Toughest Exams in the World
Gaokao, JEE-Advanced, UPSC, Mensa, GRE are among the toughest exams in the world. Detailed below are the list of the top 10 toughest exams in the world.
Examinations become a part of a student's life early on, and most students wonder what the toughest exams in world are? The article talks about the top 10 toughest exams in the world. The competition between the students to score higher marks encourages them to work smarter and harder. It helps them retain the knowledge and self-assess their performance. Students can think of exams as a platform for analyzing and stress-testing the knowledge on the subject.
Top 10 Toughest Exams in the World
Not all exams are built with the same wavelength of difficulty; some are more difficult than others, and it's for a good reason. For example, if an exam is made exclusive to a particular stream, they expect to see the candidates' in-depth understanding of the stream. So we framed this article together to give an idea of how difficult they can get.
Most of us are aware that some exams are more complicated than others; we simply don't consider it true for ourselves. But that isn't entirely true, not if one is going after specific streams.
With that said, here is the list of the 10 toughest exams in the world based on an overall analysis. To know about a particular exam, click its respective link and be directed to it.
- Gaokao
- Joint Entrance Examination Advanced (JEE-Advanced)
- UPSC - Union Public Service Commission
- Mensa
- GRE (Graduate Record Examinations)
- CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
- CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert)
- GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)
- All Souls Prize Fellowship Exam
- Master Sommelier Diploma Exam
Gaokao Exam
Gaokao exam, also known as the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, is China's national entrance test, akin to GATE for India. If one wishes to attain higher education in China, they need to clear the Gaokao exam because it is a primary condition for higher education. The nature of the exam goes to show how naturally efficient Gaokao candidates can be. Further, Gaokao has built itself a reputation so infamous that it has documentaries made on it; it's ranked one of the toughest exams in the world.
The exam doesn't come without its most difficult turns. Here are three important features that make it toughest exam in world:
- For one, the exams are conducted for about 9 hours over two days. These tests include both Chinese and Mathematics in all the tests.
- For two, the overall marks received by the student are usually the average sum of their subject marks. This, in turn, decides whether the candidate has passed or failed their exam.
- And finally, for three, the sheer amount of work and tediousness that goes into it has instilled a large amount of mental stress among the candidates.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) commonly known as Gaokao |
| Frequency | Once a Year |
| Medium of Exam | English |
| Exam Duration | 9 Hours (over a period of two or three days) |
| Official Website | www.chinahighereducation.org |
Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced (JEE-Advanced)
Formerly known as IIT-JEE (Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination), JEE Advanced is an engineering college entrance examination conducted in India. JEE exams have to be cleared by the candidates who wish to get admission to IITs and some of the NITs, the best engineering institutes in the country. The exam is also counted as the toughest exams in world.
Here are some pointers as to why:
- Students prepare for years starting from 10th to 12th class to tackle the exam; IITs are the most prestigious engineering colleges in India, and so are their requirements.
- Out of every 5 lakh students appearing for the exam, only a scaring 10,000 get selected every year.
- The exam is divided into two papers of 3-hour, objective-type papers.
- For every incorrect answer, candidates will receive a 1/4th negative marking.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | Joint Entrance Examination Advanced |
| Conducting Authority | IIT (Rotational) |
| Frequency | Once a Year |
| Mode of Exam | Online |
| Medium of Exam | English & Hindi |
| Exam Duration | 3 Hours |
| Type of Questions |
|
| Official Website | jeeadv.ac.in |
Read More: JoSAA Exam
UPSC - Union Public Service Commission
The central agency in India conducts the UPSC exam to recruit all the top-notch government officials in the country. UPSC exam has 3 phases, phase 1 includes answering objective-type questions, phase 2 is subjective-type questions, and phase 3 is an interview. But don't let its simple structure fool you; it's considered one of the toughest exams in the country. Candidates who cleared either IIT or GATE exams found it so challenging, reports about drop-outs were received.
The primary motive of the exam is to funnel candidates who can take on responsibilities involved in a government job that serves the nation's benefits. With that said, the responsibilities involved are naturally crucial and difficult; the exam process means to reflect that, making it tricky to clear. As a result, only 1000 candidates out of approximately 3 lakh candidates are chosen every year.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | Union Public Service Commission Civil Service Examination |
| Conducting Authority | Union Public Service Commission, Government of India |
| Frequency | Once a Year |
| Mode of Exam | Offline |
| Medium of Exam | English & Hindi |
| Exam Duration | Preliminary: 2 Hours and Mains: 3 Hours |
| Type of Questions | Prelims- Objective type Mains- Descriptive type |
| Official Website | www.upsc.gov.in |
Mensa
Mensa was founded in 1946 by the Australian barrister Roland Berrill and the British scientist and lawyer Dr.Lancelot Ware at the Lincoln College in Oxford, England. They intended to create a non-profit society for anyone who scored above the 98th percentile on regulated and supervised IQ tests. Thus, gaining a Mensa membership would mean one needs to have achieved more than the percentile stated there.
For instance, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales suggests that getting 132 would be a great score for gaining membership in Mensa; 148 in the Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test. If we were to assume a normal distribution amongst these IQ tests, it would come up to 131; the minimum cut-off is regardless of the IQ test you're taking. The fact that only the top 98th percentile candidates are accepted, let alone considered, is an achievement to behold. So adding Mensa to the list of the toughest exams in the world is perfect.
