If you've been asking yourself when is gaokao 2025, here's your answer: China's National College Entrance Examination takes place on June 7 and 8, 2025, with select provinces running through June 9 or even June 10 for certain subjects. Those two days represent the single most consequential test millions of Chinese students will ever sit. Mark the calendar now, because the prep window closes faster than most students expect.
The gaokao exam follows a fixed national schedule that the Ministry of Education confirms each spring, usually in March. While the core June 7–8 window has been stable for years, provincial education bureaus can add sessions for elective subjects. If you're in Zhejiang, Guangdong, or another province using a reformed curriculum, you may see a June 9 or June 10 testing slot on your admission ticket. Always cross-check your province's official announcement — not just the national headline date.
Understanding the schedule matters beyond blocking out two days on your calendar. You'll want to know which subject falls on which morning or afternoon, because your study plan should mirror that sequence. Cramming chemistry the night before a math morning does more harm than good. Let's walk through the standard national timetable, what each day covers, and the key deadlines you can't afford to miss.
One thing that catches students off guard: the gaokao isn't a single uniform test taken by everyone in identical conditions. China is a vast country with 31 provincial-level administrative regions, and while the national core subjects share the same timetable, the elective subject groupings and even the question papers can differ. Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Zhejiang have historically used their own independently written papers for some subjects. This matters because the scoring curves and cut lines (分数线) that determine university admissions are also calculated provincially. A score of 600 means something very different in Henan — where competition is ferocious — than in Tibet, where fewer students compete for more allocated university spots.
On June 7, the morning session begins at 9:00 AM with the Chinese Language exam — 150 minutes of reading comprehension, classical Chinese passages, and a mandatory composition. It's the longest single session of the exam, and it sets the psychological tone for everything that follows. Take it seriously: Chinese Language is often where students lose points they didn't expect to lose, because the essay rubrics are stricter than they appear.
The afternoon of June 7 runs Mathematics from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM — 120 minutes, typically 22 questions across multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and open-ended sections. The Gaokao Math paper has a reputation for difficulty that isn't entirely warranted once you understand its structure: the multiple-choice section is doable for well-prepared students, and the open-ended section allocates partial credit, so showing your work always pays off even if your final answer is wrong.
June 8 opens with the Foreign Language exam in the morning — most students sit the English version, though Japanese, French, German, Spanish, and Russian are available as alternatives. The English paper includes a listening component (administered at the start), reading passages, a translation task, and a writing section. Students who struggle with the listening portion often don't realize they can recover significant points in the reading and writing sections. Don't let a bad listening start derail the rest of the paper.
The afternoon of June 8 brings the elective subject package. In the traditional curriculum model, Science track students take Physics, Chemistry, and Biology as a combined paper worth 300 points. Humanities track students sit History, Geography, and Politics. This afternoon session is the one that most directly reflects your entire high school specialization, and it's where students with narrow subject strengths tend to shine or struggle most visibly.
Now that you know when is gaokao 2025 and how the days break down, let's talk about the weeks leading up to it — because that timeline is just as important as exam day itself. Registration for the gaokao typically opens in October of the preceding year. If you're a returning student or sitting outside your home province, you'll face additional verification steps and earlier internal deadlines.
Mock exams — known as 模拟考试 (mónǐ kǎoshì) — are your best preparation tool. Most schools schedule at least two full-length simulations in April and May. These aren't optional. They replicate exam-day conditions: timed, sealed rooms, answer sheets, the whole experience. Your scores on mocks are strong predictors of the real result, and they expose the exact gaps you still have time to close.
One detail many students underestimate: the admission ticket pickup. You'll collect your 准考证 (zhǔnkǎo zhèng) from your school or local education bureau about one week before exam day — typically in late May or very early June. Lose it, and you can't enter the test room. Keep it with your national ID in a place you'll check the night before.
The gaokao practice test resources on this site are structured by subject, so you can drill Chinese language on the same morning block you'd face in June. That kind of rhythm-matching builds genuine exam-day confidence — not just content knowledge, but the mental stamina to stay sharp through a 2.5-hour Chinese Language paper followed by a 2-hour Math session in the afternoon.
Sleep and logistics matter far more than last-minute content review in the final 48 hours. Plan your route to the exam venue in advance — ideally visit in person once before exam day. Know where the entrance is, where you'll wait, and which classroom you're assigned to. Arrive 30 minutes early. Exam rooms close their doors before the start signal, and there are no exceptions.
For students in reformed-curriculum provinces, you've already completed your elective subject sessions in January (for subjects like Chemistry or Biology under the 3+1+2 model). Your June sitting covers Chinese, Math, and Foreign Language. Don't let the relative familiarity of those three subjects make you complacent — they still carry 450 of the 750 total points in the standard scoring system.
The Gaokao Math section consistently intimidates test-takers, but it's also one of the best areas to recover points through targeted practice. The final 30 days before June 7 should include at least three timed, full-length math simulations under real exam conditions. Strictly 120 minutes — no extensions, no pausing. Then review every error methodically, tracing back to the underlying concept before moving on.
