1.1

I arrived at the classroom by myself and took my seat.

"Good morning, Kiyotaka-kun."

"Oh, good morning."

Yousuke, who was surrounded by girls, spotted me and called out. I'm happy to be greeted, but the girls' 'give me back my Hirata-kun' stares are painful. "This may be none of my business, but if there's anything I can do to help you, please let me know."

I wondered what he was going to say, but he made the same offer again. "Haven't you been saying the same thing to me every day lately?" Yousuke was concerned about a three-person group who was a little conscious of him in the distance.

Since I used to be a member of this group, I guess he was worried about my departure.

I was sure that Yousuke had been uneasy to see me both before and after the school trip.

There was also the issue that Yousuke was the type of person to care about things even if he says he doesn't.

"If something happens, I'll tell you. Thank you. If possible, I'd appreciate it if you could watch over me quietly."

So, I told him again firmly that I understood his goodwill. Yousuke will probably continue to call out to me on a regular basis until my relationship with the group's back on track.

"That's no good. I can't stand it when I see instability in the class…" Yousuke seemed to be disgusted with himself for expressing his uncontrollable feelings in words.

He had a troublesome personality even though he had done nothing wrong. "Anyway, the girls are waiting for you. I'm more worried about that." Their jealous gaze grew more intense with time as they wondered how long Yousuke will be kept from them.

Soon after, Kei came into the classroom and Yousuke got back to the girls. The chime rang and Chabashira-sensei arrived in the classroom, starting another new school day.

"It should come as no surprise to you that you didn't have any warning, but before winter break, you'll have to take the last special exam of the second semester."

The class, who had grown to tolerate the special exams so far, was slightly more upset than usual, as they had expected winter break to come as is. "Oops. It seems you were a little surprised this time."

It was because of the school festival, school trip, and other big events that had been going on.

For this school, that was the way it is, and a special exam is a special exam, I guess.

However, even if the special exam is held, there was only a little more than two weeks left in the second semester.

I don't think it's something that requires long-term preparation or measures, but I wonder what kind of content it will have.

"I understand your concerns, but there's no need to panic so much. It isn't the most feared kind of special exam that will cause students to drop out." The important factor, expulsion, will be kept to a minimum in this special exam.

"However, of course, class points will inevitably fluctuate depending on who wins or loses. However, you won't be in a position to afford losing as you will be in hot pursuit of Class A from now on."

Winning one or two matches isn't enough to catch up and overtake them. You have to be willing to win all the battles ahead of you. "In this special exam, there are no complicated rules that have to be drilled

into your heads. You'll compete with other classes in a one-on-one academic competition."

Academic competition. As a general student, and particularly as a student of this school, this wasn't surprising.

Rather, it was as standard as it gets.

Even regular midterms and finals are competitive.

But since it was called a special exam, it went without saying that there'll be some special rules that will greatly determine the winner.

"The winner will receive 50 class points from the loser. If you win, you get 50 class points, and if you lose, you lose 50 class points."

Not a very large number. Rather, it was a low fluctuation in class points. "So, if it's a class-based academic competition, then it's simply not a good idea to fight against Class A!"

"You can be happy about that, Ike, because it's exactly Class A against which you Class B students will have to fight."

The opponent had already been decided, and Chabashira-sensei confronted us with a cruel reality.

"It's a simple system in which the class with the highest average scores in the recently held final exams happens to be pitted against the class with the second highest average, and the third highest is competing against the fourth highest scores. Even with some special rules, a significant gap in basic academic ability between the lower classes and Class A, which has high academic ability, can greatly affect the outcome."

As of the beginning of December, class points were 1250 for Sakayanagi's Class A and 985 for Horikita's Class B.

If we win the head-to-head matchup, we'd close the gap to 165 points with the 100 class points we'd gain.

Furthermore, we'll be on track to surpass the 1,000 class points mark for the first time since enrollment.

On the other hand, Ryuuen's Class C had 684 points and Ichinose's Class D had 655 points. If Ichinose wins, they'll be back in Class C, but if they lose, the gap between them and Class A will be doubled. This was a tough situation. But it wouldn't be an easy fight, and in terms of academic ability, we had never once won. While the difference between first and second place may seem slim, the overall academic gap wasn't insignificant.

