What is it like to fail the college entrance exam in Korea, Japan, mainland China or Taiwan? What are the life paths of "failed" exam takers?

I like the subject of your paper, although your assumptions maybe painting a picture that limits the potential scope of your story. This man failed the entrance exams twice. Alibaba Group Chairman & Founder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma. He talks about failure all the time too. He's a counter culture guy and more the exception than the rule but I think it's important that you keep these outliers accounted for in your research too. People who bring about great societal change are often those that sit on the edges of society not those who race to march to familiar tunes.

I failed my college entrance exam(高考) Then my parents spent all of their savings sending me to USA. I have some friends who also failed their test. All of them retook it and got into college next year or the year after next year(you can retake it many times). For your question:  yes, if you don't have a college degree and your family are poor, then your life will be very hard. No college degree = Can't get a decent job = low life standard = low social identity. I think this is normal everywhere. college degree won't save your face, parents emphasis on education because it can help you to get a better job. Life path of failed students: China's growth is kind of ruthless. Life hackers usually need more street smarts than book smarts. A lot of industries are not very regulated comparing to USA and other developed countries. So I think they do have chance to beat their peers.

Most of my friends who failed the college entrance exam will continue to prepare for the next year's exam. In the second year, most of them will pass the exam.

I think you are making quite a strong assumption on what is simply a phase of life some people go through and eventually get over.  I'm Japanese so I don't empirically know what the consequences of not getting accepted to top universities for Koreans and Chinese (I would assume it would be more important for them, given from what I heard the competition for admission is tougher, and the society might be a bit more judgmental toward certain kind of people).  I don't think it is necessarily true that the whole primary and secondary education revolves entirely around the goal of entering the University of Tokyo or comparable prestigious universities over there, even though that certainly is one of the ultimate achievements for students there.  Most people realize at an early stage that they do not have makeup for getting in to those universities, so they don't even bother.  And they survive okay... Thing is, the overwhelming majority of people in Japan do not go to prestigious universities, almost by definition.  Do you honestly think more than 95% of the population consider themselves failures and live their lives carrying over their shoulders the shame of their name not being associated with those brand name universities?  If that's how you are seeing the situation, you have an extremely narrow-minded view of those societies that you are trying to study. If someone in Japan are making themselves miserable by the fact that they did not get in to top universities (and its consequence being their substandard lives), it probably comes from their tendency to develop inferiority complex over social status issues like this.  It's just one of the excuses that they unconsciously yet actively seek to find the reason for their misery, even though there may actually not be much substance to it.  Therefore, focusing on people like them, you would likely to just cherry pick basically boring people with certain personality traits, rather than exposing the real issues that exist with the typical East Asian educational systems. Sure, it helps to get a degree from a better university.  It gives you bragging rights and makes barriers for entry much lower for certain things in life.  You are more likely to meet more intelligent and interesting people in better universities.  But you see the same thing in a country like the US as well.  I knew a fellow student who was very bitter because he didn't get in to Stanford (we went to Rutgers).  After many years, I doubt he gives a fuck.  College is just one tiny aspect of life.

If you're researching the career path of those who have failed, I think you should take into account who re-try taking the exam. Here are some trends in the Korean society regarding those who fail the college entrance exam: Most of them retry studying the exam. The notion of "failing" implies that "you did not get enough score to enter the college you want". Thus, most people who retry have high standards regarding the college they want to enter. For instance, some retry the exam just to get into a better department (for instance Law department, which requires higher scores among all departments in a college). Those who don't retry tend to enter universities that fit their scores (according to rank). Since there are so many universities in South Korea, those who want to attend college can attend any college they want - it's just that majority of the colleges (especially those not in Seoul) are treated as lower ranking institutions and some regard those as not worth going to (so they would retry the college entrance exam). Thus, if you're trying to research those who "fail", I advise you to look at students who go to college that they did not want (which they did not aim for in the first place), and also those who did not decide to go to college at all (however, these people may have better career trajectories compared to the former since they have actively decided not to go to college in the first place).

It depends on individual obviously, if you have a real skill or just general competence and willingness to actually do whatever is asked, you should be fine,