Impossible, except by working extremely hard at it

 

The following is an example of a policy-focused essay question from the metropolitan exam of 1571 from Zhang (1993):
王者与民信守者法耳, 古今宜有一定之法。而孟轲, 荀卿皆大儒也一谓法先王一谓法后王, 何相左欤
(This can be translated as follows: the emperors and people all believe that we should observe established laws and practices; there must be established laws to which we can refer based on thousands of years of practice. Mencius and Master Xun are both Confucian gurus, yet they observe the laws and practices differently. What is your take?)

Compare and contrast with a late 20th century exam for entry in a French national level school.