Quality not quantity

Here is some encouraging news for the 9 million children who are sitting the annual college entrance examinations today and tomorrow: at least 75 percent of them will be enrolled in an institute of higher learning.

As the number of students sitting the exams has decreased for the fourth straight year, shrinking by 1.4 million since 2008, there are more opportunities for this year's test takers, especially as almost all higher learning institutions are offering a bigger enrollment program.

But this does not necessarily mean the exams will be a piece of cake. For those students who have their sights set on an elite college, such as Peking University or Tsinghua University, it remains a make-or-break deal.