I can’t give you a definitive description, but I can show you some pictures!
The “Chinese way of studying” can be summed up by the slogan “只要学不死，就往死里学”, which roughly translates into “As long we don’t die from studying, we’ll study until we’re dead.”
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Pictures of a typical Chinese classroom before Gaokao
The holiday homework assigned to students in a famous high school (which is known for being strict), to be completed over just 8 days!
Homework from other schools
As a Grade 9 student from Beijing, I get slightly less holiday homework than the examples I’ve showed above. I can vouch for their validity though, and I can assure you that we always have lots of homework, whether its holiday or not. On a typical day, I usually have to work on my homework until midnight.
In China, studying in a university is regarded as the only way to success. We however, have a lot more people than university places. Some people study to the best of their abilities but their grades still don’t suffice, and their only “way out” would be to retake Grade 12. It’s not exactly uncommon nowadays for people to retake Grade 12 more than twice.