Students walk into the Nantong High School, one of the test sites for the joint examinations from Jan 23 to 25. [Photo/CFP]

East China's Jiangsu province organized joint examinations with seven provinces from Jan 23 to 25 to help grade-three high school students adapt to the new gaokao mode, which serve as the national college entrance examinations.

The examinations followed the requirements of the Ministry of Education and aimed to help exam takers get a better understanding of question types and how to fill in the intention for universities.

Processes like marking examination papers, calculating scores, announcing scores, applying for universities, and school recruitment will be included.

The examinations consisted of six disciplines and followed a "3+1+2" mode, in which students are required to take the compulsory Chinese, math, and English tests, with each scoring 150 points, choose one between the physics and history tests, with each one 100 points, as well as choose two among the politics, geography, chemistry, and biography tests, with each scoring 100 points. The full score of the gaokao is 750 points.

The Chinese and math tests were taken on Jan 23 from 9:00 to 11:30 am and 3:00 to 5:00 pm respectively. The physics or history test was taken from 9:00 to 10:15 am on Jan 24 and the English test from 3:00 to 5:00 pm the same day. On Jan 25, the chemistry test was taken from 8:30 to 9:45 am, the geography test from 11:00 am to 12:15, the politics test from 2:30 to 3:45 pm, and the biography test from 5:00 to 6:15 pm.

The new gaokao mode is applied in Chongqing municipality, as well as the provinces of Hebei, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan, and Guangdong.

Students make last-minute reviews of the exams. [Photo/CFP]