Top Scholar

Chapter 232 Active Exam Preparation

Mr. Liu's home, which had been quiet for a long time, had never been as lively as it was today.

The main room was packed with his students. There were so many people that there was nowhere to sit, and most of them had to stand. Each of them held a bowl of stewed mutton, the meat and vegetables soaking in the thick red broth, and they ate with grease dripping from their mouths.

"Delicious, so delicious!" The students kept praising the food as they ate, even using broken pieces of flatbread to wipe the last bit of red soup at the bottom of their bowls clean.

"No, no, not at all." The teacher's wife laughed when she saw this. "There are still side dishes stewing in the pot."

The young men cheered and went to the kitchen to get another bowl. Although it was just side dishes like radish, taro, dried bean curd, and tofu, it was so delicious that they couldn't stop eating it after soaking up the rich mutton soup!

Watching his students enjoy the meal his wife prepared, Mr. Liu felt that this was happiness.

He said gratefully to Su Lu, who was sitting beside him, "Thank you, Hongzhi, you saved us all!"

"That's right, that's right, it's like a second life for you, brother!" The classmates looked at Su Lu with deep gratitude.

"I only helped a little. The key is that you and the gentleman didn't give up, which is why things turned out so well." Su Lu quickly shook his head and smiled, "With this spirit, you will all get better, whether I'm here or not!"

“Hongzhi is too modest.” Mr. Liu shook his head and said, “Without your guidance and insightful advice, no matter how hard we at Zhengyizhai try, we will never catch up with Chengxinzhai.”

“Yes…” Deng Dengying and the others said with deep feeling, “We studied hard before, and the teacher taught very well, but we were always a little lacking in exams. It was like we had a lot of strength but couldn’t use it. But under your guidance, we learned how to exert our strength.”

"That's right, that's right." The classmates nodded in agreement. "Whenever we encounter a problem that we can't solve, he gives us a few pointers and we suddenly understand. He's really on a higher level."

"Not at all," Su Lu said with a smile, waving his hand. He thought to himself, "This isn't a matter of skill, it's professionalism."

"You've already caught up with Chengxinzhai?" Wang Zihua, who had taken a year off from school, was dumbfounded.

"We've not only caught up, we've completely crushed them!" the classmates exclaimed proudly. They hadn't mentioned it before, afraid of upsetting Wang.

“You could say that!” Mr. Liu pulled out the tear-stained report card from his sleeve and handed it to him.

Wang Zihua took it and stared in disbelief. "What...what exactly happened this past year?"

"It's just like what you see..." the classmates laughed, "Our Zhengyi Zhai has truly stood up!"

"What did I miss?" Wang Zihua looked at Deng Dengying, Lei Shengyuan and others who were not as good as him before, and they had all squeezed into the top ten. He couldn't help but feel extremely regretful and said, "If I had known this, I wouldn't have studied at home."

"Haha, Zihua, don't worry. Under Hongzhi's guidance, I'm a completely different teacher now." Mr. Liu quickly comforted him with a smile, "Next year I'll teach you from scratch and make sure you're at the top of your class too!"

This long-lost confidence brought tears to the teacher's wife's eyes; this was the Ah Chuan husband she remembered!

“That’s right, if you go to take the imperial examination now, you’re guaranteed to pass every time!” a rash fellow blurted out.

The main room fell silent instantly. All the classmates stared at that reckless fool. Didn't this idiot know what had happened between the teacher and his wife?!

Sure enough, the teacher's wife also looked at Liu Jiang and Liu Dachuan nervously.

Mr. Liu calmly shook his head and said, "I've decided not to take the exam again. The examiner last time was right. Even if someone like me, who's in their forties or fifties, passes the exam and gets a degree, how long can I hold office? I don't have the energy to keep up anymore. I should give the opportunity to the younger generation."

As he spoke, he looked at his wife and said, "I'd rather focus on teaching the young people and living our lives well."

The teacher's wife breathed a sigh of relief and said happily, "It's good that you've come to your senses. At your age, why would you go through that kind of suffering? I was really afraid something bad would happen to you."

"I'm not taking the exam anymore!" Mr. Liu exclaimed with a sigh of relief, then spontaneously composed a quatrain:

"The young scholar took off his robe and hung it on the pillar; only at fifty did he realize the true taste of the world."

The scriptures are inscribed in quiet contemplation, the lamplight casts a gentle glow, and the swallows chirp in the kitchen, a warm breeze stirs the air.

"Excellent!" The students cheered enthusiastically, knowing that their teacher had truly let go this time.

"The future depends on you all." Mr. Liu then asked the students with a smile, "Are you all planning to take the county exam in a month?"

"Yes." The disciples all nodded.

Coincidentally, there will be the preliminary examinations for children in the next two years, so many students will choose to take the exam next year. If they pass, they can directly advance to the next level of education and become students. Even if they don't pass, they can still gain experience and have a better chance next time.

Of course, most of the students present were destined to be mere accomplices this year. After all, the upperclassmen had studied for an extra year. And the previous graduates had far more experience than them…

"Even if it's just to gain experience, you need to be well-prepared before you enter the arena." Mr. Liu said in a deep voice, "Don't rest before the New Year! Come here and I'll give you ten days of free coaching, and I guarantee you won't be nervous when you enter the arena next year!"

"Thank you, sir!" The students were overjoyed. Their teacher had taught in the Wenzhan Hall years ago and possessed extremely rich experience in exam preparation!
So before the Lunar New Year, Su Lu received ten days of intensive pre-exam training from Mr. Liu.

