Not China’s Gaokao, UPSC and IIT are the toughest exams for General Category Students in India

Academic and professional promotion tests have been considered the gold standard across the globe. The hardest exams in the world are, of course, China’s Gaokao, India’s UPSC Civil Services Examination, and the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

Although Gaokao is tough, it will be proven in this paper that for Indian general category students, UPSC and IIT JEE are tougher because of their structure, level of competition, and socio-economic factors.

Understanding the Gaokao: China’s Toughest College Admission Exam

The Gaokao, or National College Entrance Examination, is the standard test for graduating high school students used to enter the nation’s universities. Held annually in two to three days, it challenges the knowledge of those students in four basic subjects:

• Chinese Literature
• Mathematics
• A Foreign Language  — usually English
• Other tests either in sciences or in humanities, depending on the stream a student chooses

Being extremely competitive, with a preparation span of over a year and imposing immeasurable social pressure, as the outcomes affect university admission, and in a way, one’s profession in the near future,

the Gaokao has achieved highly competitive standards among those top universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University that readily select the cream of the crop.

It faces a lot of problems but works on a relatively homogenous platform—in this system, no reservations based on caste or economic status prevail as in India’s UPSC and IIT JEE.

The UPSC Civil Services Examination: India’s Toughest Bureaucratic Exam

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination is the entrance door to India’s most coveted governmental jobs, namely:

• Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
• Indian Police Service (IPS)
• Indian Foreign Service (IFS)

This is a three-stage very competitive exam conducted.

Stage 1: Preliminary Examination

This stage contains two objective-type papers. The topics of paper 1 are as follows:

General Studies (GS): This includes history, geography, polity, economics, science, and current affairs.

Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT): This paper tests reasoning, analytical skills, and comprehension skills.

Thousands of candidates fail in this first stage only because of vast general knowledge and strategic preparation.

Stage 2: Main Examination

The aspirants who get qualified for Mains have to attempt nine descriptive papers, and out of which the following ones are the same:

• One Essay Paper
• Four General Studies Papers
• Two Optional Subject Papers which the candidate would opt for.
• Two Language Papers comprising one compulsory Indian language and English

The syllabus for the Mains examination is humongous and needs a person to be very conversant with history, polity, ethics, international relations, and other such specialized subjects.

Stage 3: Personality Test (Interview)

There is also a final stage known as the Personality Test, which tends to test a candidate’s:

• Communication
• Decision-making ability
• Moral and ethical judgment
• General knowledge

Success at UPSC requires preparation for at least a year. The number of students is more than less, but with an achievement level of less than 0.1%, not much can be done.

Other things that matter include the competition for general students in the exam as reservation makes available a fixed percentage of spots for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and other Backward Class students. A system like that pushes cut-offs even higher sometimes.

The IIT Joint Entrance Examination (IIT JEE): India’s Most Competitive Engineering Exam

The IIT JEE is the entrance examination to India’s most elite engineering colleges-the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). It is conducted in two stages:

1. JEE Main

The first stage is the JEE Main, which tests students on:

• Physics
• Chemistry
• Mathematics

To qualify further and to attain admission in engineering colleges in every other state across India, rank must be considerably high in the JEE Main.

2. JEE Advanced

JEE Advanced is held for only for the top performers of JEE Main that can be around 2.5 lakh. S/he must also have conceptual ability and problem solving skills in his/her mind

Why is IIT JEE so tough?

1. Concept-Based Questions: This is not an exam that tests only rote memorization. Here, application of various concepts and thinking are required.

2. Limited Seats: IITs have a mere acceptance rate of 1%. This is deemed to be one of the most competitive exams around the world.

3. High Competition for General Category Students: Reservation policies normally hike cut-off marks and cut down on the number of seats for general category students.

Gaokao vs. UPSC and IIT JEE:

1. Pattern of Examination

• Gaokao: A single standardized test administered over 2-3 days.
• UPSC: Multi-stage procedure (Prelims, Mains, Interview) spanning almost a year.
• IIT JEE: Two-stage exam testing deeper problem-solving capabilities (JEE Main and JEE Advanced).

2. Level of Competition

• Gaokao: Success is relative to the rank among millions of students under the same uniform system.
• UPSC: Extremely low success rate of 0.1%, general category students face stiffer cut-offs.
• IIT JEE: Very competitive exam with a pass percentage below 1%.

3. Level of Knowledge Expected

• Gaokao: More broad-based knowledge check, with relatively few application-type questions.
• UPSC: Needs deeper knowledge in various subjects and reasoning ability.
• IIT JEE: Requires a higher level of concept understanding in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

4. Socio-Economic Factors

• Gaokao: No reservations-merit based, level playing field.
• Reservation policies: This really matters here as there is a huge difference in cut-off marks because of this, and hence it is highly competitive for general-category students.

5. Psychological and Financial Burden

• Gaokao: High societal pressure, but the support system of Chinese schools is well established.
• UPSC: Years of preparation, high mental endurance, huge investment in coaching.
• IIT JEE: The preparation is dominated by coaching institutes, and hence it becomes an expensive and stressful journey.

Which Exam Is the Hardest?

While the Gaokao is an extremely challenging exam, UPSC and IIT JEE are much tougher for general category students in India due to the following reasons:

1. Multi-Stage Structure: Unlike Gaokao, UPSC requires more than a year to finish the exam and IIT JEE requires qualification in multiple rounds.

2. Less than 0.1 percent success rate is reported by the UPSC as opposed to a 1percent acceptance rate into IIT JEE.

3. Reservation Policy: General-category students face tougher cut-offs with less number of seats.

4. Financial and Psychological Burden: Both require costly coaching besides intense preparation which will be further detailed in chapter three.

Therefore, while all of these three tests are extremely tough, for a general category student in India, UPSC Civil Services Examination and IIT JEE are probably tougher than Gaokao.

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