{"id":816,"date":"2014-02-09T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/?p=816"},"modified":"2014-02-04T13:34:50","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T21:34:50","slug":"ace-ing-the-standardized-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/ace-ing-the-standardized-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Ace-ing the Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris<\/a>My kids have always been good at tests\u2014spelling tests, math tests, their SATs. The daughter who\u2019s a lawyer passed her bar exam on the first try.<\/p>\n

Another daughter, the structural engineer, works on projects all over the country. The various qualifying exams are notoriously difficult, the fail rate huge. My daughter has passed every one.<\/p>\n

Yet another daughter is an actuary, a profession that thrives on tests. For years she was constantly preparing for an exam. Finally, having taken all they had to offer, she reached the level of a \u201chigh pooba,\u201d as her husband called it.<\/p>\n

So where do my children get all their test-taking skill?<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s not magic. They study. Still, I like to credit their great-grandfather.\u00a0 (It makes a better story.)<\/p>\n

Rags to Riches<\/b><\/h4>\n
\"Don<\/a>

Don Carlos Palanca y Tan Qien-Sien<\/p><\/div>\n

Their great-grandfather, Tan Chueco, was the son of a self-made man. His father, Tan Qien-Sien, was only a teenager when he left the poverty of his home in Fujian Province and sailed for Manila. After arrival, he kept body and soul together as a rag picker in the Quiapo Market\u2014the lowest of the low-paying jobs. He applied himself, though, learning Spanish and Tagalog and working hard. Before long, he was a successful businessman on his way to becoming the richest Chinese merchant in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Having missed his own chance at having a classical education, the now rich and successful Mr. Tan sent his son, Tan Chueco, back to China to study.<\/p>\n

Chinese Civil Service Exams<\/b><\/h4>\n

If you\u2019ve ever sweated over a standardized merit test, blame China. They invented it. The intention of the Civil Service Examinations, begun in the year 605 AD, was to find the most qualified men to serve as government officials. Theoretically, anyone could take the exams. In practice, it was available only to those who knew how to read and who had the leisure to study for a very difficult test. An essay test on steroids.<\/p>\n

For three days and two nights, the examinees wrote, each in his tiny private room or cell. The sparse furnishings included a desk, bench and simple bed. The men were told to bring their own food, water, writing implements and chamber pot.<\/p>\n

The \u201ceight-legged essays\u201d the candidates wrote covered a lot of ground, from art, geography and literature to military strategy and civil law. They had to use exact quotes from the Classics. Hopeful scholars studied for years. But the quotas were tight and many failed \u2026 over and over again. (See China\u2019s Examination Hell<\/i><\/a> <\/i>by Ichisada Miyazaki.)<\/p>\n

Becoming a Mandarin First Class<\/b><\/h4>\n
\"Tan<\/a>

Tan Chueco<\/p><\/div>\n

Fortunately my grandfather-in-law, Tan Chueco, was good at tests. His first exam was at the county and district level. After what I assume to be months or years of study, he passed the test and became a xiucai<\/i>. Then he studied again and passed the provincial level exams to become a juren.<\/i> Next were the national level exams which he passed, becoming a gongshi<\/i>.<\/p>\n

He could have stopped right there and accepted a prestigious, lucrative position as reward for his years of study. Instead, he took up the final challenge: the imperial court examination. A challenge indeed with its pass rate of only two or three percent. And yet, he passed that test too and became a jinshi<\/i>, a mandarin first class.<\/p>\n

With that kind of heritage, it\u2019s not surprising that my children and grandchildren are good at tests.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My kids have always been good at tests\u2014spelling tests, math tests, their SATs. The daughter who\u2019s a lawyer passed her bar exam on the first try. Another daughter, the structural engineer, works on projects all over the country. The various qualifying exams are notoriously difficult, the fail rate huge. My daughter has passed every one. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,155],"tags":[163,153,166,165,170,171,169,167,150,164,168],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-family","tag-chinese-civil-service-examinations","tag-don-carlos-palanca-y-tan-quien-sien","tag-eight-legged-essays","tag-fujian-province","tag-gongshi","tag-jinshi","tag-juren","tag-mandarin-first-class","tag-manila","tag-tan-chueco","tag-xiucai"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-da","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5042,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/5042\/","url_meta":{"origin":816,"position":0},"title":"Mother’s Day … and Being Good Enough","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"May 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Mother\u2019s Day cards can be a bit over the top. Have you noticed? Mom is wonderful, they declare in letters embellished with flowers, butterflies, and cute little birds. She\u2019s amazing, the best mother anyone could wish for. Furthermore, she was always there, believed in me, loved me no matter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mom and me","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Mom-and-me-001-e1461905704475.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Mom-and-me-001-e1461905704475.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Mom-and-me-001-e1461905704475.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1205,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/family\/a-country-bumpkin-goes-to-the-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":816,"position":1},"title":"A Country Bumpkin Goes to the City","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"March 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A layover in Tokyo. The baby was sleeping in the infant bed the hotel provided. The girls were cross-legged on the floor, their eyes unblinking as Japanese cartoon characters flitted across the TV screen. My husband was in the bathroom, shaving. Only three weeks earlier I\u2019d been in the hospital\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":" leaving the United States","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/airport-to-Manila-001-e1391043677504-296x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1801,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/vanuatu\/vanuatu-vanuatu\/crossing-the-mountains-to-visit-daughter-number-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":816,"position":2},"title":"Crossing the Mountains to Visit Daughter Number Two","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"May 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Two sides of Washington State. Driving to my daughter's house takes my sister and me away from the greener, more populated west side of Washington State, across the Cascade Mountains, and into a totally different landscape. We cross the pass, and suddenly the dense underbrush is gone, the Douglas firs,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"rhododendron, cedar and maple","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMG_0215-e1401320694460.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3725,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/family\/visiting-annapolis\/","url_meta":{"origin":816,"position":3},"title":"VISITING ANNAPOLIS.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"June 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Although I really would love to have my children and grandchildren live just around the corner, there are benefits to having them live in a distant city, chief among them: I have an excuse to travel and see new sights. My youngest daughter and her family live in Maryland, 2741\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Annapolis main street","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Annapolis-main-street-e1434075698403.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5319,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/the-letters-my-mom-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":816,"position":4},"title":"The Letters My Mom Saved.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 When we lived in the Philippines and later in Vanuatu, I wrote letters to my family every week. And every week after my parents read my letters, Mom filed them away. That\u2019s a lot of letters. Let\u2019s see, fifty-two weeks multiplied by twenty-two years \u2026 Hmm. That adds up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Grandma with T","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Grandma-and-T-001-e1467930842919.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2744,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/2744\/","url_meta":{"origin":816,"position":5},"title":"Want a Creativity Boost? Go for a Walk.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Stanford researchers link walking with creativity. Charles Dickens walked three hours a day--usually in the evening--and still found time to write 2000-4000 words. Quality words. A coincidence? Or is there a correlation between walking and creativity? Researchers at Stanford University think there is. After walking for eight minutes, their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "walking"","block_context":{"text":"walking","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/walking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close to home","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Close-to-home-e1413057613864.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}