Last night, deep in the depths of what my friends and I are beginning to call “the Olympic haze”— watching so many events they all run together in to an epic morass of swimnastics—I stumbled upon a program that broke my trance and snapped me back to reality.

“China Prep” is a production of PBS’ documentary-style show “Wide-Angle” and traces a year in the lives of the Class of 2008 at one of China’s top high schools. If you’re imagining something on the scale of MTV’s “The Paper” (my guilty pleasure), think again. The students attending Bashu Middle School, in the burgeoning town of Chongqing, don’t really have time for afterschool activities and, frankly, they don’t have time for much else besides school.

“Usually I study 16 hours per day, eat for two hours and sleep for six,” One student said. “But that is nothing. I hear the students at MIT only sleep for five hours.”

Throughout the show, the student and her classmates are preparing for the “Gaokao,” China’s feared exit-exam—which blows our nation’s “high-stakes” tests out of the water (trust me, you can view some sample questions on PBS’ website). Since the GaoKao determines which students will attend top universities, nearly all students are only children and their family’s only shot at success, the pressure is incredibly high.

What I found most interesting about China Prep was the fact that, despite China’s new determination to bring more creativity to a population raised on rote memorization, I saw little evidence of creative problem-solving at Bashu. Students practiced all sorts of memorization techniques, but there appeared to be little discussion in the classroom, aside from the standard question/answer model. This bodes disconcerting, as Bashu has positioned itself to mold the next generation of Chinese leaders and critical thinkers.

A talking head at the end of the program, however, noted that though rote memorization is not the most effective way to learn and Chinese students often detest it initially, they grow to appreciate the rigor of their education in later years (perhaps when they are able to find jobs internationally?).

I don’t think I have to remind anyone that China is currently educating the largest population in the world. But one hopes that as the world’s attention turns to Beijing, audiences will shake off their Olympic haze and take a closer look at the competitive grooming of China’s youth and an education system that is increasingly developing some of the world’s most elite students.

To learn more and watch clips of China Prep, visit PBS’ website.