Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Comparison of World’s Toughest Exams

Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Comparison of World’s Toughest Exams

K Guna SahitiUpdated on 14 Dec 2024, 05:49 AM IST

Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - The JEE exam is the most popular engineering entrance exam in India. Whilst, Gaokao is a national-level standardised entrance exam for most UG admissions in China. The participation rate for Gaokao is 10 times higher than JEE, owing to its unlimited attempts and inclusion of a vast number of courses. In 2024, there were around 13.4 M test takers for Gaokao. In the same year, the number of applicants for JEE stood around 1.4 M. Gaokao is known as one of the most difficult tests because of its gruelling nature. However, preparation for JEE is also quite demanding. For more such comparisons between Gaokao and JEE 2025, please go through this page.

This Story also Contains

  1. Gaokao Vs JEE 2025
  2. Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Exam Overview
  3. Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Rate of Acceptance
  4. Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Preparation
Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Comparison of World’s Toughest Exams
Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Comparison of World’s Toughest Exams

Gaokao Vs JEE 2025

Aspects

JEE

Gaokao

Examination for

Admission to participating engineering colleges

For all undergraduate admissions (irrespective of desired course)

When it is held

JEE Main - January and April

JEE Advanced - July

Early June

Number of students appeared in 2024

1.4 million

13.42 million

Number of days

Single day

2 to 4 days

Test duration

3 hours (JEE Main)

6 hours (JEE Advanced)

9 hours

Compulsory subjects

Physics, chemistry and maths (paper 1)

Maths, General Aptitude and Drawing/Planning (paper 2)

Mathematics, Chinese, one foreign language and course-oriented subject.

Frequency

Twice

Once

Acceptance rates

1% in IITs

0.1% in top universities

Difficulty

Long exam - extensive memorization and application skills

Emphasis on deep conceptual understanding and problem solving

Preparation time

Intense study schedules required starting from high school years

2 to 5 years ahead for IIT admission

Attempt limit

No limit

Six times in three consecutive years starting from the year of qualifying class 12th

China's Gaokao: World’s toughest exam (Explained) | Comparison of Gaokao, JEE, and SAT Comparison between Gaokao and JEE 2025


Aspirants can go through the differences and similarities between JEE and Gaokao here.

Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Exam Overview

  • Duration- Gaokao and IIT JEE are known as two of the toughest exams in the world. Gaokao is held for 9 hours in the span of 2 to 4 days. Whereas, JEE main is held for 3 hours and JEE Advanced is conducted for 6 hours in a single day.

  • Number of Attempts - There is no limit to the number of attempts for Gaokao. It is held once a year. On the other hand, JEE Main is conducted twice per year and JEE Advanced is held once. Candidates can take JEE Main 6 times in three consecutive years, starting from the year of passing class 12th. Whereas, the IIT JEE Advanced attempt limit is restricted to two times in two consecutive years.

  • Number of Applicants- Every year, approximately 1.3 to 1.4 million candidates register for JEE. Since Gaokao is an entrance exam for all UG admissions and there is no attempt limit, around 13.4 million aspirants take this exam every year.

  • Difficulty level- One can not exactly compare the difficulty level of both the tests, since the focus of the exam and syllabus vary. Nonetheless, Gaokao is considered tougher due to its gruelling nature.

Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Rate of Acceptance

Each year around 85% of Gaokao examinees are successful in gaining admission to UG programmes. However, the acceptance rate by Gaokao is around 0.1% for elite universities like Peking University, Xinjiang University etc. When it comes to the JEE-based admission rate, only 1% of students get admission to IIT colleges in India.

Gaokao Vs JEE 2025 - Preparation

Students are known to start their preparation for Gaokao in their early High School years. The test preparation schedules are extremely intense, equipping aspirants with the knowledge and patience to deal with the exam pressure.

JEE Main and JEE Advanced preparation starts 2 to 5 years before the actual exam. Students enrol in coaching classes for additional preparation.

JEE Main Syllabus: Subjects & Chapters
Select your preferred subject to view the chapters

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How many attempts for JEE Mains?
A:

Aspirants can take JEE Mains six times in three consecutive years starting from the year of clearing the 12th class.

Q: Is GATE harder than IIT JEE?
A:

Yes, GATE is considered harder than IIT JEE because of the level of the exam. GATE is held for admission to Master level courses.

Q: Is Gaokao tougher than UPSC?
A:

The difficulty level of the exam depends on different factors. Gaokao is a single-level entrance exam for UG admissions. Whereas, UPSC is a three-stage competitive exam. However, both are difficult in their own way. 

Q: Is Gaokao tougher than JEE Advanced?
A:

Gaokao is an exam held for nine hours and JEE Advanced is held for six hours. Gaokao is widely known to be more difficult than most exams due to its long duration and vast syllabus. The questions asked in Gaokao are application-based and require more memorization. Whereas, the JEE exam requires conceptual clarity while solving the given problems. 

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Questions related to JEE Main

On Question asked by student community

Have a question related to JEE Main ?

Hello,

If you have already passed Class 12 earlier and you are only taking the improvement exam in 2026, then you must choose “Passed” in the JEE Main 2026 form .

JEE Main always considers the first year in which you passed Class 12 as your official passing year. Improvement does not change that. So your status is not “appeared” and not “appearing.” It stays “Passed.”

You should enter:

  • Pass Status: Passed

  • Year of Passing: Your original Class 12 pass year

  • Marks: Your original marks (you can update later only if NTA allows it)

If you are giving Class 12 for the first time in 2026, then you must choose “Appearing.”

This is the correct and safe option for your JEE Main 2026 registration .

Hope it helps !

Hi Hriday

If your father's name is different on your Aadhar card and 10th marksheet, you need to change your father's name in the Aadhar card and match it with the spelling of the 10th marksheet, because when you take admission in college through JEE Mains score. They match your name, your father's name, and your mother's name with your 10th class marksheet, which serves as a real identity for document verification.

What college typically accepts-

  • National Testing Agency(NTA), JEE Mains- NTA requires applicants to match their application name to official identity documents. These official identity documents are the PAN card, Aadhar Card, Driving License, Passport, Voter ID card and School ID card.
  • Colleges Admission Authority- At the time of admission, the admission authority requires to match the application details be matched with the 10th and 12th marksheet as well as official identity documents.

I hope you will understand my point. These are some major issues which many students face during the time of admission in college.

Thank you.


Hello,

Yes, you can apply for JEE Main even if you do not have a caste certificate right now.

You only need the caste certificate if you want to claim a reserved category (SC/ST/OBC/EWS).
If you do not have it at the time of filling the form, you can apply as General or General-EWS/OBC-NCL without certificate , and later you can upload the valid certificate during counselling or document verification.

So yes, you can fill the JEE Main form without a caste certificate.

Hope it helps !

Hello there!

I am attaching two links from the official website of Careers360. First one will provide you with the comprehensive analysis about the most repeated questions of JEE Mains examination ,  and second link provides you with a free pdf for the top 30 most repeated topics and questions. Kindly go through it. Hope it helps.

https://engineering.careers360.com/articles/most-repeated-questions-in-jee-mains-comprehensive-analysis

https://engineering.careers360.com/download/ebooks/jee-main-top-30-most-repeated-questions-topics

Thank you !

Hello there!

I am attaching a link from the official website of Careers360 which contains all the important formulas for physics , chemistry and mathematics for JEE mains. Hope it helps!

https://engineering.careers360.com/articles/jee-main-formulas

thank you!