Chapter 9: Both from Class 6?

Translation made by chatGPT-4

Dong Chao, Xu You's deskmate, couldn't help asking him, seeing how calm Xu You appeared.

"It was harder than before, but I think my performance was still normal."

Xu You didn't want to say too much; everything would be known once the results were out.

"It looks like you did pretty well. Tell me, did you secretly hire a tutor at home for a crash course this month?"

Students who asked for evening self-study leave usually did so because they were taking extra lessons outside, and very few were actually studying by themselves at home.

"No, I mainly studied on my own. But when I encountered something I didn't understand, I would watch some instructional videos online, which were quite good. I can recommend some to you if you want."

Indeed, there are many excellent instructional videos on websites like Bilibili, which are free and can solve some of Xu You's problems.

For example, the "shift of the extremum point" problem in mathematical derivatives.

Xu You had not even heard of this concept at school, probably because the level of math in his class wasn't high enough for the teacher to delve into such deep content.

"Okay, send me the link later. How much do you think you scored? Surely you couldn't have made it into the top 100, could you?"

Xu You thought to himself that making it into the top 100 was almost certain, but he didn't want to say it too directly to spare Dong Chao's feelings.

"Definitely an improvement over last time, but let's wait for the results."

This time it was a joint exam for several key high schools in the city.

To ensure fairness, mixed grading was required.

That is, teachers from each school might not end up grading their own students' papers.

This way, the variance in scoring standards between schools wouldn't lead to discrepancies in scores.

Moreover, there would be a city-wide ranking this time.

Since all the key high schools in the city participated in the joint exam, this ranking was considered highly indicative.

Especially for top-performing students, this ranking could determine their standing in the city and whether they had a chance to aim for top universities.

Due to mixed grading, the release of results would also be slower.

A few days later, after dinner, Xu You was about to go home for self-study as usual.

"Student, your leave slip has expired."

When Xu You showed his leave slip at the gate, he was stopped by the guard.

"Ah? Sorry, my apologies."

Xu You then realized that the one-month evening self-study leave his father had requested for him had already expired.

But at this point, Xu You didn't have time to request a new one.

"Never mind, I'll just stay at school for self-study tonight."

Although it wasn't convenient to speed through questions at school, it was possible to memorize vocabulary.

Xu You hadn't finished memorizing the 3500 words he had bought.

Returning to his seat with his backpack, Dong Chao was also surprised.

"Why, not going home for self-study today?"

"Yeah, the leave slip expired. I'll request a new one tomorrow."

"Finally, we can study together again in the evening! You have no idea how lonely I've been these nights..."

Looking at Dong Chao's face full of acne, Xu You still found the textbooks more appealing.

During the evening self-study, a somewhat unfamiliar teacher entered the classroom.

"Dong Chao, who is this teacher?"

"Ah, this is Mr. Gao Shang from the Olympiad class, you know, the bald and curly one, haven't seen him? Our physics teacher is on maternity leave, so Mr. Gao is substituting for the evening self-study."

Reminded by Dong Chao, Xu You suddenly remembered.

Shengcheng No. 4 Middle School had three top classes in each grade, each with its distinct characteristics.

Classes one and two, known as the Hongzhi classes, were fully focused on excelling in the college entrance examination.

Class three was known as the Olympiad class.

Compared to students in classes one and two, those in class three might not necessarily have higher overall scores.

But they excelled significantly in at least one subject.

Most of them, in addition to their regular studies, aimed to compete in high school subject competitions.

It could be said that this was the most extraordinary class.

Each science teacher in the Olympiad class also took on the teaching for competitions.

Mr. Gao Shang, although only teaching the three top classes, was quite famous among the regular classes.

First, because of his unique name, which was easy to remember.

Second, the stark contrast between his appearance and name was memorable.

Mr. Gao Shang's features were as follows:

His hair was naturally curly, and each curl was distinct.

His hairline featured a Mediterranean landscape.

Baldness and curls were not uncommon on their own.

But combined, they were highly distinctive.

After entering the classroom, Mr. Gao didn't lecture but allowed everyone to study on their own, available for questions.

Knowing his teaching pace might be too fast for regular class students, he didn't take up the self-study time for lecturing.

At this moment, he was more concerned about the final exam results.

Xu You had no questions to ask for the time being, so he opened the 3500 words book and began memorizing vocabulary.

Using deep learning time for memorizing words felt a bit luxurious to Xu You.

But since he wouldn't use up today's energy anyway, it would be a waste not to.

Upon entering the deep learning state, Xu You immediately focused entirely on memorizing words.

This intense concentration made Dong Chao quite envious.

Dong Chao thought, even watching beautiful girls dance wouldn't get him as focused as Xu You.

"No wonder you're so confident about making it into the top 100... Truly terrifying!"

From Dong Chao's perspective, Xu You was not only very serious but also flipped through the pages quickly.

This speed made Dong Chao wonder whether Xu You was memorizing words or just looking at them.

But seeing Xu You so focused, Dong Chao didn't dare to interrupt.

"The results are finally out!"

At that moment, Mr. Gao's phone received the physics scores of the joint exam.

"Not bad, there are still some scores over 90."

This exam, set within the scope of the college entrance examination and taken by key high schools, was not only difficult but also somewhat unconventional.

Overall, the difficulty was higher than that of the regular college entrance examination.

Scoring over 90 on this paper meant the student was fully prepared for the college entrance exam.

"Eh? Two scores over 90?"

Mr. Gao was surprised to find that in addition to the three top classes he taught, two students from regular classes scored over 90.

Considering the pace of review in regular classes, they were just starting the first round of review.

Scoring over 90 in regular classes meant these students were exceptionally outstanding.

"Both from Class 6?"

Mr. Gao was even more surprised to find that these two students were from the Class 6 he was substituting for the evening self-study.

(End of Chapter)