Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

Chapter 150: Back to Last Place

When the English test review began, Li Zhao overheard some classmates' complaints and grumbling, and only then did he realize—

It turns out that in these people's eyes, getting even one question wrong is unacceptable, and not being confident about filling in a few blanks is enough to say that the exam was a failure.

Li Zhao took a special look at Wu Weisong's paper and found that he had lost 4 points on the essay alone.

It's definitely a mess; there are grammatical errors, the content is loose, and there's not much sophisticated vocabulary.

This also shows that he only lost 3 points on other content—just one multiple-choice reading comprehension question.

That question had a trap, so it's understandable that I got it wrong.

But clearly, getting one question wrong with a 50% error rate was still enough to make Wu Weisong radiate an aura of darkness.

"I underestimated these guys after all," Li Zhao thought to himself.

Everyone was saying they bombed the exam, but they all performed so well. If the other subjects were the same, Li Zhao's controversy over the politics and history essay questions could very well lead to a poor overall score.

The second subject is Chinese.

There's no doubt about our advantage.

Li Zhao scored 115 points, ranking first in the class. He lost 3 points on the composition, 1 point on reading comprehension, and 1 point on classical Chinese reading.

Wang Wenzhao had just said shortly after the start of the school year that everyone should not apply the same expectations they had for grades in elementary school to junior high.

Taking Chinese language as an example, it is easy to get a perfect score in reading comprehension in elementary school, and many people have even achieved a perfect score in composition.

However, in junior high school, if you can write a 45 out of 50 essay, you are considered a top student. In the history of New Taipei First High School, no student has ever received a score of 47 or higher.

The Chinese language test is out of 120 points. Scoring over 100 is already quite good, and scoring over 110 is extremely rare. Normally, no more than ten students in a grade would score that, and even the Experimental Class 1 couldn't possibly achieve it all.

"Everyone needs to have realistic expectations for their grades! This monthly exam will be more difficult, so set your target at 105 points or higher, rather than expecting to get 115!"

Old Wang's words were still echoing in their ears as everyone stared in a daze at Li Zhao's score of 115.

In contrast, in the other classes' monthly exams of normal difficulty, only three students scored above 110, with the highest score being 112.

The difficulty level does seem high; Li Zhao and Song Bowen are truly remarkable.

They achieved higher scores on more difficult exam papers.

Li Zhao, in particular, was a complete slap in the face to Lao Wang—while Lao Wang seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.

When explaining the exam paper, Li Zhao would be called on from time to time, and Li Zhao would stand up and explain his answers and thought process. Then the two of them would start brainstorming and have a small debate on the spot.

Song Bowen felt a surge of excitement again.

My score of 113 isn't that much lower than yours, is it? Although you are indeed better than me, is it really necessary to be so biased?

Then Wang Wenzhao selected him.

As a result, Song Bowen got nervous and stammered his answer, then sat down dejectedly.

Teacher Wang, you should still favor Li Zhao.

For two consecutive Chinese classes, it was Li Zhao's show. He scored 45 points on the composition, which seems to be only 2 points different from Li Zhao's 47 points, but in fact, they are a whole level apart.

One is the first gear under normal circumstances, and the other is overdrive.

Therefore, by the second period, Li Zhao had no test paper left.

It was being circulated among the whole class—he never expected to receive this kind of treatment after coming to the Experimental Class 1 of Xinbei No.1 Middle School.

For Song Bowen, the good news was that his essay was circulated among the whole class, but the bad news was that Li Zhao's test paper was almost finished before someone remembered, "I want to see Bowen's too."

Even so, Wang Wenzhao would still give Li Zhao some pointers on essay writing strategies. Li Zhao was frustrated; he didn't even have the exam paper in his hand.

After three lessons, Li Zhao's prestige was further enhanced.

It's already at the level of dazzling brilliance.

Although the score difference wasn't significant, and although Li Zhao might suddenly falter in subsequent exams, none of this diminished the brilliance of his top ranking in both major subjects after three classes.

The praise had already begun, and the name "Zhao Shen" appeared in the classroom for the first time.

But Li Zhao didn't seem very happy.

In the past, once the scores for these two subjects came out, being first in the grade would have been a sure thing.

It's far from that now.

The next class is history, and a long-lost sense of tension is pounding in Li Zhao's heart.

How long has it been since I felt this worried about my grades?

Every nervous heartbeat feels like the taste of youth.

The moment the thought crossed Li Zhao's mind, he wanted to punch himself.

While other people's youthful heartbeats are fueled by butterflies in their stomachs, Li Zhao's is driven by anticipation of good grades?!

The history teacher was a petite woman with short hair, a round face, and a tall frame. She always seemed weak in her posture, but she had a dry sense of humor when she spoke.

Her surname is Zhou, and her given name is Zhou Yun.

"History should be one of the easier parts of this exam, right?" Liu Changgui said to Zhao Dabao.

"It's alright, better than other subjects."

"Damn it, I feel like math is the only subject that can really create a gap in scores," Liu Changgui said helplessly. "Whether I can catch up with the class monitor depends on math, Weisong, you have to step up your game!"

Wu Weisong simply returned a faint smile.

He didn't seem very happy; his Chinese score was 107 and his English score was 112, both of which were 15 points lower than Li Zhao's.

The score difference is quite exaggerated.

Both were specially invited and recruited, but isn't the difference in their qualifications a bit too great?

The key point is that Li Zhao was still the one who wrote faster in the math exam.

The feeling of being outdone—it's really unpleasant.

"Everyone did very well on this history exam. We achieved an amazing average score." Zhou Yun said, slowly turning around and writing the number "98" on the blackboard.

Wow, an average score of 98 is a score that even the best schools will find hard to replicate once experimental classes are banned in the future.

When the report card was projected onto the screen, the whole class erupted in uproar.

What caused the uproar was not that the top ten all got full marks, nor that there were so many scores of 99 or 98, but that they couldn't find Li Zhao's name anywhere in the row.

Li Zhao did not appear on the list of those who scored full marks, nor even on the list of those who scored above average.

He appeared in a conspicuous place, enough to cause an immediate uproar – last place.

95 points.

That's outrageous! 95 points and they're in last place!

Damn, it's just one of them.

Although he is only 5 points behind the first place, Li Zhao is still in the lead in total score.

However, after being a top student for the first three classes, his sudden drop below average and ranking last was clearly difficult for everyone to adjust to.

Many people's first reaction was to look at Li Zhao, but upon seeing Li Zhao's calm and indifferent expression, they all silently turned away.

He Shuyao turned around belatedly, "You seem to have expected this?"

Li Zhao shrugged.

He Shuyao didn't say anything more and turned back.

To Su Wan, this was another very sweet conversation.

Wu Weisong's reaction was stronger than Li Zhao's, because he was wondering how Li Zhao could fail on such a simple history exam, and then the "expected" option came up.

"Look at everyone's reaction, what's wrong? Do you think we have to get a perfect average score?" Zhou Yun said with a smile.

Then their gazes turned back to Li Zhao.

Zhou Yun suppressed her smile, let the test curls fall, and said, "It seems everyone is quite surprised by the class monitor's score."

The teacher was also surprised. Later, I was going to ask everyone to comment on whether the class monitor should have gotten back the 5 points he lost.

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