The Reincarnated Science Whiz

Chapter 29: Mock

Exam “Holy crap!” “That’s insane!” “Heaven! Earth!” “Life’s so unfair! Heaven has no eyes!” “Waaah, I can’t go on living! I only scored 300 points, while that guy got 740—I didn’t even get half his score!” At Jinpu No. 2 High School, in front of the bulletin board, countless students were wailing and sobbing uncontrollably. The results of the mock exam had just been released, along with the corresponding rankings. They looked at their own scores and rankings, then glanced at the top scorer’s results—it was like taking a 9,999 critical hit, a devastating blow that instantly wiped out a life. Qin Yuanqing—with the teacher’s constant praise, there wasn’t a single student who didn’t know his name. But they had no idea just how high his scores could actually be. This mock exam, however, made it painfully clear: that 740 was truly blinding and a stinging blow to the eyes! The top scorer at Jinpu No. 2 High School in this mock exam barely managed to rank 238th in the entire county. The top 200 spots in the county were completely dominated by Jinpu No. 1 High School. The same scene was playing out repeatedly at other high schools. And at Jinpu No. 1 High School on Monday morning, the same scene was unfolding, with constant shrieks and whispers filling the air. “Holy crap, Qin Yuanqing beat the top scorer from the last monthly exam! He scored 740—a full 70 points higher than the second-place student’s 670!” “That’s insane. He was away from school for a month, and as soon as he came back, he scored this high. Except for Chinese, where he lost 10 points, he got perfect scores in every other subject!” “Holy crap, Math is so hard, and he still got a perfect score! That’s insane!” “You’re an idiot. He’s a CMO and IMO gold medalist. It might be hard for you, but for him, it’s a piece of cake!” “The physics section of the science comprehensive exam was really tough, yet he still got a perfect score—that doesn’t make any sense!” The seniors stared at the bulletin board, chattering away. As for the county-wide rankings? They didn’t care! The school ranking is basically the same as the county ranking! And that’s exactly the case: this year’s senior class has 1,200 students, plus 300 repeaters from branch campuses, for a total of 1,500. Among the top 1,000 in the county, Jinpu No. 1 High School accounts for 940. Out of the county’s 1,500 students, Jinpu No. 1 High School accounts for 1,400. Jinpu No. 1 High School holds an absolute dominant position in Jinpu County. Qin Yuanqing didn’t even need to check the bulletin board; at 10:00 p. m. last night, his homeroom teacher had already sent him his scores for each subject via QQ, so Qin Yuanqing had long known he’d scored 740 points. Although his Chinese score was on par with his scores in other subjects, he still lost 10 points: 7 points were deducted from his essay and 3 points from the other sections. As for his essay, although he had improved, he was still far from earning a perfect score—especially in terms of handwriting, where he lagged far behind classmates whose calligraphy was worthy of the title “calligrapher.” When Qin Yuanqing entered the classroom, the class greeted him with their usual warm applause. This time, the entire class had seen a significant improvement in their scores: in addition to Qin Yuanqing taking first place, Lin Yuling and Huang Zhong both ranked in the top 50, and four other students ranked between 50th and 100th—and Qin Yuanqing played a major role in this success. Even in the neighboring class, the average scores for math and the science comprehensive exam had risen by 2 points compared to previous years. “Classmates, there are only two months and 60 days left until the college entrance exam. I hope that during these 60 days, everyone will keep up the good work and strive for even greater heights,” Teacher Chen began the class. “At the same time, let’s celebrate our classmate Qin Yuanqing for scoring 740 points—the highest in the entire county. Let’s give him a round of enthusiastic applause!” Instantly, the entire classroom erupted in enthusiastic applause. With a beaming smile, Teacher Chen said, “But Qin Yuanqing, let’s talk. Could you aim for a perfect score in Chinese next time? You’ve gotten perfect scores in every other subject, but the one subject taught by me—your homeroom teacher—only scored 140 points. That really makes me, your homeroom teacher, look bad!” “Haha~~~” As soon as Teacher Chen finished speaking, the students burst into laughter. Qin Yuanqing couldn’t help but chuckle as well, then said, “Teacher Chen, I’ll do my best on the mock exam!” The next mock exam, scheduled for April 29 and 30, will take place before the May Day holiday. This mock exam will be much larger and more important than the current one; it will be a citywide joint exam, and the test questions will be prepared by the city’s Expert Panel for the College Entrance Exam. As for the municipal college entrance exam Expert Panel, only the head of the math department at Jinpu No. 1 High School was selected; none of the other teachers made the cut. After the joke, Teacher Chen moved on to the question-by-question review. Qin Yuanqing looked at his test paper and saw that he’d lost 1 point on a classical Chinese passage—it was a phonetic loan character, and since he hadn’t answered it correctly, he lost that point. The remaining 2 points were deducted from the modern prose reading section, which involved a historical figure. Qin Yuanqing didn’t know the person’s name, so he guessed a random name and lost 2 points. Unbelievable! With so many famous figures in Huaxia history, how could he possibly remember them all? Qin Yuanqing thought this question was ridiculous—you’d have to have general knowledge to answer it correctly. However, in this mock exam, a girl from the experimental class scored a perfect 150 on the Chinese test, so Qin Yuanqing could only express his admiration. As for the essay—Qin Yuanqing’s weak point—he thought he’d written it quite well. His thesis and supporting evidence were solid; it was just that the phrasing wasn’t particularly elegant and came across as a bit stiff. He’d even crossed out a few misspelled characters, yet he still lost 7 points. It was simply outrageous. Still, he knew that when it came to essays, the grader