

An armless teenager in Sichuan determined to take the gaokao, China’s ultra-competitive college entrance exams, managed to successfully complete the test by using only his feet to answer each question.

Peng Chao, from Panzhihua in Sichuan province, got the news this past Sunday evening that he had received 538 points on his gaokao, meaning that with the extra five points added to his results under local policy, he passed yi ben xian (the benchmark for entering a well-ranking, government-funded university) by three points.

Along with his classmates, Peng studied intensively for days leading up to the notoriously difficult test that was held in the first week of June. Peng, who was born without arms, always encouraged himself by saying that he could use his feet to “write a wonderful life”.







Before receiving the results of his test, Peng’s father, Peng Chang-fu, was even more nervous than his son. “I didn’t sleep well last night because I was worried about how many points my son would get,” he said.

Peng told reporters at Xinhua that he was optimistic in days leading up to his test results, but he regretted not answering every question on the test. “There were questions weighted around a total of 40 points that I left blank,” he said. He added that “If there had been enough time, I would have entered ‘yi ben’ [a top-ranking university] without any difficulty.” The slow pace at which he managed to write with his feet was always his major concern before the exam.







Although Peng said he wasn’t entirely satisfied with his results, he still accepted the score with optimism. “I will accept the outcome whether it leads me to a good ranking university or a second-ranking school. I still hope that I can study civil engineering in the north,” he said.

Previously on Shanghaiist: Student who missed gaokao after fending off bus attacker given rare second chance to take exam

[Images Via HKAboluwang]

By Jennifer Hui





Follow @shanghaiist