Bear in mind that Mensa is a multinational NPO, so some aspects may differ. However, their evaluation system considers the quality of one's talents. This is why there is no age restriction to join it. In fact, the youngest member to join Mensa was Elise Tan-Roberts; she was 2 years and 4 months old at the time of acceptance. Nonetheless, all these factors contribute to place it among top 5 toughest exam in world.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | Mensa |
| Frequency | Once a Year |
| Mode of Exam | Offline |
| Official Website | www.mensa.org |
GRE (Graduate Record Examinations)
The GRE is one of the most widely taken tests globally; it's also rather difficult to crack. That may come off as a surprise given how it's used as an entrance exam for most universities in the United States, but it's true. It is because of its complicated nature it is coined as toughest exam in world. Further, the GRE test is divided into sections.
- Analytical Writing
- Verbal Reasoning
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Issues and Arguments
- Research
These sections may or may not include lower-level mathematics, which is difficult for many. In addition, most of the questions are phrased to confuse and trick the candidate. Other questions involving English include challenging vocabulary and complex passages of text that require elaboration. The test can be taken online and offline; Paper-Based tests are made available only in areas whereas conducting the online test is impossible.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | Graduate Record Examinations |
| Conducting Authority | Education Test Services (ETS) |
| Frequency | Throughout the year |
| Mode of Exam | Online and Offline |
| Medium of Exam | English |
| Exam Duration |
|
| Type of Questions | MCQ |
| Official Website | www.ets.org |
CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
The CFA is not precisely an examination; it is more professional for finance and investment professionals. The Wall Street Journal has recognized it as the toughest exam in the world. Below are the points that prove CFA is the toughest exam in the world.
- After many repeated attempts, only 1/5th of the applicants clear the test each year.
- The test includes 3 papers, covering 2 objective types and 1 essay type. Only 9% of the applicants have passed all 3 levels in the past decade.
- As of 2018, there are approximately 150,000 charter holders across 165 countries.
- The CFA Institute imposes one of the two criteria on test-takers: They must either have 4 years of relevant work experience or an appropriate combination of work experience and education.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | Chartered Financial Analyst |
| Conducting Authority | CFA Institue |
| Frequency | Bi-annually |
| Mode of Exam | Online |
| Medium of Exam | English |
| Exam Duration | 90 Minutes |
| Official Website | www.cfainstitute.org |
CCIE
The CCIE Certification was introduced to support the industry in identifying the top-ranking internetwork experts on a global scale and evaluating them on infrastructure and network design. Given CCIE's reputation among networking certificates, the certification is accepted globally. Their authorities also update its testing tools and methodologies on a regular basis.
All of that sounds great, but why is it on the toughest exams list? To answer that, we'd have to first start with how the test is composed; it's divided into 2 phases. In particular, the second phase consists of an 8-hour practical exam. Unfortunately, according to some of the findings by Cisco, only 3% of the candidates are selected and certified in CCIE. And due to the tediousness and difficulty involved in the second phase, only a 1% success rate is reflected. This makes CCIE the toughest exam in the world.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert |
| Exam Duration | 2 Hours |
| Type of Questions | MCQ |
GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)
GATE is a national entrance test in India for students pursuing engineering. Achieving high scores in this exam will allow the students to take up postgraduate courses in some prestigious universities in India. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and seven Indian Institutes of Technology include IITs at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, and Roorkee, the conduction of the GATE Exam.
What makes GATE so difficult and places it among the world's toughest exam are that if we consider all the applications of 10 lakh students appearing for it every year, approximately 15% of them make it through. What's even worse is that IITs only accept candidates who have higher than the 98th percentile, which means more candidates from that 15% are eliminated.
| Particulars | Details |
| Full-Form | Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering |
| Conducting Body | IIT's (Rotational) |
| Exam Mode | Online (CBT) |
| Language | English |
| Duration | 3 Hours |
| Official Website | gate.iitk.ac.in |
All Souls Prize Fellowship Exam
The All Souls Prize fellowship exam conducted by Oxford University's All Souls College is one of the toughest exams in the world. The exam includes four papers, each of which lasts for a total of 3 hours.
Candidates must write an extended essay based on a single word they received. However, that fell out of practice by 2010. One needs to have a comprehensive knowledge of the subjects they are writing and adaptive brainstorming skills to answer the questions.
To add to that, analyzing the fellowship's selection process is also another good indication to show how difficult the exam is; an average of 2 out of 80 candidates are selected to become members annually.
Master Sommelier Diploma Exam
Both students and administrators remain tight-lipped about the actual test questions; however, preparations are freely discussed. With that said, no one knows how selective the administrators can get while selecting the candidates.
The Master Sommelier Diploma Exam is divided into three sections:
- Theory
- Service
- Blind-Tasting
The third section requires candidates to identify the year and origin of the wine by blind-tasting the 6 wines put forth. But that's not all; candidates will need to identify the variety of grapes used to make the wine. Other aspects they're required to identify correctly include facts about aperitifs, distilling methods, food pairings, sake (translate: Japanese rice wine), and spirits.
Given the nature of the third phase, most candidates fail frequently. Some attempt it once or twice, while others attempt it close to six times. If you were to fail, it'd mean redoing 3 years of your time by revisiting all three sections.
Four decades ago, the exam first took place in the United Kingdom. Till now, only 269 candidates have cleared the final exam, out of which 172 are from the US, and only 9 candidates have cleared the exam in the first attempt. Most test-takers have compared the difficulty of the exam to that of obtaining a medical degree.
Also Read: Toughest Exams in India
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