This section counts money and time. Item 2 also counts mortality. The first six items answer one question: whether to keep studying. Item 1 first says which stretch of the options the law crosses out. Item 2 counts the relation between schooling and length of life. Item 3 looks at which band of education people across the country are in. Item 4 covers what aid there is when you cannot afford to study. Item 5 covers what paths remain if you do not get into an ordinary high school. Item 6 turns "study or go to work" into a sum, and gives a method you can run yourself. The next seven items answer another question: once you have decided to learn something, how to pick it. Wage statistics in China split by trade are hard to check item by item from public official sources. So this section writes only the things whose source can be found: roughly how much more pay one more year of school brings (also called the return to education), how to check whether a certificate is lawful, where training subsidies come from, and which dimension to look at so a skill is harder to displace. This book does not give a figure for how much a particular trade earns in a month. Items 14 to 19 answer a third question: once you have settled what to learn, how to learn it in less time. Those six items count time. They are not converted into money. Items 20 to 23 answer a fourth question: if you are already doing professional or technical work, where to apply for a title, how the exam works, which pitfalls to avoid, and what getting the title is worth. Items 24 and 25 answer whether, on finishing a bachelor's or a master's, to go on to a master's or a doctorate. China has no income figures that take out personal differences. What is cited is a UK study. The items are grouped by subject below. Item numbers are in parentheses. Whether to keep studying: under 16 there is no going out to work (item 1), count whether schooling is useful inside mortality (item 2), the education structure of the whole country (item 3), if you cannot afford it, run the policy figures first (item 4), the path if you do not get into an ordinary high school (item 5), turn study or work into a sum (item 6). What to learn and how to pick it: the return to one more year of education (item 7), check the occupational-qualification catalogue before an exam (item 8), take training through government subsidy channels (item 9), pick skills that need the hands and judgment on the spot (item 10), see whether a skill has a grade assessment (item 11), check the local catalogue of occupations in short supply (item 12), choose a short course that lets you start the job directly (item 13). How to learn in less time: close the book and test yourself when you finish (item 14), spread the time over several days (item 15), do not treat highlighting as the main way to study (item 16), mix several kinds of problem (item 17), do not pick a method by visual type or auditory type (item 18), turn what you have to memorize into questions and test yourself (item 19). Professional titles: find the channel for applying (item 20), the junior and intermediate accounting titles are a unified exam (item 21), do not hire an agent to get the title for you (item 22), holding the title is not the same as a pay rise (item 23). Master's and doctorate: whether to go on to a master's after a bachelor's (item 24), whether to go on to a doctorate after a master's (item 25).
English, Russian and Spanish use dlgrv’s unofficial translations. Newly revised entries appear in the Chinese original until a checked translation is available. The author’s latest Chinese text is authoritative. Translation revision: dlgrv/HowToLiveBetter · b25fa8a
Most people finish junior secondary school at 15–16, right at this threshold. Under 16, hiring is illegal except special recruitment by arts or sports units; the fine is 5,000 yuan per child worker per month. Employers willing to hire you are therefore using illegal child labor. If something happens, the employer bears medical costs and compensation under the rules.
Cost
Zero. It takes just a minute to figure out how old you are…
Benefit
Article 11 of the Compulsory Education Law states: “All children aged six or older must be enrolled by their p…
For every additional year of schooling, the average risk of dying in adulthood drops by about 1.9%. This effect is strongest among people aged 18–49, where the reduction is roughly 2.9% per extra year; for those over 70, it’s only 0.8%. Those who manage to stay in school tend to come from more privileged backgrounds, so it’s hard to isolate exactly how much of this benefit stems from education itself.
Cost
There is no monetary cost. The expense lies in the time an…
Benefit
This conclusion comes from a comprehensive meta-analysis that pooled findings from 603 separate studies conduc…
In the 2020 census, people nationwide who reached junior college or above were about 15%. The 2025 sample survey estimates about 19%, a few percentage points more in five years. In both, people with junior high were the largest group. People aged 15 and above averaged only 9.91 years of schooling, just past junior-high graduation. So a junior-high credential is the most common band in China, not a scarce one.
Cost
Zero. All you need to do is glance at the numbers below.
Benefit
The reference point for the seventh national census was November 1, 2020. At that time, 218360767 people natio…
At public secondary vocational schools, rural students, urban students in agriculture-related majors, and students from hard-up families already have tuition waived. Grants for secondary vocational and ordinary high school are 2300 yuan a year from spring 2025. At university, the grant is 3700 yuan a year, and student loans can go up to 20000 yuan a year (2万). When money is short, run these figures first, then decide whether to quit and go to work.
Cost
Zero out‑of‑pocket expense. Before school starts, simply v…
Benefit
The tuition‑waiver policy for public vocational schools has been in place since fall 2012;
The Vocational Education Law enacted in 2022 explicitly states that vocational education holds equal status to general education. Secondary vocational schools can enroll students through linked admission programs with higher vocational institutions, which in turn must reserve a set proportion of their enrollment slots or hold separate exams specifically for secondary vocational graduates. Employers are also prohibited from setting eligibility barriers based on a candidate’s vocational school background. Failing to meet the cutoff for regular high school admission simply means you get to choose a different path — it does not leave you stuck with a junior high school diploma.
