SHANGHAI, June 20 -- A STUDENT writing the National College Entrance Exam has earned a high score for an essay about her corrupt father, Oriental Morning Post reported today.

The essay topic in Shanghai this year for the Chinese composition portion of the exam was: overcoming an obstacle. The student earned a 63 for the essay – 70 is the highest mark in this section.

In the story, the writer says her father made off with public money when she was preparing for the exam. Her mother had to sell the family's house and car to pay the debt. Faced with such an "obstacle," she writes that she grew up with the assistance of her strong-willed mother.

Her elegant expression and sincere feeling earned praise from the graders. However, the sensitive topic of corruption was a challenge, the report said.

Grading work for all essays finished on June 18. More than 1,000 compositions from Shanghai students ranked in grade one, a score from 63 to 69, the report said. The lowest score in this year's writing section was above 20. More than 108,000 students in Shanghai took the exams.

The National College Entrance Exam, commonly known as gaokao, is a standardized test for college admission in China.

A record of 10 million high-school students in China took part in the exam this year, competing for about half that number of university places.