Chapter 45 The English Teacher's Ultimate Trick

"Alright, students, we've gone through all the multiple-choice questions. Are there any other parts you don't understand?"

Holding her English test papers, Zhang Lijuan walked up and down the classroom. Seeing that no one spoke, she continued, "Very well, then let's look at the final composition question!"

As her voice trailed off, the classroom was filled with the rustling of turning test papers.

"This composition task is relatively simple, but after grading hundreds of papers, I've found that the biggest issue is that many of you tend to overly pursue advanced vocabulary while neglecting the most basic grammar rules. This leads to countless errors, which is also the main reason why most students don't score high.

The essence of an exam is to secure a high score. If you write a word you think is advanced, even if you spell it right, you won't get any points if the sentence itself is grammatically incorrect.

On the contrary, even if you write a very simple sentence with basic vocabulary, as long as the phrasing is smooth and free of grammatical errors, you won't be penalized. At the very least, you'll get all the points you deserve!

Take the word 'toilet' for example. You write WC, someone else writes Toilets, and she writes Bathroom—essentially, they all mean the same thing, but the longer the word, the easier it is to make a mistake!

Don't assume that the grading teachers will give you high scores just because you used an advanced word.

Just imagine: the foreign language exam finishes on the afternoon of July 9th, and by that very night, the papers arrive in the provincial capital. The grading begins over the next half month.

You must remember, that period is the hottest time of the year. The ones grading the papers are teachers, not machines. Being human, they are inevitably influenced by their emotions. In the first few days, perhaps the teachers grade very carefully.

However, after half a month spent in a sealed environment—a place as hot as a steamer—even with electric fans blowing, it's impossible to beat the suffocating heat.

Your paper will stay in the grader's hands for no more than a minute. The first things they check are grammar and spelling. They read it once, and if it feels fine, they grade it. As for bonus points for advanced vocabulary, who has the time to look for such trivialities?

Don't think the graders are some extraordinary figures. The truly brilliant minds are all contributing to the nation's construction. Most of those teachers graduated from normal colleges, and some of their proficiency might even be lower than yours! Do you really think they'll fully grasp the profound vocabulary you write?"

When Zhang Lijuan finished speaking, the atmosphere in the classroom instantly livened up.

Seeing this, Zhang Lijuan continued:

"English is a subject where you can raise your score very quickly. With just over ten days left until the college entrance examination, if you memorize one model essay a day, you can slightly modify and use it when the exam arrives, and your score won't be low.

Thanks to this year's college entrance examination reform, foreign language scores are fully counted toward the total score. With such a straightforward subject, isn't it practically picking up free points at the exam?

Besides, in this English course, whatever you memorize from the textbook is what you write on the test paper. Words don't change, right?"

As long as you thoroughly chew through the textbook, your grades won't be low!

It's not like mathematics. When you study functions, it's functions; when you study geometry, it's geometry. What you learn are isolated topics, right?"

"Right!"

Hearing the students' response, Zhang Lijuan was very satisfied.

"But what about during the exam? Mathematics changes. When testing geometry, it turns into functions; when testing functions, it turns into geometry, and then they throw in a moving point. Even if you recognize the concept, can you actually solve it?

There are no such knowledge points in the textbook, but what about English? You can find identical versions of most vocabulary in the textbook, and even if you don't recognize a few words, you can roughly guess their meaning from the context!"

Standing on the podium, Zhang Lijuan carefully and earnestly explained every single knowledge point, imparting English study methods and score-boosting techniques to the students. One could say she held nothing back, bringing out all her ultimate skills.

Faced with the students' eager gazes, she felt a tinge of regret that she hadn't studied a bit more knowledge back when she was in school. That way, she could impart more wisdom to her students and help them face the college entrance examination with much more composure!

Yang Xingwu deeply agreed with the English teacher's perspective. In this era, there were no such things as supplementary prep materials. Many students' textbooks first wore out until they became thick and dog-eared, then wore down thin, and finally fell apart completely, as they spent every day gnawing away at the textbooks.

Brilliant students could memorize the textbooks cover to cover, but the exam questions for the college entrance examination always managed to find people's blind spots.

English was different. Just as Teacher Zhang said, if you thoroughly mastered the English textbook, your score wouldn't drop below seventy points.

This was precisely why Zhang Lijuan had previously urged everyone to memorize more English vocabulary during early morning self-study!

As for subjects like mathematics, physics, and chemistry, the scope of what could be tested was simply too vast.

The school used past college entrance exam papers and recent preliminary exam questions as blueprints, adapting them into all sorts of variations, printing them out, and having the students drill the problems.

When Yang Xingwu first arrived at school and witnessed this situation, he had even considered publishing some mathematics supplementary books.

Yet, the moment the thought crossed his mind, he immediately snuffed it out.

Doing such a thing right now would be exhausting and unrewarding. In an era where "all pursuits are base, only book learning is high," it was undoubtedly digging one's own grave.

First of all, parents and teachers certainly wouldn't understand, and there was a high probability that some jealous busybody would report him, ruining his own future.

His family already had over a thousand yuan in savings, so they weren't lacking money for the time being. There was no need to take such a risk!

Besides, he had been reborn. If he wanted to make money, there were far too many opportunities. Catching just one trend would be enough for him to spend the second half of his life free from worries about food and clothing.

Why be in such a rush to make money? It wasn't like he was so poor he couldn't survive.

Although he was merely an ordinary small-town test-prep veteran who couldn't find too many roads to immense wealth, he still knew basic strategies like hoarding goods to drive up prices or investing in real estate and land. He wouldn't dare claim he'd become super wealthy, but making a few million wouldn't be too difficult.

And that assumed everything remained at a standstill. Once he entered university, accumulated social connections and networks, multiplying his assets several times over wouldn't be a problem!

Therefore, there was currently zero need for him to ruin his future over this paltry sum of money!

As for selling the green wheat ears earlier, it was simply because the family was on the verge of running out of food and faced a crisis of survival, leaving him no other choice.

Even now, he still felt a bit fortunate that no one had reported him!

Perhaps someone had reported it, but the matter was suppressed.

The village chief must have exerted a tremendous amount of effort. Thinking of this, Yang Xingwu resolved to repay him once he had the ability!

Pulling his thoughts back, Yang Xingwu listened as the English teacher continued explaining the test paper.

"Now that I've discussed everyone's common flaws, let's talk about the results of this month's examination. Quite a few students showed clear progress.

Take student Yang Xingwu, for example. On the preliminary English exam, he scored 62 points, but on this monthly exam, he scored 75. In just one month, student Yang Xingwu improved by 13 points. If he keeps this up until the college entrance exam, he still has a chance to break 80 points. By then, even just a 20-point boost in English alone will allow him to surpass quite a few people!

I hope everyone can learn from his example. Many of you have English grades better than Yang Xingwu's, but some became complacent, and your grades regressed. As for who you are, I won't name names!

Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back. English is doubly so!

You might not feel anything from skipping vocabulary memorization for a day, but skip it for three days and you'll grow rusty! Skip it for a week and many words will be forgotten!

Students, there's only half a month left. You must work hard!"