I just re-discovered this fascinating article on the BBC web site,

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Mathematicians set Chinese test

I wonder how many British maths students could answer the Chinese question?...

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Virtually none, because 3D synthetic geometry is not much taught here (though an A-level student might be able to solve it from cold using vector geometry, but it would take some time as they would not have been prepared for that type of question).

The significance of the article is that the equivalent of A-level maths is required for entry to a science degree course in China, but not in the UK.

(I should comment that A-level should be required for entry to engineering degree courses, but you would not think so from a significant proportion of the output from them)

(Different sylabuses guarantee that a Chinese student would have trouble with a specially chosen question off of an A-level maths paper)

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