One more date worth noting: for students applying to specialized programs — military academies, police colleges, art and sports programs — additional entrance exams may happen in May, before the main gaokao. If you're in one of these tracks, your schedule is already more compressed. Confirm those program-specific dates with your school counselor well in advance.
The weeks between registration and exam day also include several provincial-level preliminary exams. The 一模 (yī mó, first mock) usually happens in March, and the 二模 (èr mó, second mock) in April or May. These are high-stakes simulations — some schools post rankings after each mock, and those rankings influence which exam rooms students are assigned to. Performing well in the mocks builds psychological momentum. A poor mock result is a data point, not a verdict. Use the gap between 一模 and 二模 to address weak spots aggressively rather than dwelling on the mock score itself.
Diet and physical health in the final two weeks are genuinely important factors that most preparation guides overlook. Your brain runs on glucose, and sustained attention across six hours of testing requires stable blood sugar. Eat consistent meals, cut back on late nights, and avoid introducing any new foods in the 72 hours before exam day. Gastrointestinal problems on June 7 are a real — and entirely preventable — disaster.
After exam day, the waiting game begins. Results for the 2025 gaokao will be released in late June — the exact date depends on your province, but you can generally expect scores within 10 to 15 days of the final session. Once scores drop, you'll have a short but intense window — often just 3 to 5 days — to submit your university preferences through the provincial voluntary reporting system.
That post-exam window is as stressful as the exam itself for many students. You'll be comparing your score against provincial cut lines (分数线, fēnshùxiàn), researching which universities' minimum admission scores your result can reach, and ranking your preferences. Go into that window prepared: have a preliminary list of schools and programs ready before June 7 so you're not scrambling the moment scores appear.
If you're using this site for gaokao exam questions practice, focus on subjects with the tightest score distribution. Math and English tend to separate candidates most sharply at the top of the score range — a 10-point gap in math can mean the difference between your first-choice university and your backup. Chinese Language scores cluster more tightly, which means strong essay writing is a differentiator but not a guaranteed advantage across the board.
The voluntary reporting system — 志愿填报 (zhìyuàn tiánbào) — is where strategy matters as much as raw scores. Students typically submit between 6 and 96 program preferences depending on their province's system. In provinces using the traditional model, you must rank your preferences carefully because early admission rounds prioritize your top-ranked choices. In provinces that have adopted a score-then-choose model, you have more flexibility — but the window is still short, and you still need to know your options before scores arrive.
Some students also sit supplementary entrance tests for specific programs. Art colleges, music conservatories, and physical education programs all require performance assessments that happen before or after the main gaokao. If you're in one of these tracks, keep an eye on those program-specific result timelines separately — they don't always align with the general score release date.
China's gaokao reforms have created a landscape where the same exam name covers meaningfully different testing experiences. The 3+1+2 reform model — now adopted by the majority of provinces — requires students to take Chinese, Math, and Foreign Language (the fixed "3"), plus either Physics or History as a mandatory fourth subject (the "1"), and then two additional electives from Biology, Chemistry, Geography, and Politics (the "2"). This model replaced the old rigid Science versus Humanities track split, giving students more subject flexibility while still anchoring the elective package in core disciplines.
Zhejiang and Shanghai use the older 3+3 reform model, where students choose three subjects from a broader elective pool after the mandatory Chinese, Math, and Foreign Language. The extra elective sessions in these provinces account for the extended testing windows running through June 9 and June 10. If you're in one of these provinces, your exam schedule looks meaningfully different from what a student in Henan or Sichuan will experience.
The national college enrollment quota system adds another layer of regional complexity. Each province receives a fixed number of spots at key national universities (985 and 211 project schools), and the per-capita odds of admission to those universities vary enormously by province. Students in educationally competitive provinces like Jiangsu, Shandong, and Hebei face harder relative competition, even with high raw scores, because they're fighting for proportionally fewer spots. This is a reality worth understanding before you sit the exam — not to discourage preparation, but to calibrate expectations about score targets for specific universities.
Here's the bottom line: when is gaokao 2025? June 7–8 nationally, with some provinces running through June 10. But knowing the date is only the starting point. The students who perform best on gaokao day aren't the ones who crammed hardest in the final week — they're the ones who built consistent habits months earlier, ran realistic simulations, and showed up on June 7 already knowing what that room feels like.
Use this site's gaokao exam practice tools to work through past-style questions by subject and difficulty level. Combine timed practice with focused review of your weak areas. And make sure your logistics — registration, admission ticket, exam venue, travel plan — are squared away well before the first morning bell rings on June 7.
It's worth building a subject-by-subject countdown in the weeks before exam day. Starting six weeks out, identify your three lowest-scoring areas from the most recent 二模. Spend the first two weeks on the weakest subject only — not splitting time across all three. Concentrated attention in a short window moves the needle more than diffuse review. By week four, rotate to your second problem area. The final two weeks before June 7 should be full simulations and rest, not new material.
Finally, remember that the gaokao tests more than content knowledge. It tests your ability to manage time within each paper, to work around questions you can't immediately solve, and to stay calm when a section feels harder than expected. All of these are trainable skills — and practicing them under timed conditions with the gaokao exam questions on this site is exactly how you build them. Show up June 7 prepared, rested, and ready. The date is set. What you do between now and then is entirely up to you.