A college in Northwest China which asked students to choose the correct photo of their teacher and write the teacher's name in a final exam has sparked a heated discussion.

Students in the Sichuan Vocational College of Culture and Communication were asked to choose the photo of their teacher from seven photos and write the teacher's name under it in the final of Ideological and Moral Cultivation and the Legal Basis on Monday.

Students who get the answer right will be awarded no extra points, but those who answer it wrong will be deducted 41 points. After the question was posted on the official weibo account of the college, many netizens commented.

Some said students could possibly fail the exam because this question was too difficult, while others thought this was innovative and interesting. "I know all my teachers' names, but I am dumbstruck at this question because I find it difficult to recognize faces," said a user called "liangboxianshi".

"I got the right answer. Some of my classmates chose the correct photo, but spelled the name wrong," said an e-commerce major surnamed Guo to thecover.cn.

"This is the first time we have introduced such a question. On the one hand, we want to see whether students have worked hard in class. On the other hand, we can also know whether they have paid attention to details," said Hu Teng, the teacher who wrote the test.

Getting the wrong answer doesn't necessarily mean a student would fail because the test only accounted for 30 percent of the final grade, with 70 grade coming from participation and homework, said Hu.