Xiao Shen, a top-ranking student at one of China's most elite universities, received an unusual suggestion from one of her professors last year, when they were discussing how students could cope with the high stress of life in the country's fiercely competitive universities.

“Watch the Indian film San Ge Sha Gua [ 3 Idiots],” the Peking University professor told her.

Rajkumar Hirani's popular film, which tells the story of the stressed lives of college students in India, has, over the past year, become an unlikely cult hit among China's stressed university students, spawning hundreds of blog posts and fierce debate on the message-boards of college websites.

On just one film-sharing website that is popular with college students, more than 116,000 people had watched the film.

In recent months, Mr. Hirani's film, which was released across India early last year, has even become widely available — dubbed in Chinese — in stores in Beijing and Shanghai that sell pirated DVDs.

“Rote learning made me rigid, stupid and I ended up like a machine,” wrote one blogger, named Nei Yi Guo Jiang. “I felt like a real idiot compared to the three in this wonderful movie.”

Debate rages

The film has appeared to strike a chord in China against the backdrop of an increasingly heated debate over the country's education system, which, much like India's, places huge pressure on high-school students, with a heavy emphasis on rote-learning.

“For Chinese students,” Ms. Xiao (25) explained, “the story is too familiar.”

Last month, the results of a worldwide student assessment test surprised educators when it revealed that high-school students in Shanghai were the world's best test-takers. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tested 15-year-olds in 70 countries.

The results, which spawned dozens of concerned commentaries in the West about China's supposedly superior educational system, triggered more criticism than praise here, with educators and the media decrying a system that only produced “test machines.”

“How can you be imaginative and creative when all you are asked to do is to memorise what the teachers and textbooks say, when you are told there is only one correct answer to a question, and when teachers don't enjoy being challenged?” asked Chen Weihua, a columnist in the State-run China Daily.

Much like in India, college admissions here are decided entirely on one examination, called the Gao Kao, that every high-school student has to take. The results will not only determine a student's university, but even the programme she or he can enroll in — students in China have little choice in their area of study.

A student's entire high-school experience is geared towards the Gao Kao which, educators say, only tests rote-learning skills rather than critical thinking.

Ms. Xiao, for instance, spent 15-hour days in high-school preparing for the exam — every day for four years.

In her high-school in Changsha, in Hunan province, competition was fierce. More than 10 million students across the country take the Gao Kao. Less than 1 per cent will make their way to the country's elite universities in Beijing and Shanghai.

Rigourous routine

Ms. Xiao's daily routine: Classes started at 7 a.m., with a two-hour session focused on memorising Chinese and English essays. Regular lessons followed, running until 5 p.m. with a one-hour lunch-break. The only non-academic activity was two hours' physical exercises. The day ended with three hours of compulsory “self study” until 10 p.m.

Ms. Xiao's efforts, some would say, paid off. She secured admission to Peking University, considered China's best, enrolling in its much-sought-after finance programme. “This was, after all, what my parents wanted,” she said.

Was the sacrifice worth it? She isn't convinced. ““College,” she said, “was even harder.”