Cost
No cost at all. Before submitting your high school entranc…
Benefit
Article 3 of the Vocational Education Law (effective 1 May 2022) stipulates: “Vocational education is an educa…
Go to work first and you earn a few years of wages early, but you collect that money only once. Keep studying and you earn a bit more than you otherwise would every year, for thirty or forty years in a row. So put the two sums side by side. In urban China, each extra year of schooling raises annual income by roughly 4.0% to 10.2%, but these figures date from 2001 or earlier, so treat them only as a rough guide.
Cost
There is no monetary cost. Setting aside about half an hou…
Benefit
This estimate applies to Chinese urban areas between 1988 and 2001. The percentage increase in income linked t…
Globally, each extra year of formal schooling translates into about a 9% annual increase in personal income; this benefit tends to be higher for women than for men. This figure applies to regular schooling, not to short courses or workshops. Think of it as a yardstick: if a course costs 30000 yuan and lasts half a year, ask whether its expected income boost matches what one extra year of schooling would deliver.
Cost
No cost at all. Memorize this figure and use it as a bench…
Benefit
A comprehensive review covering 1120 estimates from 139 countries between 1950 and 2014 found that the worldwi…
Some outfits run courses, charge fees, and issue certificates at will under the banner of new occupations or skill grades, and some impersonate authoritative bodies; the ministry has run targeted crackdowns. Before you enroll, check three steps: whether the occupation is on the National Vocational Qualification Catalogue, whether the issuer is an evaluation agency filed with human-resources authorities, and whether the certificate number can be found on the official platform. If it cannot be found, do not enroll.
Cost
No cost at all. It takes just a few minutes to check once.
Benefit
The Ministry has launched nationwide efforts to address these issues. Official documents specifically identify…
From 2025 through late 2027, the government plans to provide subsidized training to over 30 million participants. Funding comes from multiple sources, including employment assistance funds, unemployment insurance funds, and corporate education budgets. The more in-demand a profession is and the higher the training cost, the larger the subsidy. Employees should ask their employers first; everyone else should review their local Human Resources and Social Security Bureau’s subsidy list before deciding what to study.
Cost
Zero cost, or at least a substantial reduction. Training d…
Benefit
The national target is clear: over 30 million subsidized training slots for high-tech industries, critical sec…
According to U.S. estimates, roughly 47% of jobs carry a relatively high risk of being taken over by computers. Later studies that evaluated individual tasks instead yielded a much lower percentage. Three core challenges currently prevent machines from handling certain jobs: manual dexterity, creative problem-solving, and social interaction. Hence, roles that demand physical work in unpredictable environments and real-time decision-making are far less likely to be automated, while jobs with rigid processes and heavy information processing carry the highest risk.
Cost
No cost at all. Before making a choice, run through the sk…
Benefit
This study assessed 702 U.S. occupations to estimate the likelihood of each being automated — the result showe…
The government is promoting a “New Eight-Level Worker” system that requires companies to link job pay to employees’ skill levels. Outstanding workers can even have their skill grades recognized regardless of seniority or years of experience. This is the policy direction, though implementation varies widely across regions and companies. Only skills with established national occupational standards and grading pathways can eventually lead to pay increases based on those grades — so it’s worth checking first before you invest time in learning them.
Cost
No cost involved. One quick check is all you need.
Benefit
The government is actively rolling out this New Eight-Level Worker skill grading system. Official documents ex…
The amount of training subsidies each region offers for a given occupation is set based on how urgently that occupation is needed and on the cost of training. Thus, the subsidy level itself shows whether workers are in short supply locally. Claims online about “monthly earnings for a certain job” are usually just posted rates on hiring platforms or self‑reported figures. Those figures come mainly from people who are already earning money, and they ignore working hours, commuting time, occupational illnesses, and seasonal fluctuations.
Cost
No expense at all. You just need to look up two local docu…
Benefit
The subsidy amounts serve as an official measure of which occupations are in short supply. Policies require “a…
Government policies favor short-term training programs and micro-specializations at vocational colleges that lead to quick employment. The sole criterion for selecting such programs is whether they offer a concrete job opportunity upon completion. Programs lasting a year or more, which require additional “experience-building” after graduation, end up costing far more than advertised. It’s crucial to define clear exit conditions upfront: specify the level of skill mastery required before one can stop the program if no job has been secured.
Cost
These short-term courses require tuition fees, though the…
Benefit
Government guidelines align with this approach: they support “private training institutions offering market-dr…
Compared with reading a section again, closing the book and testing yourself works better. Adding short quizzes in class raises scores by a moderate amount. When ten common study methods are ranked, self-testing sits in the top band. After one section, first write the main points from memory, then open the book and check.
Cost
There’s no cost involved, and no extra time is needed. Use…
Benefit
A meta-analysis of 222 independent studies and 48478 students: classroom quizzes raised academic scores, with…
The same time, spread over several days, sticks better than finishing in one sitting. There is also a practical rule: the longer you need to remember something, the longer the review gap should be. The farther the exam, the longer the gap, but research gives no universal number of days.
