Getting a Chinese Drivers License

Like how many other countries insist on their own idiosyncratic way of life, there are some things in China that simply must be done in a Chinese way. Driving is one of those.

Traffic in China mirrors the experience at the DMV: befuddling and slow-moving, but ultimately you arrive where you need to.
Traffic in China mirror the experience at the DMV: befuddling and slow-moving, but ultimately you arrive where you need to.

To drive legally in China, you need a Chinese drivers license; foreigners aren’t permitted to drive on their home country license, even with an International Driving Permit1 (which is actually just a translation of the home country license). Getting the license is famously difficult, chiefly because

everyone must take a written test; 90 percent is considered passing. The test consists of 100 questions drawn from a pool of nearly 1,000. The test is particularly tough for foreigners, owing to the volume of memorization and sometimes sketchy translations. 2

I got my driver’s license with motorcycle endorsement (C1E) in Guangzhou last week, and it was indeed a trial. (Some have reported on forums that Guangzhou is no longer issuing motorcycle licenses,3 but they didn’t give me hard time about that particular aspect of the process.) Passing the test wasn’t the hard part; after regular studying with the Chinese Driving Test website I was successful on my first test attempt. Dealing with the bureaucracy, on the other hand, ultimately required six trips to the main DMV office (岑村车管总所). Much of this is due to the lack of published information about the process, so learn from my experience so that yours is smoother.

Continue reading Getting a Chinese Drivers License

  1. Langfitt, Frank. “How I Flunked China’s Driving Test … Three Times.” NPR. NPR, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
  2. Langfitt, Frank. “Do You Have What It Takes To Get A Chinese Driver’s License?NPR. NPR, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
  3. Thread: New in Guangdong, Some License Questions.” Online forum. My China Moto. Motocyclops LLC, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

Conditions for Standards-Based Grading: Eliminating Grade Averaging

In a previous post1 I described in broad strokes the components necessary for implementing standards-based grading. One of these is the elimination of grade averaging; specifically, using the mean of all the scores in the gradebook to determine a student’s final score. At our school we’ve done this to the extent recommended by Marzano but stopped short of giving teachers full discretion to determine the final grade. For us the challenge has been deciding which system should replace mean-based averaging – or whether full discretion should be left to the teacher.

How should we measure student achievement? Certainly not using mean-based averaging - but other types are fine.
How should we measure student achievement? Certainly not using mean-based averaging – but other types are fine.

Continue reading Conditions for Standards-Based Grading: Eliminating Grade Averaging

When Reality Meets Philosophy: An Introduction to Standards Based Grading

In the roughly seven months since my last real post I’ve moved halfway around the world – literally – to China, where my partner and I now work at Nansha College Preparatory Academy. Of the many, many interesting things about this new experience is the fact that our new school uses standards-based grading (SBG) – at the secondary level. What we’ve found is that although our faculty are committed to it, it’s a challenge to make practices of SBG meet the potential promised by its philosophy.

Our school uses JumpRope to capture our standards-based grading data.
Continue reading When Reality Meets Philosophy: An Introduction to Standards Based Grading

Trouble loading images?

I just transferred to a new blog hosting provider, Edublogs (practice what you preach, after all – they are a great option for schools looking to implement system-wide blogging), and I’ve managed to break my image and file links.

I’m working on fixing them. In the meantime, if you’re having trouble with dead links or broken images that inhibit your understanding of the post, get in touch with me (Twitter is the fastest way) and I’ll do what I can.