[xfer]

> They are rote-learning an extremely narrow type of problem that appears on the gaokao (university entrance exam) - literally hundreds of the same type of exam questions over and over in order to gain an advantage over their peers (hence the "zero-sum" comment).

Sounds like the problem is with the gatekeeping exam and limited amount of good quality universities(aka money problem).

How does banning a practice reduce students stress? They still have to compete in order to get into these limited seat universities with the same exam that you say are easily game-able.

I highly doubt people will just ignore a path that exists that can get them there, so we will have to wait and see what happens with the parents' economic stress.

[sudosysgen]

They have to compete, but competition will almost certainly be lower across the board if people can't go to cram schools. It's not going to fix anything, sure, but it should help.