Revisiting the Exam Hell: Inequality, Meritocracy, and High-Stakes Testing in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

In this introduction to the special forum Revisiting the Exam Hell, we will briefly review the relationship between meritocracy and college admission in East Asia, the major changes in college admission in East Asia, and the social context shaping college admission in the last few decades. By doing so, we will identify emerging questions concerning meritocracy, inequality, and college admission in the region that the essays in this volume collectively seek to answer.