marks the tenth year of the official implementation of the new Gaokao reform.

It is understood that 29 provinces across the country have initiated comprehensive reforms of the Gaokao. With the steady progress of the national new Gaokao reform, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guizhou, Gansu, and other seven provinces (regions), as the fourth batch of new Gaokao reform provinces (regions), will also welcome their first new Gaokao this year.

Under the new Gaokao, the above seven provinces (regions) will no longer distinguish between liberal arts and science subjects, and the examination subjects will be changed to the "3+1+2" mode. "3" refers to the unified examination subjects of Chinese, mathematics, and foreign languages; "1" refers to the preferred subject, which is a choice between history and physics; "2" refers to the re-selected subjects, which are two out of four subjects from ideology and politics, geography, chemistry, and biology.

The examination results are composed of the scores of the three unified examination subjects of Chinese, mathematics, and foreign languages and the scores of the three optional academic level selective examination subjects chosen by the candidates, with a total score of 750 points.

In addition, in terms of volunteer filling and admission methods, the above seven provinces (regions) are mainly divided into two types, giving candidates greater choice. Among them, except for Guizhou Province, which adopts the "major (category) + institution" volunteer setting form, the remaining six provinces (regions) of Heilongjiang, Gansu, etc., all adopt the institutional major group form.

At the same time, Gansu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Guangxi, Guizhou, and other places have also merged and reset batches, no longer distinguishing between first-tier and second-tier universities, and merging them into undergraduate batches.

Moreover, according to disclosures from relevant media, there has been a significant increase in the undergraduate enrollment plans of various prestigious universities this year, which is undoubtedly a significant positive for reference students.

On June 7, the curtain of the 2024 Gaokao will officially open. Here, Yuanmeihui also wishes all the students: may the stars shine brightly on you, and may you achieve high scores on the golden list.

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