Week-long grading work started on Wednesday in east China’s Shandong province after half a million Shandong students finished the 2018 college entrance examination for art majors on Jan. 7, according to chinanews.com.

Nearly 55 thousand students attended this year’s art exam, according to official data released by a recruitment authority.

All the paintings by candidates were placed squarely on the floor. Teachers walk around the classroom holding bamboo sticks and mark the pieces into ten levels. The final scores for each candidate will pass several reviews to ensure fairness.

This is the 10th year for Shandong colleges and universities to evaluate the painting skills of prospective art students with such exams, said Qilu Evening News, the main newspaper in Shandong.

The exam carries weight in qualifying for art school, in addition to the college entrance exam. Generally, candidates prefer to train their skills in a training school and devote time and money to prepare for the test.