Outbreak, restrictions mean added pressure for those hoping to get into university but adapting properly can lead to success, Xing Yi reports in Shanghai.

Plans change. It's a lesson we all know and appreciate. No matter how detailed, thought-through, two words, with the same number of letters, will always be beyond our control-life and fate. Liu Dang is a prime example. The senior student in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, didn't do as well as expected in the national college entrance exam last year and decided to resit the exam.

Liu was confident he could do better this year. But the COVID-19 pandemic hit his city and scuppered his plans. Of course he was not alone. His story, fate, bad luck, call it what you will, was shared by millions of other students planning to graduate from high school this year.

For Chinese, the college entrance exam, or gaokao, is the most important test in their student life-the score decides which university they will enter in autumn.

According to the Ministry of Education, the number of applicants for the exam this year is 10.71 million, a record since the exam started in 1952.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has made the exam, which has already been postponed from June to July 7, even more significant. Some cities will run the exam from July 7 to 8, while other cities will hold it for two more days until July 10.

"Originally, I planned to focus on the art exam in February, and then go back to prepare for the general test, but everything changed," says Liu.

The coronavirus put Wuhan, the hardest hit city during the outbreak, in lockdown from late January to April, disrupting all scheduled exams. Some were canceled, some delayed and some changed their format.

Liu applied for an art major in broadcasting and hosting. Instead of going to different universities for on-site exams on performance and voicing, he had to buy a camera and microphone to record his own showreel to submit online.

He spent a great deal of time preparing his work to meet the criteria of different universities. For one, he recorded a broadcast on truck drivers delivering supplies to Wuhan amid the lockdown.

"I submitted it to apply for my ideal university-the Communication University of China. But the work didn't pass," he says, adding that he had actually cleared the on-site interview for that university last year, but failed the general gaokao exam.

"It has been a hard time so far, but after last year's blow, I chose to resit the exam this year, and it's my own choice, so I don't regret it," he says. "Now I don't have time to feel remorse. All I can do is work harder for the general test."