During the lockdown, she got up at about 6 am, took online courses for the whole day and spent her evenings doing mock exams or reviewing what she had learned during the day. At about 11 pm, she went to bed.

The only period of relaxation was when she spent an hour after 10 pm doing physical exercises, reading non-gaokao-related books and playing with her cellphone.

"In a way, the preparation for the exam distracted me from the pandemic and as long as I focused on studying, it became less scary," she said.

Despite that, she still understood the seriousness of the situation because her mother became a community volunteer, delivering medication to people under lockdown who had chronic diseases.

"She came home very late and she always reminded me to take good care of myself when she left in the morning," Zhang said.

"I worried about her safety a lot, but I knew she was doing something honorable so I just prayed that she would not contract the disease."

Zhang went back to school on May 6 as the pandemic waned in Wuhan and the authorities allowed final year high school students to return to classes.

"I was very happy to see my classmates and teachers. Although each class has been divided into two smaller ones and it is uncomfortable to wear a face mask during lessons, I still cherish my remaining days at high school," she said.

She is maintaining her busy schedule as the exam approaches. She feels nervous about the exam, and at the same time she constantly reminds herself to relax and calm down, she said.

"The gaokao is like a major hurdle that we all need to deal with. As long as I work very hard before the exam, it will become less intimidating and I will get better scores," she added.

"I have to make every effort for the exam and whatever the result, I will have no regrets."

Sun Feixue was in Beijing when the COVID-19 pandemic hit her hometown of Wuhan in late December. She was there to prepare for an interview at the Communication University of China that had originally been scheduled for March.

Sun-who wants to major in drama and screenwriting-and her grandmother rented an apartment in the capital to prepare for the interview.