This book is most interesting not for covering the ins and outs of the Gaokao itself, but for the examination of the zero-sum, competitive tournament it represents at school and beyond, importantly stretching into academia. This is almost by necessity a biased look at the system - the authors benefitted immensely from it as they mention, and also still maintain strong ties to a government that benefits from a positive framing of it. However, some of the drawbacks are engaged here, and even the quantitative data brought to bear shows many of the drawbacks of this approach along with the benefits (the economic mobility stats in particular are impressive). A big gap is any reference to educational literature, with a myopic economic focus being centered here. Overall, this is still an extremely thoughtful book on one of the world's most important evaluation systems. Highly recommend