"The questions are on all the regular subjects that are given in the midterms and final exams. The questions will range from relatively easy to extremely difficult, and will be as difficult as, if not more difficult than, the regular written exams."

Although this class had shown a remarkable rate of growth, it was unlikely that they'll be able to turn it around, even if the class studies hard for the upcoming two weeks.

"Now I'm going to tell you all something. Even you all have a good chance of winning."

The details of the special exam, as it was called, were revealed on the monitor.

[Special exam at the end of the second semester. A cooperative comprehensive written test in which the whole class will solve a total of 100 questions.]

[Outline of Special Exam]

RULES:

● Students solve the problems one by one in a predetermined order. ● A student may solve no more than five problems, but students must solve at least two, regardless of whether they are correct or incorrect. ● Each student will be given a maximum of ten minutes, including the time to enter and leave the room.

● All students except those challenging the exam must wait in a separate room. ● Only students who are waiting for their turn should wait in front of the entrance.

● If the time limit is exceeded, the student will be disqualified and will not receive any points.

● Leaving a written or verbal clue or answer to a question is a violation of the rules.

● If a student is found to be in violation, the exam will be terminated and the student will receive zero points.

SPECIAL BONUSES ACCORDING TO TIME REMAINING:

● 10 points will be given for each additional hour of time remaining. ● If more than 30 minutes are left… 5 points

● If more than 10 minutes are left… 2 points

● All problems are scored according to the solver's ability (see below), regardless of the question's difficulty level.

● (The solver's ability is based on the OAA academic ability as of January 1.)

Academic Ability A - 1 point

Academic Ability B - 2 points

Academic Ability C - 3 points

Academic Ability D - 4 points

Academic Ability E - 5 points

A test in which the number of points obtained increases or decreases according to the student's ability to solve the problems, regardless of the question's difficulty level.

This is a very unique rule that isn't usually thought of. It's truly worthy of being called special. There are also +/– ratings in the OAA, but since there seem to be five classifications, students with + may have a slight advantage. "This is a special rule for the written test. Class A, which has a large number of students with high academic ability, seems to have a simple advantage, but the percentage of Class A students with academic ability B or higher in OAA is high. This means that the total number of points obtained will inevitably be less even if they solve the problems. You see what I mean?"

While there were many students in Horikita's class who had made remarkable academic progress, there were still a number of students who ranked toward the lower end of their grade, such as Kei, Satou, Ike, and Shinohara. Although the percentage of correct test answers is low for these students, they would still be able to receive four or five points for each question in this special exam as long as they can derive the correct answer.

Certainly, this wasn't simply a test of academic ability, and we couldn't assume that we were at a disadvantage against Class A.

The match was rather unpredictable, and the outcome was beyond our imagination.

The time remaining in the game is a bonus, but I'm not sure if this is realistic or not.

The timer would start when you put your hand on the door of the classroom and open it. The number of students in Horikita's class is 38. It'd be impossible to make it to the end of the hour without leaving nearly two minutes for each student to clear the timer. Students with lower academic ability tend to make more careless mistakes, and the risk of losing points because of distraction caused by the timer is higher.

The time remaining bonus might've been more of a consideration for the students that had higher academic ability in the OAA.

No, it would still be dangerous to focus on reducing the time loss. "So we have a good chance of winning—it's that kind of special exam, isn't it?"

Soon, Horikita seemed to have grasped the possibility of winning from the rules.

"That's right. Of course, the students in Class A score well in terms of academic ability from the top to the bottom of the class. They will score well. Even

though we have a lot of students around academic level D with the potential for high scores, if they don't answer correctly, they will get zero points." Still, it was much better than going head-to-head.

"I would also like to add something about cheating, which is clearly stated in the rules. It's forbidden to talk with a student who's finished testing while waiting for another student to take over. Students will always be present in their respective classrooms, but they aren't allowed to engage in unnecessary conversation." Everyone was probably aware of the area's strong surveillance. "What happens if I don't show up on the day of the exam...? What happens if a student is absent on the day of the class?"

"If one student is absent, two questions will be unanswerable, and if two students are absent, four questions will be unanswerable, resulting in zero points." This would be the same as getting disqualified for running out of time. The number of unanswerable questions would be decided at random before the exam starts. Also, although it was unlikely, there won't be a change in class points in the event of a tie with an opponent.

