Photo not directly related to article content [123rf]
Photo not directly related to article content [123rf]

A Chinese man in his 40s has drawn wide attention after passing the MBA entrance exam at a prestigious university — the result of a challenge issued by his own teenage daughter during an argument about her studies.

Chinese outlet Daewan Sinmun recently profiled Zhang Zhichang, 44, who nagged his daughter to study harder, only to have her dare him to take a graduate school entrance exam himself. He ultimately passed and was accepted into the MBA program at Northwestern Polytechnical University.

According to the outlet, Zhang works in the medical industry and spent most of the year traveling for business, leaving his daughter's education largely to his wife. That changed last year when his daughter began preparing for her high school entrance exam and he decided to take a more active role.

His daughter, then 15 and in the throes of adolescence, was having none of it. When he pressed her on her studies, she pushed back, saying times had changed since he was young and that he had no idea how hard schoolwork had become. "If you're so confident, go ahead and take a graduate school entrance exam yourself," she shot back.

The remark hit Zhang hard. He was angry at first, but once he calmed down he began seriously weighing whether graduate school was actually within reach.

Time and physical stamina were his biggest concerns — particularly given that he was working full time and had been out of school for 20 years. He decided to sit the exam anyway.

Zhang said he felt it was better to show his children what studying looked like in practice than to simply demand it of them. His initial motivation was to set an example for his daughter, but his thinking shifted as he prepared. He ultimately came to see the effort not as something he was doing for her, but as something he was doing for himself.

Once committed, Zhang devoted nearly all his free time to studying. He watched online lectures every morning from 6 to 9, then spent four to five hours each evening working through math and logic problems and taking practice exams. For five months, studying came first in his daily routine.

The grueling schedule took a physical toll. About a month before the exam, he developed chronic headaches. In December last year, he sat the exam while massaging his head, neck and shoulders to get through it.

Zhang was officially accepted into the MBA program at Northwestern Polytechnical University on June 30. The university, a national public institution in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, is one of China's most prestigious engineering-focused universities, renowned particularly for its specializations in aviation, aerospace and marine technology — a trio of fields known in China as the "three aviations" disciplines.

The news had an effect on his daughter. She had long refused to go to the library no matter how often she was encouraged, but after seeing her father's efforts pay off, she began going with friends. Before long, she was visiting on her own as well.

Zhang advised against setting overly ambitious goals from the outset. Starting with low-pressure activities — reading professional books or attending lectures — is enough, he said. "The older you get, the more important it is not to stop learning," he added. "Start from your own interests and hobbies, build a habit of learning, then gradually expand into more challenging areas."


bbo@heraldcorp.com