\input zb-basic \input zb-matheduc \iteman{ZMATH 2015f.00490} \itemau{Wu, Yingkang} \itemti{The examination system in China: the case of zhongkao mathematics.} \itemso{Cho, Sung Je (ed.), Selected regular lectures from the 12th international congress on mathematical education, ICME 12, Seoul, Korea, July 8--15, 2012. Cham: Springer (ISBN 978-3-319-17186-9/hbk; 978-3-319-17187-6/ebook). 897-914 (2015).} \itemab Summary: Examination is a critical issue in education system in China. Zhongkao is a kind of graduation examination of junior high school, and at the same time, the entrance examination to senior high school. This paper describes the structure, features and changes in zhongkao mathematics papers in China based on a detailed analysis of 48 selected zhongkao mathematics papers from eight regions in recent six years. It is observed that the zhongkao mathematics papers stress computation, reasoning, and relations among different mathematics topics, but are less emphasized on applications of mathematics in real context. There are obvious region differences in zhongkao mathematics papers, with regions from west economic zone relatively less demanding and regions from east and central economic zones more demanding. Changes like more process-oriented questions and more real context questions are found. Examples of examination items are given to illustrate the identified features and changes. \itemrv{~} \itemcc{D60} \itemut{zhongkao mathematics; examination; features; changes; junior high school graduates} \itemli{doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17187-6\_50} \end