The national College English Test (CET) 4 and 6 were administered in Beijing on December 14 to 24,000 local college students. The exams have undergone quite a few changes in format since last year's version, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

In place of the original cloze and reading comprehension questions, this year's test featured reading comprehension matching questions, dictation and translations (Chinese to English).

Many test-takers reported struggling with the translation component. One said that the translation part focused heavily on topics from traditional Chinese culture, such as topics related to the Silk Road, lunar calendar, papermaking technology, etc.