Early in the morning before the Taiyuan Library opened its doors to the public, hundreds of students waited in line for seats in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province. /VCG Photo

In December, a number of national exams, including the civil service entrance exam and postgraduate admission test, will be held. /VCG Photo

The civil service exam, also named Guokao, is one of the fiercest competitions in China. More than 1.2 million people have registered to sit the exam for 146,000 positions this year, according to China News. /VCG Photo

Twenty-nine million candidates have registered for the postgraduate admission exam this year, compared to 23.8 million last year, according to Lin Huiqing, a senior official with the Ministry of Education in China. The 2019 entrance exam for postgraduate studies will run from December 22 to 24. /VCG Photo