When most students taking the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, finished it on Wednesday, more than 2,000 others from Shexian county in Anhui province were only halfway done.

On Thursday, the county supervised the exams for Chinese language and mathematics, which should have been finished on Tuesday, as in other parts of the country.

The Ministry of Education said in an announcement on Wednesday morning that it had approved the delayed exams after students finished the mandatory portions on Wednesday.

There was good reason for the delay. Shexian county was hit by the heaviest flooding in 50 years after torrential rainfall on Tuesday, which resulted in the cancellation of the two exams scheduled for the day.

Backup examination papers, which are prepared every year to the same standard and degree of difficulty as the originals, had to be used for the Shexian students, the Ministry of Education said.