Gaokao, China's national college entrance examination, kicked off on Tuesday, June 7. In Changzhou, over 18,000 candidates sat for the exam.

It is the second year since the Jiangsu province adopted a new policy for Gaokao. The new policy features a 鈥渢hree plus one plus two鈥 scoring system. Chinese, mathematics and English continue to be compulsory Gaokao subjects. 鈥淥ne鈥 refers to either history or physics. The remaining two optional subjects can be selected from politics, geography, chemistry and biology.

There are 17 examination areas in Changzhou with a total of 623 exam rooms.