More than 80 percent of the questions on two of four sections of a university degree equivalency exam were leaked to students who took an expensive pre-exam training course at a local university.

During the training course, which was organized by East China University of Politics and Law, students were given a review guide that includes many of the exact questions posed on the two sections of the exam that test Chinese language skills and comprehensive knowledge.

More than half of the 600 students applying for a Bachelor of Laws from ECUPL attended the training course and were given the questions and answers before- hand, according to Ge Ying, 21, one of the examinees.

Ge, who didn't attend the training course, said she was shocked to discover after the exam that questions in the guide book were exactly the same as those on the test.

"It's extremely unfair," said Ge. "It took me several hours to write the exam, while it only took 45 minutes for those privileged students to finish the same paper."

College graduates can take the exam to acquire the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. Two sections of the exam, covering English and computer skills, are compiled by city education officials and are the same at all universities. The other two sections are designed by the individual universities, according to Xu Laiyong, an official with the Shanghai Educational Examination Authority.

Wang Yonghong, an official with the president's office at ECUPL, said the school organized pre-exam training courses, employing the university's law professors to give some tips to applicants.

The two-month course costs 1,500 yuan (US$181), Ge said.

Xi Zhigen, the teacher who compiled the guide book, said questions rarely change from year to year, so he just compiled a guide to questions used on previous tests.

"According to my 20 years' experience, all exam questions were excerpted from an existing question database. All I did is to introduce the database, which is open to the public, to students who never had access to it before," Xi said.

The Shanghai Educational Examination Authority officials were unaware of the problem, but said they will investigate the incident.

(Shanghai Daily July 22, 2004)