Candidates queue outside a testing center for the National Civil Servant Examination at the Beijing Foreign Trade School on Sunday. Photo: VCG

Candidates check to see in which room they will take the exam from a list outside the testing center at Wuhan University of Technology. This is one of nine test centers in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei province, where approximately 40,000 candidates took the examination Sunday. Photo: VCG

A crowd of hundreds of candidates breaks for entrance of a testing center in Taiyuan, North China’s Shanxi Province. Photo: VCG

A candidate’s mother helps him check out his test materials. Photo: VCG

One candidate double checks her ID outside the test center in Taiyuan. Photo: VCG

Candidates study for the exam until the very last moment. Photo: VCG

Candidates leave the test center after the exam ends in Shijiazhuang, North China’s Hebei province. Photo: VCG

A candidate shows a mobile phone case expressing his wish to do well on the coming examination at the test center at Nanjing Forestry University in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing. Photo: VCG