Student gets perfect writing score on gaokao with poetry

It's tough being a student in China. In addition to all the regular adolescent troubles, like being bullied by your classmates and potentially your teacher, you've also got to worry about getting into college. And the college entrance exam is no easy task: the gaokao can make or break your entire future, depending on how far down the line of causality you want to follow it. Students will do anything to get good marks: cheating is rampant, and intensive study camps are a

Needless to say, we love to see stories of underdogs who make it despite the incredible odds. Much like the student who got into Sichuan University by writing his essay in archaic script from Oracle bones, another student got a perfect score on his essay for writing a poem about ancient martyrs. Zhao Haiyang, the student in question, received a 20,000 yuan scholarship and entrance to Three Gorges University despite his poor marks on the rest of the test.

Of course, the fact that the poem was about martyrs of the country probably had something to do with the media attention and general approval. But who wouldn't love a story about a poet getting into college?