8

After catching his breath, Rajesh Kumar began to recall the Senior High School Knowledge that he had just integrated into his memory.

The Expert level of Senior High School Knowledge enabled Rajesh Kumar to know all the senior high school courses like the back of his hand.

Rajesh Kumar had grasped all the knowledge points of every course.

Rajesh Kumar majored in Science, but after achieving a Master's level of Senior High School Knowledge skills, he also remembered everything related to the Humanities.

He even completely grasped liberal education subjects such as fine arts, music, calligraphy, sports, and technical education.

All the contents that needed to be memorized over the three years of senior high school seemed to have taken root in Rajesh Kumar's memory.

Rajesh Kumar was confident that he could easily answer any senior high school questions.

Through this Senior High School Knowledge skill, Rajesh Kumar finally understood the difference between the expert and master levels.

At the Expert level, he had memorized all the content and knowledge points. He could answer any question as long as there were similar ones in the textbooks.

As for the Master level, besides the Expert level abilities, the most important thing was the ability to truly digest and internalize the knowledge.

At the Master level, regardless of whether there were similar questions in the textbooks, he could answer a question as long as the content was not beyond the scope of the course.

Even if it was a question that was beyond the scope of the course, Rajesh Kumar could still quickly answer it if he could make inferences based on existing knowledge.

Rajesh Kumar only took a few seconds to sort out this harvest of knowledge.

Then, out of habit, he raised his hand and glanced at his watch.

Only then did he realize that there were only three minutes left until the end of the evening self-study session.

"What a huge loss... I've wasted a class." Rajesh Kumar's heart ached. 40 minutes. If he had listened attentively to the class, he could have obtained 400 experience value points.

With 400 experience value points, he could have upgraded his Student profession by at least one level.

"I can't waste time. I want to listen to the class properly. I want the experience value points." After Rajesh Kumar secretly said this, he looked at the podium with steely determination.

At this moment, mathematics cum technology teacher Shweta Devi was explaining an Olympiad question.

The entire blackboard was filled with the solution to this question.

Teacher Shweta Devi was giving her best on the podium, trying to explain the solution to her students in the simplest way possible.

However, other than a few good students, the others were all not following.

Rajesh Kumar's gaze fell on the question. Just by reading the question once, five different solutions came naturally to his mind.

In his mind, each solution had detailed steps.

The answer appeared in his mind after thinking for a split second.

Rajesh Kumar's eyes turned to the bottom of the blackboard.

The final answer was there.

It was the same as what he had obtained through mental arithmetic.

Rajesh Kumar's face was beaming.

Then, Rajesh Kumar looked at Teacher Shweta Devi's step-by-step solution.

Rajesh Kumar frowned because he realized that the solution that Teacher Shweta Devi used was the most complicated of the five methods he knew. It was the trickiest method that was most prone to errors.

He shook his head and whispered to himself, "Although the solution is based on common knowledge points and is not beyond the syllabus, the steps are too complicated and the thought process is too convoluted. It's too difficult. How can ordinary people understand it?"

Rajesh Kumar's soft words fell into Meena Sharma's ears. Her originally distressed face twitched, and a sneer appeared on her face.

She had been listening attentively to the solution and was still a little confused. There were many aspects of the solution that she couldn't grasp.

Rajesh Kumar had been sleeping soundly since class started.

How could he possibly have understood the solution to the question by just taking a glance after waking up?

How was this possible?

"Without the teacher's explanation, even if the standard solution was placed in front of you, you wouldn't understand it."

"Rajesh Kumar's grades have always been bad, yet he dared think he could understand the solution himself..." Meena Sharma shook her head lightly. After despising him in her heart, she shifted her focus back to the questions on the blackboard.

Through this question, Rajesh Kumar got an intuitive sense of the amount of knowledge he had currently grasped.

He estimated that even if he were to take the university entrance examination now, he would score at least 730 marks.

He wouldn't go so far as to think he would score full marks because there were more subjective topics like essay writing.

"...Alright, that's all for this class!" After the bell rang, Teacher Shweta Devi ended the class.

The quiet classroom started bustling instantly.

"Students, quieten down. There's something else I want to announce..." Teacher Shweta Devi, her big belly bulging out, said with a straight face. Her bright eyes swept across the classroom.

She had a very special ability to be serious and expressionless no matter what she was talking about.

This was especially so when she was cracking a joke. When others are bent over laughing, she would still keeps her poker face. No matter how high a threshold someone had for jokes, she could make him laugh his head off.

"This year's Junior Informatics Programming Competition has begun. Students who are especially good at programming come to me to sign up for it." Other than being a math teacher for Grade 12 Class 5, she was also a technical teacher, although she had never taught technical classes...

"You can come to me now, or tomorrow."

"The top 50 teams of this competition, within the national competition zone, will be granted direct admission to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)..."

When she said this, many students exclaimed in awe.

"There's such a route for admission to IIT." This was the first time many students had heard of this competition.

...

"If I had known about this competition, I would have spent all the time I used playing games to learn programming."

"Teacher, I want to participate in the competition! With my intelligence, I think I can learn programming now."

Amidst the commotion, Teacher Shweta Devi continued calmly, "Anyone can sign up."

"But our school has a limited number of slots."

"That's why we will organize selection tests for students who sign up."

"The tests are very difficult. The main content is programming in C language."

"If you're just an amateur, or if you are planning to learn at the last minute, don't waste my time."

Instantly, many students who were eager to try went silent.

This was because while they knew what programming was about, none of them had ever learned proper programming.

After Shweta Devi finished speaking, her gaze swept across everyone again. She asked, "Does anyone want to sign up?"

"Teacher, I want to sign up." Chetan Chauhan raised his hand. He was the person who had just said that he was smart and could learn programming in time for the competition.

...

"Chetan Chauhan, answer my question first.

What is a pointer?" Shweta Devi asked with a straight face.

"What on earth..." Chetan Chauhan was stunned. How would he know this?

"Sit down. You've been eliminated," Shweta Devi said seriously.

"Teacher Shweta, didn't you say that the selection tests are tomorrow?" Chetan Chauhan said indignantly.

"Yes, but you have to pass my selection first," Shweta Devi said seriously.

"Damn!" Chetan Chauhan was mad and said aggrievedly, "Teacher, you didn't say so earlier."

"Yes, I'm saying it now!" Shweta Devi was unmoved and replied seriously.

"Haha!" The students in the classroom were all amused by Shweta Devi's serious reply. They were all tickled.

"Does anyone else want to sign up?" Shweta Devi looked especially innocent as if she didn't know what her students were laughing about.

With Chetan Chauhan's encounter earlier, who else would raise their hands? The entire classroom was silent.

Rajesh Kumar didn't move at all. He had learned computing basics, operating system principles, and assembly language. As for C language, he hadn't started learning it yet. Even if he stood up now, he wouldn't be able to pass Teacher Shweta's test.

Meena Sharma had been observing Rajesh Kumar. Seeing that Rajesh Kumar hadn't stood up, she shook her head again.

"He had bragged earlier that he wanted to participate in the Junior Informatics Programming Competition. Now, he can't even sign up."

"Haha... Ridiculous."