The banner showing the pass rate was already hung at the school gate, and the results had been announced yesterday.
Xia Xiaolan was already a day late, and Old Zhao, the security guard, could barely contain his excitement. Xia Xiaolan guessed she must have done well. She shook her head modestly, “I don’t know, Uncle Zhao, please don’t keep me in suspense.”
Old Zhao desperately wanted to tell her, but he held himself back.
“No, no, Principal Sun said he wants to tell you himself. You should go in quickly.”
Principal Sun said, “Since Xia Xiaolan doesn’t care about her mock exam results, let’s make her anxious when she comes.” He wanted to play a joke and make Xia Xiaolan think she hadn’t done well. But Old Zhao’s acting was so poor that he ruined Principal Sun’s plan. Xia Xiaolan knew she had done well – while she might not be able to estimate her exact score, as long as her papers were graded fairly, she would pass the mock exam.
If she couldn’t even score 300 points, how could she hope to enter Hua Qing University’s Architecture Department?
Better to wake herself up with a slap – she wasn’t cut out for studying!
As soon as Xia Xiaolan entered the school, students from Class Three spotted her.
“Xiaolan is here!”
A crowd of students rushed out and surrounded her, escorting her to the classroom while chattering about the mock exam results. Principal Sun’s plan had completely failed.
Teacher Qi walked into the classroom carrying a stack of papers. Upon seeing Xia Xiaolan, she surprisingly showed a rare smile:
“Not bad, your Chinese score has improved in this mock exam.”
Chinese, worth 120 points total, was a major source of points for many students. Average students could easily score 70-80 points, but Xia Xiaolan usually scored in that range, which seemed incongruous with her academic genius status. Teacher Qi couldn’t understand how someone who could score perfect marks in English would perform worse in their native language.
However, this time, whether due to exceptional performance or extra effort in Chinese studies, Xia Xiaolan achieved her highest score since entering the school:
“95 points. Stay humble and keep working hard. I hope you can maintain this in the college entrance exam… no, you should score even higher!”
Out of 120 points, scoring 95 was indeed a major improvement for Xia Xiaolan. Reading comprehension questions followed patterns, famous quotes were predictable, and Xia Xiaolan’s expression ability was not a problem. As a science student, she might lack emotional sensitivity, but her logic was impeccable. There was no need to approach Chinese with romanticism – just grasp the examiner’s intent and answer conventionally.
Teacher Qi couldn’t hold back her joy and didn’t keep the suspense:
“…565 points, Xiaolan, your total mock exam score is 565!”
If only this had been the actual college entrance exam.
Since the resumption of college entrance exams, no one from County No. 1 High School had ever scored this high.
Principal Sun arrived too late – Teacher Qi had already announced Xia Xiaolan’s mock exam score, so he couldn’t maintain his stern facade anymore.
565 points – no one at Anqing County No. 1 High School had ever scored this high.
Last year’s science stream provincial champion only scored 584 points.
While Xia Xiaolan hadn’t claimed the province’s top spot in science with this mock exam, she was definitely first in Anqing County and Fengxian City! Principal Sun had wanted to hang up the banner he’d prepared for Xia Xiaolan several times but held back… this was just the mock exam, better wait for the actual college entrance exam!
Xia Xiaolan felt the questions weren’t difficult, and with her good performance in Chinese, scoring 565 was normal.
While Chinese scores were easier to improve, Political Science was much harder – the current Political Science exams were more difficult than they would be in ten years. Many knowledge points required perfect answers without a single wrong word, so Xia Xiaolan remained below passing grade in this subject and estimated it would be very difficult to improve further.
Principal Sun was so excited that even his hair seemed to quiver with joy:
“If you can maintain this score in the college entrance exam, you could apply to most universities in the country!”
Currently, choosing universities after the college entrance exam is like fortune-telling blind. Before results were announced, students had to visit schools to “estimate scores,” calculating their likely points from self-assessment of answers, then apply to universities based on previous years’ cut-off points. If their final scores matched their estimates and met requirements, they could attend university; if not, they failed to secure admission. Since estimated and final scores often differed, most students estimated conservatively to ensure admission. This led to high-scoring students being distributed across different tiers – it wasn’t unusual to find students who scored 600 points at the same university as those who scored 500, as long as both exceeded the key university threshold!
That’s why Principal Sun said Xia Xiaolan could apply to most universities if she maintained this score in the actual exam.
Xia Xiaolan, harboring her “Hua Qing dream,” didn’t want to tell Principal Sun. While he dreamed of producing a prestigious university graduate, asking him to believe that a County No. 1 High School student could enter top institutions like Hua Qing or Jing University was like asking him to believe pigs could climb trees!
Xia Xiaolan’s top ranking in sciences for Fengxian was hard for other high school leaders in the city to accept.
How could they let a county high school claim the top science score? Was there no justice?
Sure, Anqing County No. 1 High School produced some university students each year, but it was still just a county school! This year, they’d gone too far – was there collective cheating? Their mock exam pass rate reached 75%, matching Fengxian No. 1 and No. 2 High Schools. Fengxian No. 3 High School, where Xia Xiaolan and others took their exam, had a lower pass rate than Anqing County No. 1!
After the mock exam, the Fengxian Education Bureau organized a meeting where Principal Sun stood out.
Previously, the mock exam would eliminate half of County No. 1 High School’s students – only 5 out of 10 could take the college entrance exam. That was the standard for Anqing County’s best high school. Principal Sun could only boast in front of Anqing No. 2 High School but couldn’t hold his head high at Fengxian meetings. This year was different – with a 75% pass rate, 75 out of 100 County No. 1 students could take the college entrance exam, and they had Fengxian City’s top science student. At the meeting, leaders praised Principal Sun’s achievements.
They asked Principal Sun to share his experience for other schools to learn from.
Principal Sun didn’t fully understand – this year’s student cohort was similar to previous years, and their standards for accepting repeat students hadn’t changed, yet the mock exam pass rate had risen!
Old Wang explained it to him: “This year, students are generally scoring higher in English.”
Some improved by 10 points, others by over 30. Students who previously feared English seemed to have collectively awakened, filled with enthusiasm for learning the language. With the right method, English wasn’t as difficult as imagined. When students fear a subject, and lose interest and courage to learn, it creates a vicious cycle – the more they struggle, the less they want to study!
Other subjects showed improvement too, just not as dramatically as English.
The practice papers Xia Xiaolan brought back hadn’t been wasted – they were indeed the “secret weapon” of provincial high schools, helping improve Anqing County No. 1 High School students’ overall performance, leading to their surprising mock exam results. While it wasn’t easy to shock the Provincial Education Department – this was just a mock exam, not the actual college entrance exam.
But this mock exam pass rate had indeed impressed the Fengxian Education Bureau, leading to Principal Sun’s moment of glory sharing his work experience.
The only unpleasant aspect was the shameless Principal of Fengxian No. 2 High School who, in front of education bureau leaders, questioned whether having the city’s top science student studying in a county school might hold her back:
“If Principal Sun agrees, Fengxian No. 2 High School would be happy to accept this student. We’ll ensure our best teachers provide her with extra tutoring, helping her compete for the provincial science championship in the college entrance exam!”