Amid COVID outbreak, dozens of phone calls save exam taker from quitting

A postgraduate candidate in COVID-19 hit Xi'an city, China's Shaanxi province, was on the verge of giving up when education authorities encouraged her to sit the exam as planned with dozens of phone calls, Dahe Daily reported.

Zhao Yijing, 23, one of millions of postgraduate exam takers this year, works as an illustrator in Luoyang, Henan province. Since college, she has dreamed of pursuing further studies at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, she fell short of the minimum entry score by 0.01 point in her first try as a graduate student.

As her second chance draw near, the COVID-19 outbreak in Xi'an stood in her way. Yanta district of Xi'an city, her test location, announced a partial lockdown starting from Dec 18. As the city's total confirmed COVID-19 cases were rising, the idea of avoiding risk and skipping the exam gradually took up in her mind.

But just one day before the exam kicked off on Dec 25, a stream of phone calls from Shaanxi and Henan's education exam authorities turned things around.

On Dec 24, Zhao received a phone call from Shaanxi's education exam authority asking about her current location and whether she still wants to sit the exam. "Though I answered I do, actually I didn't hold any hope of making it," Zhao said.

Soon after, Zhao received another phone call from the education department of Henan province, again to check her current location and willingness to sit the exam. Zhao was told that Xi'an's education exam authority had decided to let her take the test in Luoyang.

But Zhao was also told that due to the very tight time, it might be difficult to arrange exam papers for her. Zhao offered to give up taking the exam.