In the past, I have blogged about testing in China and Korea.  While we often thinking of standardized testing as a Western phenomenon, it really has its roots over 2000 years ago in the Chinese imperial exam system with the concept later being adopted in the East in the 19th century.

The scale of some of these Asian programs is quite impressive (as well as is the potential for high profile problems which I will blog about tomorrow in regard to recent issues in India with delivery of their equivalent of the GMAT). At the end last month, nearly a million candidates took the Chinese Civil Service Examination. Attributed to the economic slowdown, the number of test takers (photos) has increased by a factor of 15 since 2003. Given there are only 15,000 openings for a million test takers, the stakes are impressively high. These government positions are often coveted for their stability and are sometimes referred to as the "Iron Rice Bowl."

Reid Klion