We went to school then tuitions in the evening and whole days of coaching on the weekend. That didnt leave much time to play around, acquire new skills and hobbies and when we tried our parents and teachers were not exactly supportive of it because we could spend that additional time on cramming more.
Just using a stupid test as a benchmark to get into a country's most prestigious colleges without taking into account if the student even has a passion for the subject is an absolutely broken system.