Shandong "wannabe models" actively prepare for the 2012 art exam, practicing catwalk in bikinis during the cold winter

December 11, 2011, at a model professional pre-exam intensive training class in Weifang City, Shandong Province, girls were intensifying their training. In preparation for the annual art exam, nearly one hundred senior three students from the urban area of Weifang gathered in this training class to train in body shape, dance, makeup, performance and other subjects, to prepare for the examination of modeling direction and clothing performance majors.

The full name of the art exam is the unified art examination, which refers to the relatively authoritative domestic art colleges that have been filed with the Ministry of Education, or the art department of various colleges. At the end of the first semester of senior three, they will hold a comprehensive professional examination for senior three art students. Those who pass the exam will obtain the professional qualification certificate of the application college, and use this qualified certificate to participate in the exam. After the college entrance examination results are announced, the art colleges will select the best candidates. The state uniformly arranges exams every December until the following January. During this period, art students who participate in the joint art exam can take professional exams at the test sites set up by various art colleges in their province. After the exam, they will comprehensively review their cultural courses and participate in the college entrance examination.

Industry insiders analyzed that there are mainly three types of students applying for art majors: the first type is those who have pursued art since childhood; the second type is students influenced subjectively by parents and schools; the third type is students with average cultural scores. When interviewed by reporters, teachers from the admissions offices of several universities all indicated that the cultural score requirements for art exams have increased, and art exams are no longer a "shortcut" for the college entrance examination. Actually, students who lack interest and potential may find it difficult to study even if they pass the exam and enter the university. Some parents see the easy employment and quick money-making opportunities in art-related majors, so they push their children onto this path, only to face problems such as difficulty in employment and high costs, bringing heavy burdens to the family.