Perennial exam taker falls just short in latest attempt

A man who made his 15th attempt at China's national college entrance examination, or gaokao, was rejected by a university during this year's admission process due to insufficient scores in his intended major and refusal to consider other majors in the university.

Tang Shangjun, who is now 35 years old, revealed on his Sina Weibo social media account on Tuesday his application to Central China Normal University was rejected after two majors he applied for had their positions filled by applicants with higher scores and he refused to be assigned to other majors.

He was rejected by the university even though he had a higher score than the minimum requirement.

On Thursday, a disappointed Tang told Zhejiang-based Tide News he did not apply for any left-over or expanded enrollment positions as he did not see suitable ones, but he did not plan to study for another year either. "I can't think of anything to do now. Even if I want to do it again, there are probably no high schools that would accept me," he said.

Tang scored 594 out of a total of 750 and ranked about 6,000th out of some 460,000 gaokao takers in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. However, according to CCNU's website, the two majors he applied for, programs for physics and chemistry teachers, have been filled by applicants who scored at least 608.

As Tang's score was higher than 574, CCNU's minimum threshold in Guangxi, if Tang had acquiesced to reassignment he would have been admitted to another major.

Tang said he had refused to be reassigned because he thought his score "should be high enough" for his intended majors, and non-teaching majors "don't suit him". He added he was surprised to learn that he wasn't admitted.

Since 2009, Tang took the gaokao in Guangxi every year. In some years he had scored well and had been admitted to decent colleges including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing University and Guangxi University, but he had chosen not to go due to "unsuitable majors" and he had been fixated on entering the prestigious Tsinghua University. However, in previous interviews, Tang said this year's gaokao would be his last.