Over the course of ten days, Mr. Liu did not lecture on any articles. Instead, he talked about various precautions, key points of the exam, test-taking skills, and various taboos and prohibitions.

It's very important to understand these things; otherwise, you'll suffer a great loss...

For example, in culturally developed regions like Jiangsu and Zhejiang, there were so many scholars that the number of candidates for the imperial examinations in each county could reach several thousand. To accommodate younger students, the examinations were divided into two groups: those who had reached adulthood and those who had not, with separate questions for each group. That is, older candidates (over twenty years old) took one set of questions, while younger candidates (under twenty) took another.

The questions without a title are relatively simple, and the requirements for answering practical questions are also relatively low, so as to select as many promising young people as possible, rather than letting older candidates occupy all the spots.

Sichuan is a remote area, so there aren't many test takers, and there's no way to create separate exams for all candidates; they all take the same test. However, Mr. Liu told the students that when discussing practical issues, they could start their answers with phrases like "a novice's explanation," to explain to the examiners the immaturity of their thought process.

"You can do that?" the students exclaimed in surprise.

“Of course.” Mr. Liu nodded and said with a wry smile, “Although there is no explicit regulation, most county and prefectural officials, without exception, prefer to select young talents. So when they see these four words, they will subconsciously relax the requirements for you.”

Valuable experience!
~~
There are also lessons learned from the blood and tears of past test takers, such as the need to "check the exam paper three times after it's distributed":
First, check the page numbers. In exams at the prefecture and county levels, due to the limited competence and perfunctory attitude of the examination staff, missing or extra pages often appear. Upon receiving the answer sheet, always check the page numbers first; if any are found, report them immediately and request a replacement.

Second, check the seal. The upper right corner of the first page must be stamped with the "Seal of the County Confucian Academy"; if there is no seal, the scroll is invalid.

Thirdly, check the seams. Each answer sheet has a seal indicating the seams are aligned; if it doesn't, the sheet is invalid…

Mr. Liu told them that every exam, some people have their papers invalidated for these three reasons. But if they just take a few moments to check, there won't be any problems.

There are also some other points of knowledge, such as—when listing points in policy essays, each point should begin with 'firstly' or 'secondly', and avoid using 'firstly' or 'secondly'; when supplementing sentences in classical texts, if you forget the next sentence, use the '□' symbol to separate it, and never leave blanks, because examiners will reject you if they see blanks... These kinds of knowledge points, although not life-threatening, are enough to greatly reduce your chances of being admitted.

~~
On the sixth day, Mr. Liu explained various emergency solutions, such as how to correct mistakes or omissions in transcribing; how to find a workaround for unfamiliar or difficult questions; and what to do if time runs out and you can't finish the paper.

"If we can't finish answering, then so be it," the students laughed. "We're definitely going to fail anyway."

“Wrong.” Mr. Liu shook his head and said, “For example, in the county examination, there are often thousands of papers. The first, second, and third masters take the exam together, plus the secretaries, each of them still has to look at hundreds of papers.”

He then gave the students a sly smile and said, "Do you think they can keep up?"

"It's hard to say," the students said.

"There's simply not enough time to look at them all, and the second and third masters are just helping out, so they won't really be looking at them properly. Basically, we use the first question on the Four Books to determine who's better, and for the rest, we just glance at them; if there aren't any problems, that's fine," Mr. Liu said with a smile.

"So don't panic if you can't finish the questions later. You can ask the examiner for a candle. In the preliminary examination, you can have a second candle, but if you don't ask, the examiner will definitely not give it to you. Write the beginning and the end before the candle burns out, and just make do with the middle part. You might be able to pass."

"Of course, in that case, you can forget about being ranked first. The top scorer's paper will be reviewed by everyone, so the examiners will definitely not be lenient," Mr. Liu added.

"We can't even finish answering all the questions, and you're still testing us for being the best?" The students laughed and said, "We'll be grateful if we can just pass."

~~
Even after you finish the exam, there are many things to pay attention to; if you're not careful, you'll fall into a trap.

For example, avoid submitting your paper first. Since the first paper will be strictly checked, it's better to repeatedly check and refine your answers than to rush to submit your paper.

Do not fold the exam paper. The answer sheet should be flat; folding corners will result in a deduction of points.

After submitting your paper, you must first bow to the examiners; turning your back to them is considered disrespectful and will result in immediate disqualification.

Even after returning home, one must immediately burn all the draft papers to avoid being framed...

The test takers were horrified. They wondered what terrible experiences those predecessors had gone through to come up with these lessons.

~~
On the last day, Mr. Liu taught us various taboos.

Back then, Mr. Zhang taught Su Lu how to avoid using the names of emperors. Simply put, the names of emperors throughout the dynasty and Confucius and Mencius are taboo words, and must be omitted when writing them.

Mr. Liu also instructed Su Lu that he needed to avoid using the names of officials, that is, the names of the examiners. He even had to avoid using the names of the examiners' fathers and grandfathers.

The same principle applies: although there are no explicit rules, if you displease the examiner, they will definitely reject you.

"However, you can't use a character with a missing stroke in your official name, otherwise the magistrate will just burn your paper, which would be even more troublesome," Mr. Liu reminded him.
"In this situation, change the word if possible; if you really can't change it, use a phonetic loan character. The official will know it at a glance."

P.S. The next chapter hasn't been checked yet...

(End of this chapter)