Determined to crack the SAT

Shen Liangbo, a sophomore at Beijing No 4 High School, keeps to a tight summer holiday schedule. His goal is clear: the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), a standardized test for college admissions in the United States.

He spends the mornings learning new vocabulary words; in the afternoons, he goes to New Channel, a language training center in Beijing, to take courses on critical reading, mathematics and writing - the three components of the SAT.

Shen is not alone. The center he attends also provides training in TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System). Some classes have as many as 100 students.