The strategy of intentionally letting someone be absent won't work, only putting you at a disadvantage.

Classes with a large number of students, such as Ichinose's and Ryuuen's classes, would have an advantage because they'll be given more time to solve problems, but it doesn't affect the number of points earned by solving problems. The effect the class population has on the score would be minimal since it would be more efficient and ideal for the students with low OAA ratings, who are the central pieces of the class and can act as an ambush, to solve the five questions. However, the coincidence of having the same number of students in the same class against each other makes this idea itself meaningless.

"We need to discuss and think about how we can possibly beat Class A." Like a mother watching over her children, Chabashira-sensei spoke. "We've set a date for the special exam, but we've decided to allow time for it until just before the winter break. The scope of the test is huge, so we decided that we'd need that much time. It's a lot of work, but if we win, it will put us even closer to the A level. That's all."

The extent of the test will be announced tomorrow, and that was the end of the discussion here.

Schedule

December 22… Special exam day

December 23... Announcement of special exam Results, End of 2nd Semester Ceremony

It was just before the end of the second semester, just in time. Still, there were only three weeks left until the test.

While the more academically advanced students usually had a different attitude towards their studies and require minimal preparation time, the key to victory lay with the students whose academic abilities were below average. "We looked at each of the others' classes in the OAA to see how they're doing. The maximum score our Class B can get is naturally higher than that of Class A's since we have more students with D and E academic ratings. This means that if we play an ideal game, we can win 100% of the time."

Since the classes that have more students with lower academic ability in the OAA can score more points, there was a lower limit to the number of points that Class A students could get, no matter how hard they try.

The only way to win would be to exceed the opponent's maximum score by even one point.

And, well, this was just an empty theory. We were talking about a paper-thin probability.

With nearly 40 students participating, it was next to impossible to get a perfect score. Taking into account what Chabashira-sensei said and the rules of the special exam, we could expect that the percentage of difficult questions wasn't very low.

If the problems could easily be solved by students with E or D academic abilities, it'd be rather unbalanced.

It would be an unreasonable special exam that was disadvantageous to classes with high academic ability.

A study group was a must, but it was doubtful whether or not it would be enough to lead us to victory.

"It's also important to consider who solves how many problems and who they'll pass the baton to next."

Yousuke, in a calm tone, asked Horikita as if to confirm his answer.

"Yes. If we think of it simply, it's easy to understand that the students with low academic ability should be brought to the front and asked to solve as many problems as they can…"

The time limit was 10 minutes. The ability to read the questions also depends greatly on the ability of the students.

It may be a challenge just to find easy questions out of the 100 on the test. If the more advanced students could solve the more difficult questions first, it would take less time for the less advanced students to find the right questions and they'd be able to concentrate on them more calmly.

Who can and can't solve which kinds of problems?

Knowing this and taking command of the situation is also a way to win. There may have been several other methods. In the end, it was important to decide early on which strategy to adopt and start the class working toward it. "Chabashira-sensei said there's a chance to win, but… a disadvantage is a disadvantage."

"If they score well, we probably won't win. The opponent is Class A after all."

Some of my classmates began to voice such opinions.

Class A had never been below the other classes in the purely written exams' total scores. Even with the special rules, they remained a formidable opponent. "This time, we're up against Class A, but in reality, we're up against ourselves. We don't care what strategies our opponents come up with, and we don't need to be particularly preoccupied with the fact that Sakayanagi-san is our opponent."

She emphasized the reality of our difficult opponents, but it wasn't what was on the outside but what was on the inside that we must face.

"I'll think about a strategy as much as I can. In the meantime, I need you guys to study as much as you can."

Until now, or more precisely, until a few weeks ago, the class had been studying for their final exams. Even though it was a student's duty to study, they

were tired of having to study again in such a short period of time.

Still, not a single student expressed any complaints.

"We will back you all up as much as we can."

Yousuke answered in response to Horikita, the student who taught at the study sessions, such as Keisei and Mii-chan.

"Hey! I'm getting motivated! Personally, I'm a little bit conflicted because my OAA has gone up, but I'm going to make my contribution."

Sudou, who had received an E rating for academic achievement, had now improved to a C+ rating.

The points he could score were lower than before, but he made a big leap forward in his ability.

If he hadn't been able to do so, he would've had a hard time even solving the problems.