The pressure intensifies as students prepare for entrance exams for the more prestigious institutions.
The Association of Quality Education (AQE) organises the entrance exams for other non-denominational grammars.
Ahmadinejad called Moussavi "corrupt" and accused his wife, a college professor, of skipping university entrance exams.
Salvador's Steve Biko Cultural Institute, for example, offers preparation courses for the university entrance exams.
Prince Harry, who is third in line to the throne, passed his Sandhurst entrance exams in September.
BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | Teacher denies 'Harry cheat' leak
Many adults expect students to be little more than desk-bound data sponges focused on passing college entrance exams.
Universities ask students to analyse newspaper articles as part of their entrance exams.
ECONOMIST: Japanese newspapers are in worse shape than they appear
Even the military will be out of reach for them because they won't be able to pass the entrance exams.
Some highly selective state schools should do more to help poorer children pass their entrance exams, suggests a government-funded study.
And formally meritocratic university entrance exams have not guaranteed equality of opportunity.
Given the strong demand for university places, returning to the universities themselves more control over what are, in effect, entrance exams makes sense.
ECONOMIST: Reform is mooted as exam grades seem to rise inexorably
Proponents say the August start dates allow more instruction time before students take mandatory state achievement tests and Advanced Placement and college-entrance exams.
But some older people still appear to be haunted about by obstacles from their past, such as failing the 11-plus school entrance exams.
When Mr Karabel picks up the story shortly after 1900, the colleges were becoming increasingly concerned about the number of Jews who were passing the entrance exams.
Over the past decade both universities have abolished their entrance exams, because they were felt to favour private schools which were more likely to give their pupils special preparation.
Vitrogonski's son Sacha(ph) is a medical student who says many medical school applicants pay thousands of dollars in bribes to pass their entrance exams and continue giving gifts to insure good grades.
The process takes the students through each step: selecting their target schools, filling out applications, writing essays, obtaining letters of recommendation, targeting scholarships and financial aid, reporting test scores and completing entrance exams.
David Willetts, the universities minister, argues that grammar schools entrench privilege because middle-class parents now prepare their children so well for the entrance exams that clever children who have not been coached do not pass.
When the state does its job well, that is fine: in Japan, students pay companies such as Benesse, one of the world's biggest educational firms, to get them through the entrance exams of the most prestigious state-run schools.
Dr Ramdip Rae, a surgeon in India who is due to take his UK entrance exams next month, said there was still a big incentive to sit the exams even if there was no job at the end of it.
The subsequent results show that the children who received vouchers were 15-20% more likely to finish secondary education, five percentage points less likely to repeat a grade, scored a bit better on scholastic tests and were much more likely to take college entrance exams.
ECONOMIST: Education vouchers: Free to choose, and learn | The
One unfortunate trend with the growth of higher education has been an increasing emphasis on exam and grades oriented learning, fueled by the proliferation of competitive entrance exams for science, engineering, medicine, law, etc. and tutorial centres who compete to prepare the students for these exams.
FORBES: From Vedas To Cloud: The Transformation Of Education In India
Author David Boyle, of the New Economics Foundation, told BBC News that he was not suggesting that all children should be coached to pass entrance exams into "super-selective" schools, but that the need for coaching to pass some of the tests was "a clear barrier" to some families.
As long as the entrance requirements for universities and senior secondary schools remain based on the results of national exams which primarily test students' ability to memorise, parents will pile on the same pressures.
应用推荐