As a senior high school student, I am very sure in saying that most high school students have suffered from stress, because the National College Entrance Examinations, or NCEE, forces us to experience fierce competition at a relatively early age.

    However, to some degree, we are all blessed with the equal chance given by the exam to ascend to top universities. Just like what Bai Yansong, a famous China Central Televesion host, once said: “If there was no such examination, how could students with poor family backgrounds beat their rivals from wealthy or powerful families to smoothy enter an ideal college?”

    Definitely, the examination is the fairest way for all students at present.

    But just as every coin has two sides, the college entrance examination has its negative side, as well.

    Take my schoolmates as examples. Every day, they studied extremely hard in order to pass the exam. They gave up their hobbies and spare time, even their sleeping hours. They struggled among piles of test papers and all kinds of exercises. They cheered up if they got high marks, and lost heart if their score turned out to be low. As a result, their physical and mental health has been seriously affected by all kinds of tests.

    Most of them only know the key points in textbooks, but little about their neighborhood, their community, or what’s going on in the world. In a word, they have become slaves of the examination.

    In my opinion, an ideal examination system should help teenagers build up good mental and physical health and inspire them to develop a wide range of interests not only in subjects such as science and art, but also in important events at home and abroad. However, the current examination system exerts an influence that is just the opposite. As a consequence, we have become studying machines.

    I believe the current college entrance examination system badly needs to be improved to catch up with the development of modern society. I know that change will not be easy to realize, but since the shortcomings of the NCEE are so obvious, we need to make it better.