played a crucial role. If the grader thought your essay looked great, they’d give you 60 points; if they thought it was just decent, they’d give you 55. The score depended entirely on the grader’s whim—no matter how well you wrote, if the grader thought it was utter nonsense, there was nothing you could do if they gave you a 0. That said, his handwriting is much neater now than it was in his sophomore year. With a little more effort, he can make up for this weakness. He didn’t swap in a calligrapher’s handwriting precisely because the difference would be too obvious in such a short time—it would raise suspicions and make him a prime candidate for scrutiny. Otherwise, swapping in some calligraphy would have been easy and solved the problem in a flash. When it came to math class, Wu Qishan took a brutally straightforward approach, immediately calling on Qin Yuanqing to come to the front of the class to explain a problem. Qin Yuanqing was at a loss for words—he really was just free labor; they might as well take advantage of him while they could. Qin Yuanqing didn’t refuse. This exam paper was exceptionally well-crafted; several questions covered topics that closely resembled this year’s actual college entrance exam. Qin Yuanqing focused his explanation on these problems, then used them as a starting point to expand on the concepts covered during the first round of review. “Class, I have a strong hunch that these questions are very likely to appear on this year’s college entrance exam. Please make sure to understand and memorize them,” Qin Yuanqing emphasized once again. He hoped to help his students score as high as possible on the college entrance exam. The exam is a narrow bridge—a single point can mean surpassing over a thousand students, and sometimes that one point determines whether a student meets the cutoff for a first-tier or second-tier university. In their class, barring any surprises, everyone would certainly be admitted to a bachelor’s program. However, even among bachelor’s programs, there are vast differences in the quality of the schools, and even within the same university, admission scores for different majors can vary significantly. “Excellent! Qin Yuanqing made a great point. These are all classic problems, and there’s a very high probability they’ll appear on the college entrance exam,” said Teacher Wu Qishan. “You must memorize them well—who knows, these very problems might be the key to getting into Shuimu University or Yan Da University!” The class burst into laughter. Shuimu University and Yan Da University are the two best universities in Huaxia; if you could get into one of them by sheer luck, that would be nothing short of a miracle. Qin Yuanqing also smiled. As things stood in the class, Lin Yuling and Huang Zhong were virtually guaranteed admission to Xiamen University. If Lin Yuling could make a breakthrough in the coming weeks, she might even have a shot at Fudan University—though she was likely still a bit short of the mark for Shuimu University and Yan Da University. As for the top twenty students in the class, they were guaranteed to meet the first-tier college admission cutoff. Qin Yuanqing was also asked to go up and explain the afternoon’s comprehensive science exam. After all, the comprehensive science exam covers physics, chemistry, and biology; if taught separately, it would take three teachers three or four classes to cover everything. With Qin Yuanqing handling it, he could finish the entire subject in just over one class period. For the physics portion of the comprehensive exam, Qin Yuanqing focused on mechanics and electromagnetism as the core concepts, using them as a framework to analyze the material. He incorporated the motion of objects and related experiments throughout, striving to present the physics concepts in the simplest and clearest way possible. In chemistry, he focused on the principles of major chemical reactions, which are closely tied to the properties of elements, electron distribution, and chemical bonding. Once these concepts are understood and mastered, it’s nearly impossible to score poorly on a chemistry exam. High school biology primarily focuses on DNA, cells, and hybridization, without delving into overly complex theoretical concepts; once these are understood, the subject is essentially mastered. With so many high school physics, chemistry, and biology textbooks—compulsory and elective courses combined—stacked high enough to form a thick pile, the total exam score is only 300 points. It’s impossible to cover everything on the test. Some topics are mandatory, while others are relatively obscure. For the vast majority of students, there’s no need to study the obscure topics because the effort required doesn’t justify the return. However, you absolutely must master the required question types. As long as you ensure you don’t lose points on them, scoring 250 on the comprehensive science exam is entirely possible. From then on, Qin Yuanqing took the initiative to help his classmates. During evening study sessions or free time, he would explain analytical problems from subjects other than Chinese and English, using specific questions as case studies to break them down and summarize key concepts. This not only attracted his own classmates but even drew students from neighboring classes who came to audit his sessions; every session was bustling with activity. The school was happy to see this and did not interfere, while students in other classes were filled with envy, wishing they were in the same class as Qin Yuanqing. When the mock exam results came out, the experimental class lost half its top students, while students in the three other classes showed significant improvement in both the comprehensive science exam and math—a development that caught the school’s attention. After all, at this stage of the academic year, academic progress typically slows down significantly, and the focus shifts to consolidation. Yet the students in these three classes had shown a marked improvement—a highly unusual occurrence—and the driving force behind it all was Qin Yuanqing. In this mock exam, Qin Yuanqing scored a total of 745 points. Aside from losing 5 points on his Chinese essay, he aced every other section, indisputably claiming first place in the city—a full 50 points ahead of the runner-up.