Chapter 198: Everything is Simple and Beautiful ③
After the flag raising ceremony, the homeroom teacher said a few words and then let the students find their own exam rooms. The classmates chatted and laughed, saying words of encouragement, and went straight to the notice board to find their exam rooms.
Nie Qiu had already checked which classroom she was in according to her student number and the assigned letter at the notice board. The classroom for Class 1 of the second grade was her exam room. After finding her class, Nie Qiu found her seat according to the name on the desk in the classroom.
To be honest, for someone who likes to cheat, Nie Qiu’s seat was very good, in the last row by the door, but Nie Qiu was not prepared to cheat, nor did she want to cheat, so she had no use for such a good position. Most of the surrounding candidates were strangers, a mix of first, second, and third graders. Originally, two people sat at a desk when attending class, and two people also sat at a desk during the monthly exam, but during the final exam, only one person sat at a desk, so there were only about twenty to thirty people in the entire classroom.
Nie Qiu was determined to get that scholarship, so she was naturally not complacent. She kept recalling the knowledge she had learned in her mind. To be honest, if she were to take the exam, she would definitely pass and do well; it was a matter of how familiar she was with the knowledge and how careful she was. Many people would lose a lot of points due to a small oversight. She hoped that she could finish all the questions within the allotted time and still have time to check them several times.
It was the final exam, so everyone had taken their books and other things from their desks home. The only things they had with them were the stationery needed for the exam.
Li Kai was on the other side of Nie Qiu’s exam room. As he walked past Nie Qiu’s exam room, he walked in from the front, went to Nie Qiu’s desk, and said with a smile, “Nie Qiu, don’t forget what you promised me yesterday.”
Nie Qiu smiled and nodded at Li Kai.
“Nie Qiu, good luck,” Li Kai said with a smile.
“You too,” Nie Qiu also smiled, “Good luck.”
When the class bell rang, it signaled the start of the exam. Li Kai left Nie Qiu’s exam room and went to his own. Two invigilators entered the classroom with the exam papers, said a few words, and then began distributing them.
As usual, the first exam was Chinese. For Nie Qiu, Chinese was her strongest subject. Compared to physics and chemistry, she preferred Chinese and English. She was a professor, but also a person. When she was young, girls generally preferred liberal arts subjects, while boys preferred science subjects. She was no exception and preferred liberal arts. Although there were always exceptions, with boys good at liberal arts and girls good at science, those were only a minority.
After receiving the exam paper, Nie Qiu quickly scanned it, then filled in the required information such as school, class, and student number. Then she did the multiple-choice questions. After finishing them, she filled in her school, class, name, and student number on the answer sheet and began to fill in the answers on the answer sheet.
This kind of answer sheet did not exist when she was studying. It was later introduced to make it easier for teachers grading exams, using machine-readable cards so that machines could determine scores. However, while it made things convenient for teachers, it was inconvenient for students. Sometimes, questions that were answered correctly would be marked incorrectly on the answer sheet, or if one was not careful, one mistake would lead to another. Teacher Yang had also emphasized many times in class that the machine-readable cards needed to be checked carefully and repeatedly.
After filling in the answer sheet, Nie Qiu checked it several more times to be sure before putting the machine-readable card aside. She then began to work on the fill-in-the-blanks, reading comprehension, practical application, and essay questions. Chinese exams were nothing more than these types of questions.
Nie Qiu also wrote her essay very smoothly. After finishing, she looked at the clock in the classroom. It would be more than ten minutes before the broadcast announced the collection of papers. Nie Qiu did not waste any time and slowly began to check her questions. After checking three times, the broadcast began to play for the first time, “The time to collect papers is approaching. Please students carefully check your exam papers, fill in your school, class, name, and student number. After checking, you may submit your papers.”
Nie Qiu had already checked her paper. Unlike some people in the classroom who became flustered upon hearing the broadcast, Nie Qiu stood up upon hearing it, took her exam paper, and walked towards the lectern. She handed the paper to the invigilator with both hands and said with a smile, “Teacher, I’m submitting my paper.” As long as the first broadcast was made, one could submit their paper.
Because the exam room was mixed with first, second, and third graders, the papers were not collected by the invigilators. They were directly handed to the invigilators, who would then sort them by grade.
“Okay, you can go out after submitting your paper,” the invigilator said, taking Nie Qiu’s paper. He was always gentle with polite students.
Nie Qiu was the first to submit her paper, and the invigilator looked at her several times. Because there were twenty to thirty students in each exam room, but there were two invigilators, the two teachers stood in the two aisles. They were well aware of anyone making even the slightest movement. They did not expect that this girl, who had not made any small movements, would be the first to submit her paper. The first person to submit their paper was either someone who had written nothing and messed around, resulting in a poor score, or someone who had finished everything and had a good score. Since she was the first to submit, even without deliberately looking at the paper, a glance from the corner of their eye could see that the paper was neat, the writing was neat, and the structure was clear. They thought, perhaps she was from the fast class! To their surprise, when they looked at the class column, they saw Class 10, so they couldn’t help but be a little surprised, which is why they looked at Nie Qiu a few times.
There were rumors in the office about the changes in Class 10. The subject teachers for Class 10 naturally praised Class 10, saying how much so-and-so had improved. There were also the paintings, calligraphy, and essays on the notice board. This was the first time since the implementation of the fast and slow class system that works by students from Class 10 were seen on the notice board promoting a learning atmosphere.
For this exam, he was somewhat looking forward to seeing the results of Class 10. Regardless, if they had put in the effort, the results shouldn’t be too bad. Before the second broadcast, people started coming up to submit their papers one after another. He also came back to his senses and sorted the submitted papers one by one. There were a total of ten third graders, ten second graders, and ten first graders. Although the seating was mixed, sorting them was still quick.
Nie Qiu stood on the corridor outside the exam room feeling good about herself. She leaned on the balcony with both hands, looking at the bright sun in the sky. As the weather gradually cooled down, when the sun came out and water vapor rose, the air would be quite cool. Fortunately, Nie Qiu was wearing enough clothes. She looked up at the sky, and there were white clouds.
“Nie Qiu, how was it? How did you do on your exam?” Huang Yan, after submitting her paper and leaving the classroom, saw Nie Qiu standing in the corridor. Huang Yan and Li Kai were in the same exam room but sat far apart, while Huang Yan’s exam room was adjacent to Nie Qiu’s.
