Most top students from the college entrance examinations do not turn out to be as prominent in their careers as expected, a latest survey has revealed, Beijing Times reported Monday.

The China Alumni Association traced provincial or regional top students based on their college entrance examinations for the course of seven years, following almost 2,000 people.

Among the 900 top students who graduated between 1977 and 1999, only 370 can be traced in terms of career while the remaining 60 percent have "disappeared" from their selected fields since graduating from college.

Compared with ordinary careers, top students perform more prominently within academic research disciplines. It was found that three of the top students from the survey went on to become academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, the top two academies in China. While two of the students were recipients of China's top literary awards.

It was also discovered that the top students did not perform well in the business sector. Although a few have become multimillionaires or even billionaires, none of them were ever the top entrepreneurs within business circles. Also, none of the students went on to become a senior official within the political arena.

Cai Yanhou, an expert with the China Alumni Association, said schools should change their talent cultivation models and discard their current score-oriented methods. More attention should be paid to the quality of education and improving individual abilities.