BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- China expects fewer students to participate in the upcoming three-day annual college entrance exam this year, according to Sunday version of China Daily.

    The college entrance exam has been seen as the make-or-break benchmark for millions of Chinese young people since 1977.

    Minister of Education Zhou Ji had predicted that the overall number of applicants would exceed 10 million -- last year's total was 10.5 million -- but figures from local governments suggest the number of students taking part may be far fewer, the newspaper said.

    In Shangdong, a provincial economic powerhouse, education officials said they received 100,000 fewer applicants this year than they did in 2008 -- a drop of more than 10 percent.

    The country's most populous province, Henan, will see 29,000 fewer people sit the college entrance exam.

    And similar falls were reported in Shanghai municipality and Hebei, Beijing's neighboring province.

    The exam has long been considered a life-changing opportunity for high school students seeking a better education and, in turn, a better job.

    "Since the financial crisis last year, the grim employment situation has broken the 'employment myth' for those with a college degree. Some students changed their minds about getting a good job through higher education. They simply quit (from taking the exam)," an anonymous recruitment officer with the Beijing Institute of Technology was quoted as saying.