The Logic of Exclusion: High-Stakes Testing as Epistemic Infrastructure

Standardized testing is typically studied as a meritocratic sorting mechanism that selects for academic aptitude. This paper reframes such exams--especially East Asian high-stakes systems like the Gaokao, HKDSE, and Suneung--as socio-technical infrastructures designed not merely to select, but to exclude. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory and Charles Tilly's theory of durable inequality, I argue that exams are material devices of epistemic engineering that actively shape what counts as legitimate intelligence. These systems privilege a narrow form of cognitive legibility while systematically eliminating alternative epistemic styles. What is conventionally understood as academic "failure" is not a byproduct of inefficiency but a predictable outcome of design. This paper outlines the infrastructure of exclusion, the cognitive architectures it suppresses, and the sociotechnical normalization of failure across space and time. In doing so, it challenges the neutrality of assessment technologies and calls for an epistemic politics that recognizes the knowledge lost when we measure minds through machines built to fail them. By analyzing examination systems across different Asian contexts, this research contributes to the growing literature on comparative educational infrastructures and offers implications for educational policy, pedagogical practice, and theories of cognitive justice.