In Japan, Korea, and China, students take extremely competitive tests at the end of their schools years in order to be prepared for the admission to prestigious post secondary institutions (Woronov, 2007).
Book: Woronov, T.E. 2007. Chinese children, American education: Globalizing child rearing in contemporary China. In Generations and globalization: Youth, age, and family in the new world economy, edited by Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 29-51.