"WHICH is more powerful - the Jade Emperor or the Tathagata Buddha?

"If you came into a windfall of one million yuan (US$160,000), how would you use it?"

"Imagine a typical morning 20 years later."

"Think of a way to sell this disposable cup for 500 yuan."

"What kind of plants would you use to characterize the Chinese people, and why?"

"How would you plan your life if you were returned to the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC)?"

"Say something about how to cook rice mixed with fried egg."

These questions or tasks may at first strike one as ludicrous or facetious, but coming as they do from a panel of professors, the responses they elicit can decide whether student candidates can enter some of China's most prestigious universities. Specifically, for those lucky students who do "pass" these tests, the score bar is lowered on the notoriously difficult National College Entrance Exam.

These are just a sampling of some questions put to eager students during interviews conducted since last year. In a reform initiative started in 2003, a few select universities are given limited flexibility in recruiting freshmen by administering two tests - one oral and one an interview - on their own. These test results are considered in addition to the standard matriculation test scores administered nationally or municipally.

Many parents are bewildered about the purpose of the tests.

They ask whether the tests aim to gauge the test-takers' ability to express themselves clearly, their sense of humor, their imagination, their versatility, or their personality.

Are elements such as appearance, the ability to talk glibly and personality sufficient grounds for discriminating against some academically qualified candidates?

Ironically these test questions themselves raise questions about the qualifications of the experts who pose them and evaluate the answers.

During one interview in early 2011 candidates for some universities including Peking University (Beida) were asked: "Give your thoughts on what is written in the Harvard Library: 'Please enjoy the unavoidable suffering'."

It was revealed later that Harvard Library never used this aphorism. Investigation later traced it to a bestselling book "Allocutions on the Wall of the Harvard University Library" (2008) by Danny Feng, who later admitted to having fabricated these aphorisms on his own.

The gems of wisdom also include "This moment will nap, you will have a dream; But this moment study, you will interpret a dream," which was used in an ethics test in a middle school in Shandong Province early this year.

Another proverb that has inspired many is "Studies this matter, lacks the time, but is lacks diligently," meaning that in learning a subject, the real want is of strong will power, not time.

We have no idea how the panel of experts carries out research in their specialized fields, but these faux gems do suggest how credulous and snobbish they can be.

If they were not so enthralled by the halo they place around Harvard, they could simply open a copy of the Analects or Mencius and find hundreds of precepts more meaningful, more relevant, and of more epigrammatic polish.

Fight for talent

Instead of wasting their time speculating on "a typical morning 20 years later," these experts would do well to consider a passage written 88 years ago by renowned scholar Wang Guowei (1877-1927), which was the topic of a written test question for admission to Tsinghua University last year.

In a critique of the Chinese novel "A Dream of Red Mansions," Wang observed that "Western outlook is harmful in two aspects. First, it is rooted in such human vices as greed, competition, or aspiration for affluence, all suicidal in consequence."

The second is the scientific method, which aimed to conquer spatially, temporally, materially ... but should by no means to be allowed to work on the human heart, the human society, and the national character ..."

If these professors stopped fussing about what's supposedly written on the walls of a Harvard Library study room, they might remember that Beida's own spirit used to be summarized as "all-inclusiveness, and free exchange of ideas."

Apparently Beida today is very exclusive, as they care more about the "promise" of the students, rather than the quality of its instruction.

In a recent advertisement about the famed university, the spirit of Beida is evoked by neon lights, water, and sounds, playing much on Beida's past.

In order to lure the "best" [read: the highest scoring] freshmen, some top universities vie with each in pledging desired candidates more money as inducement.

Some even practice deception or sabotage to undercut rival schools' deals.

As this conflict escalates, charges and countercharges are sometimes traded among the "top league" schools.

Contrary to the practice in the West where students can be simultaneously accepted by several universities, these pre-tests are essentially a ruse used by individual universities to lock up desired candidates.

Some old scholars still reminiscence about how the old Beida once operated more like an open university, where virtually every eager learner could benefit from the lectures on offer.

Some top universities now have more money, larger campuses, taller buildings and more high-scoring students. But that's almost all.

The parents of the test-takers are rightly skeptical about what the test designers intend to elicit or measure.

It's tempting to compare the interview to a "Got Talent" in which a candidate is expected to perform whatever kind of antics that will impress the panel of judges.

From the cited samples it appears that test designers have mistaken miscellany for cutting edge.

In the age of information inundation, they have vastly underestimated the advantage of purity, focus, and dedication.

Aim of education

China may need one or two universities that look beyond "success" (meaning money and official titles), in order to turn out a few intellectuals.

Lewis Coser said that "intellectuals are gatekeepers of ideas and fountainheads of ideologies."

Richard Hofstadter said that the intellectual lives for ideas, that he has a sense of dedication to the life of the mind, somewhat like a religious commitment; that he is engaged - he is pledged, committed, and established.

In other words, an intellectual is a caretaker of ideas, one who defends social justice and is concerned about human destiny.

Whether he or she keeps an eye on a celebrity TV forum, whether the candidate can cook a meal of rice mixed with eggs, whether the person is facile in speech or looks smart - these are less relevant in light of these large purposes.

They are custodians of morality, critics of society, more interested in ultimate values than values governing economic and political reality.

Obviously, these qualifications would contribute very little to the practical business of life.

Sadly, some top universities today take great pride in the number of top officials among their alumni.

Even professors now can be better evaluated in terms of corresponding official titles.

Professors who are members of the Academy of Sciences, for instance, are the most sought after for they are entitled to vice-ministerial perks in housing, transport, healthcare, and other benefits.

The pre-tests were originally devised as a means of alleviating students' burdens in preparing for the National College Entrance Exam, often seen as an all-or-nothing step to success. For years people have argued that there should be alternatives to the one single determinative test.

But today many people complain that the treatment seems worse than the disease, for these alternative tests and interviews only add to the stress and burden.

As we can see, there are more compelling reasons to reconsider the pre-test tests.