ABSTRACT
The Graduate School Entrance English Examination (GSEEE; ⎡研究生英语入学 考试⎦) is one of the four sub-tests for non-English majors in the National Graduate School Entrance Test battery. The four sub-tests are: the foreign language test (over 90 percent of the test-takers sit for the GSEEE); the politics test; and two sub-tests related to the subject areas the test-takers choose to study. The fi rst two sub-tests are designed and administered by the National Education Examinations Authority (NEEA) of the Ministry of Education in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the last two subtests are designed by individual educational or research institutions. With a full score of 500, 100 marks each for the foreign language test and the politics test and 150 marks for each of the two subject-related tests, the Graduate School Entrance Test consists of a preliminary written test of 3 hours for each sub-test, and a fi nal test, usually an interview administered by each educational or research institution. Depending on the number of candidates that can be accepted into Master’s programs1 across the country each year and the performance of all test-takers, the Ministry of Education decides on two cut-off scores for preliminary selection, one being the total score and the other being the score from each of the subject tests. The ratio of test-takers entering the fi nal test to those that can be accepted into Master’s programs is between 1.2:1 and 1.5:1.
