How is the male student who took the university entrance exam 16 times just to get into Tsinghua now at the age of 35?

GĐXH - Duong Thuong Quan - who was once famous for taking the Chinese university entrance exam (gaokao) 16 times, has now completed his first semester at South China Normal University at the age of 35 but is still unsure about his major.

Male student took university entrance exam 16 times

Duong Thuong Quan surprised many people because he spent his youth taking the university entrance exam. Photo: Baidu

Tang Shangjun (born in 1989) is a "familiar" figure in the news surrounding the university entrance exam in China. Up to this year's exam, Shangjun has taken the university entrance exam a total of 16 times. Until now, Tang only wanted to pass the entrance exam to Tsinghua University, the most prestigious university in China.

Duong Thuong Quan was born into a farming family in the city of Fangchenggang, Guangxi Province, China. It can be said that Thuong Quan spent his entire youth studying for the university entrance exam. Meanwhile, his parents were getting older and older, and family life was becoming more and more difficult.

The scores that Thuong Quan achieved each year were higher than the previous year, which made Tang hope that one day he would be admitted to his dream school.

In previous university entrance exams, Thuong Quan had passed prestigious universities in China, but he only enrolled for a short time and then dropped out, because Thuong Quan only wanted to study at Tsinghua University.

In 2009, the first time he took the university entrance exam, Thuong Quan scored 372/750. This was a low score, not enough for Thuong Quan to get into good quality universities. In 2010, Thuong Quan retook the exam and scored 405 points.

Thuong Quan on the day of university admission at South China Normal University.

The score increased year by year, until 2016, when for the first time, Thuong Quan reached 625 points. At that time, he was admitted to the China University of Political Science and Law, but after a while, he quickly dropped out because his dream still haunted the young man: to be admitted to Tsinghua University.

By 2024, at the age of 35, Thuong Quan still could not achieve his goal of entering Tsinghua. Finally, he decided to "give in" by applying to the Information Technology Department of South China Normal University with a score of 601.

35-year-old male student took university entrance exam 16 times

His parents were old and weak and needed Thuong Quan's care, so the young man stopped taking the university entrance exam again. Photo: SCMP

At the age of 35, he officially became a first-year student majoring in Information Engineering at the School of Photoelectric Science and Engineering of the university. On January 18, 2025, the young man posted a video sharing the results of his first final exam.

In the video , Thuong Quan revealed the scores he described as "satisfactory". The male student scored 87 points in English, 84 points in Programming Language, 81 points in Linear Algebra and 75 points in Advanced Mathematics.

Thinking his fate was "decided", at the end of 2024, Duong Thuong Quan shared with Jiupai News that he had intended to study for another year to retake the gaokao in 2025, even after enrolling in Hoa Nam.

However, after 2 weeks of intense internal struggle, he gave up that idea and told himself to focus completely on his current studies. "The mixed comments on social networks were the motivation for me to think more correctly. Thanks to that, I looked back at the problem and did not want to take the university entrance exam anymore."

One of the big decisions he is currently considering is whether to change his major. Although he has long dreamed of studying Physics for Education, a teacher at his school recently suggested that he switch to Law.

It is known that for the past 16 years, to pursue his Thanh Hoa dream, Duong Thuong Quan has done many odd jobs to support himself and his elderly parents.

Duong Thuong Quan is a character often mentioned around every university entrance exam in China (Photo: SCMP).

At the age of 35, he confided: "I sometimes feel jealous of my friends of the same age, they have families and children. Now, I just want to have a normal life like them. Sometimes, I also think that if I had a stable job for a long time, my family would not be as poor as it is now. Currently, I still have nothing in hand, everything is very unstable. I find it more and more difficult to do a stable job for a long time.

I am 35 years old, if I continue to try, I am not sure whether I will ever pass the entrance exam to Tsinghua University. The pressure of the university entrance exam is getting bigger and bigger, my ability is limited. Even if I pass the exam, the opportunity for me to find a job after graduation will be very difficult, because at that time, I am old. I gradually realized that my goal is very unrealistic.

Professor Song Bingqi, Director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in China, said that Tang Shangjun's story reflects a negative view.

"The young man mistakenly thought that just by getting into a top prestigious university, he would be successful and have a good life. Many people still think like that, but that is a wrong view. Parents and teachers should use Thuong Quan's story as an example to warn about the wrong way of thinking around the university entrance exam," Professor Tong said, according to the South China Morning Post.

Source: https://giadinh.suckhoedoisong.vn/nam-sinh-16-lan-thi-dai-hoc-chi-vi-muon-vao-thanh-hoa-hien-ra-sao-khi-buoc-vao-tuoi-35-172250224084838335.htm