Abstract: There are elective subjects in the new schemes of college entrance examination in China. However the original scores of different elective subjects are incomparable because the group ability of candidates and the difficulty of test paper may vary from subject to subject. Paper difficulty of each subject is set at the same level when using the standardized scores or grades with preset percentage to elective subjects, but the group ability of candidates is also set at the same level at the same time, which brings about a series of problems. The problems are discussed in detail for several typical schemes of college entrance examination in China. A feasible way to solve the problems is to statistically adjust the scores of each elective subject according to candidates’ scores of compulsory subjects. In addition, several issues about the score adjustment in elective subject are addressed. The adjustment procedure might be designed very simply and easy to understand. A special case is that on the basis of grades with preset percentage, candidates can only upgrade, not downgrade.

Key words: college entrance examination(gao kao), elective subject, candidate ability, the difficulty of test paper, grade score, standardized score