Math was a two-part exam and I once didn't go for the second part. I knew I'd done so badly on the first it was hopeless. I re-took it about four or five times. I think I eventually got it by getting the top GCSE grade.
I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city's Students Federation.
When I was growing up, the exam system didn't allow you to write fiction, so you never did.
I started realizing I could be an example for women to not just be aware of breast cancer but to act on it, to make an appointment, to give themselves an exam.
Schools are not exam factories for the rat race.