Curiosities about China

I live with a Chinese girl now (among others) and I specially enjoy talking to her about China and how things work over there.
Yesterday, we were talking about education (any kind, elementary, primary, high school...) and the exams they have to pass to enter university. She said there was a big test after high school and, depending on the grade you had, you could study what you desired. She also told me it is one of the saddest memories she has about her life... I asked why (I did not see anything sad on that, I think almost everyone has done a test to enter university... nothing special for me so far) and I finally understood her reasons...
It does not work like in Spain: you want to study law, so you check the university and the grade you need to enter such university. Once you have taken the test, if you achieved the grade, good for you, if not... try again or study any other thing.
In China everyone does the test and waits. They have to wait because they do not have a specific grade to achieve, they wait for the universities to decide which grades are good enough for the institution. This is done so: once the exams are completed, they rank the results (imagine how much work with such a huge population) and the universities decide who enters depending on the rank they have. So... I am responsible for one university and I say: ok, only those who are ranked in the first and second position can make it here. Can you imagine that? You do not study to pass an exam... you study to be the best.
The exam is not only about the subjects you took during your last year of studies (as it is in Spain, for example). You have an exam that covers everything you have studied during your whole education (12 years to be precise). Of course I had to ask her... so, you prepare for it during your whole life? And she said yes. She even remembers her mother telling her, when she was still at primary school, to study hard and well because she will have to pass a big exam in about 10 years...
Now I can perfectly understand why they are so efficient and hard-working. They think if they do not do whatever they have to, someone will come and finish it before them! Who was talking about being competitive?
Just one more thing... They try to be the best even at elementary school. She says that if you are not good enough and you do not attrack the teacher's attention, he/she might even forget your name! I guess they spend quite a lot of money on phychologists... They even arrange parents' meetings at the end of every quarter and they read out loud the rank of the class. If your son is at the end of the list, you might prefer to leave the meeting because your son is not good enough and you should feel ashamed.
Thinking about raising a kid in China? :)