The gaokao was suspended during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when university admission was largely by political recommendation rather than examination. Its restoration in December 1977 is considered one of the defining moments of the reform era.
5.7 million people sat the first restored gaokao in the winter of 1977. Fewer than 5% were admitted to university. The candidate pool included people in their thirties who had waited a decade for another chance.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, the exam gradually standardized. National paper sets, provincial adaptations, the introduction of English as a core subject, and the 3+X reform of 1999 (which added a chosen subject to the three core subjects) all reshaped what students studied.
In 1999 the state also began the massive expansion of higher education. University enrollments grew several-fold in a decade, and the gaokao shifted from being a filter for a tiny elite to being a sorting mechanism for a large majority of high-school leavers.
The new gaokao reform, from 2014 onward, is the most recent major change: elective subjects, percentile scoring, and the gradual merger of the tier system. As of 2026, most provinces are on some form of the new system.