Cost
There’s no extra expense, and the total time required stay…
Benefit
This is a meta-analysis that brought together data from 184 papers, 317 experiments, and 839 separate evaluati…
Highlighting and rereading are the most common study habits among students, yet both rank at the very bottom among ten widely used learning strategies. Summarizing, keyword memorization, and visualizing text with images also fall into the lowest tier. They’re not completely useless, but only work under very specific conditions, so spending the same amount of time on self-testing yields far better results.
Cost
No cost at all;
Benefit
A review that rated ten common learning methods by "whether the effect generalizes across learning conditions,…
Doing a long string of the same kind of problem feels smooth on the spot. Mixing several kinds works better over the long run, by a moderate amount. But this method is picky about material: picture tasks such as recognizing a painter's style work best; math problems a bit less; vocabulary is worse than blocked practice.
Cost
No cost at all. Simply rearrange the order of exercises in…
Benefit
A multilevel meta-analysis of 59 studies, 238 effect sizes, and 158 samples. Overall, interleaved practice ver…
Many people believe each person has a distinct learning style — such as being visual or auditory — and that teaching should be tailored to that style for best results. Yet there are very few rigorous studies on this, and almost none provide any support for it; several even show the opposite. While people do have personal preferences, there’s no evidence that instruction aligned with those preferences leads to better learning. There’s also no need to spend money on learning style assessments.
Cost
No cost at all. You simply stop using this classification…
Benefit
A review commissioned to assess evidence on learning styles states: to show that "teaching by learning style"…
Closing the book and testing yourself helps beyond the exact words you memorized. Across 192 comparisons and more than ten thousand people pooled, it also helps on questions with a changed format, on application problems, and on reasoning problems, by a moderate-to-small amount. Two cases work least well: swapping the question and the answer, and material you only saw in the book and were never tested on.
Cost
There’s no expense involved, nor does it require extra tim…
Benefit
A meta-analysis pooling more than 40 years of research, with 67 published and unpublished papers, 122 experime…
There are 27 professional series nationwide, each divided into junior, intermediate, and senior levels. Generally, you must progress through these levels one by one. Employees working for organizations must have their applications reviewed and publicly posted by their employer before submission. Those working for private firms can apply via local professional qualification service centers, talent agencies, or industry associations. Self-employed individuals should apply through the local human resources and social security department.
Cost
No cost involved. It takes about half an hour to look up t…
Benefit
A total of 27 professional series exist across China, covering fields such as economics, engineering, healthca…
Many entry- and intermediate-level professional titles are awarded solely through exams; passing the test is enough, with no additional evaluation needed. Accounting falls under this category: an assistant accountant must have at least a high school diploma, while a full accountant requires a bachelor’s degree plus four years of accounting work experience, or an associate degree plus five years. Those who already hold certain professional certifications may also be recognized as meeting the corresponding title requirements.
Cost
Registration fees vary by province. Preparing for the exam…
Benefit
A 2016 reform directive states that for professional fields where entry- and intermediate-level titles rely on…
Any professional title obtained through fake materials, ghostwritten papers, or plagiarized work will be revoked upon verification. A record of this misconduct stays on file for 3 years and is shared with the national credit database. If you sign a commitment statement during application and later prove it to be false, you will be barred from applying for any title for 3 years. Labor and social security authorities also actively crack down on agents that make false claims, pose as official evaluators, or sell counterfeit certificates.
Cost
No direct monetary cost. The real challenge is resisting t…
Benefit
As stipulated in Order No. 40 issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, anyone found to h…
A professional title is a basis for hiring, assessment, and promotion, but earning the title and being appointed to a post are two different things. Public institutions that use post management generally review within the post quota. Units that do not use post management can separate review from appointment; earning the title does not mean the unit will give the matching post and pay. After you change employer or locality, the title may need to be reviewed again or confirmed.
Cost
No cost at all. Just ask your HR department once.
Benefit
Article 2 of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security Order No. 40 states that professional title evalu…
A master’s costs tuition and 2–3 years of lost wages, usually the larger cost. A UK study of graduates from 20–30 years ago adjusted for family background and undergraduate grades. At 35, women with a master’s earned about 2% more and men about 2% less, with large differences by subject. Workers can study part-time; credentials have equal legal standing with full-time ones, but there is no national student grant.
Cost
No money needed. Check the admissions prospectus and tuiti…
Benefit
First the cost. A 2013 national opinion sets tuition for a full-time academic master's, in principle, at not m…
This was a UK study. In the same UK study, after differences in family background and bachelor's results were taken out, at 35 a doctorate earned women about 8% more than a bachelor's alone, and men about 9% less. The mental load of a doctorate is also heavy. About one in four doctoral students across countries has clear depressive symptoms, and about one in six has clear anxiety symptoms. So first see whether the job you want will not hire without a doctorate, then decide whether to do one.
Cost
No money needed. Check the education requirements in your…
Benefit
The 2020 UK Department for Education study cited in item 24 of this chapter (master's degrees) also estimated…
