Chinese parents were waiting outside the school as their children sat for gao kao, or the national college entrance exam, this year.

This year, in Nanjing, a city in central China, almost one hundred parents blocked a busy street near the school in which their children were sitting for the gaokao exam. The traffic ground to a halt, and some parents even accosted drivers that sounded their horns indicating their anger at the parents’ unorthodox disruption.

The gaokao exam is the national university entrance exam in China. It is held once a year and anyone who hopes to make something of themselves needs to pass it. “It pays to go to college” – this maxim is embedded in the national psyche of China.

This is why, when it is gaokao time of year, parents and students alike, tend to freak out. In the frenetic national preparation for gao kao, the parents are the worst hit.

Traditionally, attaining a high-level academic degree in China stands for family honor and a bright future, and the parents will do whatever they can to support their children and protect them from any external influences.

This can include poisoning frogs in the nearby pond so their croaking doesn’t disturb the studious, and even forbidding residents living on the floor above to flush the toilet in case it disturbs the children as they were preparing for the exam, according to media reports.

It is a stark illustration of their total dedication to their children, at the expense of the social order. As the effects of the family control policy begin to be felt, today’s parents often lavish their attention on their children, whom they consider as the only treasure and hope of the entire family.

In a country where high scores are the only scores that matter, Chinese students have to finish a spate of question papers, cracking notoriously difficult mathematical problems and cramming thousands of English words to do well on the gaokao. Also, they have to sacrifice their spare time and holidays to the monotony of schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork (with schoolwork for dessert).