At precisely 9 am on Tuesday, students in their final year of high school in Beijing started a Chinese examination to practice for the national college entrance exam, or gaokao.

What was unusual was that all the examinees were taking the test at home instead of at testing centers or classrooms in their schools.

"The examination simulates the national university examination to be held in early June," said Xiao Wo, a senior student in Beijing's Chaoyang district.

In the aftermath of the novel coronavirus outbreak, students in Beijing did not return to school in early February as scheduled for the start of what would have been a new term. Instead, they have studied online courses at home.

The day before the test, the sheets used for answering questions for the Chinese portion of the test were sent to members of a WeChat circle of friends in Xiao's class so the students could have them printed in advance.

When the big day came, the students received their electronic Chinese exam questions in the WeChat circle of friends.

When the test, which lasted 150 minutes, began at 9 am, each examinee had a parent as proctor (or supervisor). Afterward, the examinees took photos of the answer sheets or scanned them.

"We were required to send them to our Chinese teacher through WeChat no later than 10 minutes after the exam," Xiao said.

The Chinese teacher forwarded all the photos and scanned test papers to the school, which in turn sent them to the district education bureau, said Li Jie, a teacher at Beijing Hepingjie No 1 Middle School.

The Chinese examination was part of a four-day simulated gaokao, which ends on Friday.

The simulation consists of examinations for compulsory subjects — Chinese, mathematics and English — as well as for three optional subjects.

Starting this year, students in their last year of high school in Beijing have been required to take examinations in three optional subjects on a list of six — physics, chemistry, history, geography, biology and politics.