Chapter 46 Submitting College Applications

The English teacher spoke with such heartfelt sincerity that it left quite a few students feeling a twinge of shame.

After the class ended, the students eagerly hugged their English textbooks and began copying vocabulary words, hoping to boost their memory retention.

When school let out that afternoon, the monthly mock exam papers had already been handed back.

The moment they received their papers, the students immediately calculated their respective scores.

Those who had done well beamed with delight.

Because the questions were relatively simple this time, the overall grades for Class 4 of Grade 2 were quite good; even the students with lower academic standing managed to score over 400 points.

This made many of them immensely happy, and the atmosphere in the classroom instantly became lively.

Liu Jiefang looked over his test paper, calculated his total score, and found that he was fast approaching 500 points, which immediately puffed him up with a bit of swagger.

He turned to Liu Jianjun, who was sitting in the row right in front of him, and asked:

"Jianjun, what did you get?"

"465. And you?"

"498!"

"That high?"

Liu Jianjun furrowed his brow slightly upon hearing this.

"If you can get a score like this in the official college entrance examination, getting into a regular undergraduate program is a sure thing, and if you're lucky, you might even make it into a key university!"

"That's right! That's why I'm so happy!"

"It seems like everyone did well on this test. If that's the case, the admission cutoff scores won't be low either. If this year's college entrance exam questions turn out to be easy too, a higher cutoff score later on might actually work against us!"

Liu Jianjun analyzed the pros and cons of the situation.

Hearing this, Liu Jiefang fell silent. None of them were fools; they deeply understood what such a scenario implied, yet they still struggled to contain their inner joy.

"Should we go ask Xingwu what he got? He's always the top scorer in our class. If we see his score, we can use it as a reference!"

"Good idea!"

With that, the two of them crowded around Yang Xingwu. At that moment, Yang Xingwu was just getting ready to head to the cafeteria for dinner, and when he saw them coming, he greeted them warmly.

"Heading to eat together?"

"No rush. What's your score?"

As soon as Liu Jiefang finished asking, he leaned in closer to Yang Xingwu and recounted the speculation he and Liu Jianjun had just been discussing!

Yang Xingwu wasn't particularly surprised after hearing it. After all, none of them were stupid; once the initial wave of celebration passed and they calmed down, anyone could figure out the school's underlying intentions.

"I had my suspicions too. Last time, I pushed myself to the absolute limit and barely broke 500, but this time I'm suddenly nearing 560!"

Hearing Yang Xingwu's reply, Liu Jianjun and Liu Jiefang instantly felt a bit deflated.

Noticing their reaction, Yang Xingwu quickly pulled the two of them out of the classroom to avoid disturbing the other students.

As the three of them strolled along the playground, Yang Xingwu said:

"Having easier exam questions is actually a good thing. Didn't you notice how much higher everyone's scores are on this mock test?

The school hopes that through this monthly exam, students will gain confidence in the upcoming college entrance exam, which can also boost morale!

Besides, aren't you tempted when you see scores this high?"

"That's true, I've never scored this high before in my life!"

"Me neither. You know, now that you mention it, the atmosphere in our class has improved quite a bit, and it's given a lot of students a glimpse of hope."

Hearing Yang Xingwu's perspective, the other two chimed in one after another.

"There you go. Alright, stop agonizing over it. If they really threw a bunch of insanely difficult problems at you, I bet a lot of people would have a mental breakdown. Come on, it's getting late, let's go grab some food together before the cafeteria runs out!"

"Let's go, let's go!"

During the evening self-study session, Xu Wenhua walked into the classroom.

Seeing that the students were all diligently reviewing, Xu Wenhua looked thoroughly satisfied. As the end of the class approached, he picked up a blackboard eraser, tapped it against the podium, and waited for all the students to lift their heads.

"Listen up, everyone. The monthly exam is over, and the grades have all been handed out. First of all, congratulations to everyone for doing quite well, but remember not to let success go to your heads—a thousand mock exams can never replace the actual college entrance examination!

There is something else I need to talk about now, and I want every single student to take note of it.

With less than half a month left before the college entrance exam, you all know that, according to tradition, it's time to submit your college applications and fill out your preference forms.

In a moment, I'll have the class monitor hand out the *Guide to Filling Out College Entrance Examination Preferences*. Take some time over the next few days to flip through it.

When choosing your preferences, make sure to use your scores from the preliminary college entrance exams as a reference!

Over the next couple of days, you can start selecting schools and majors. If you're unsure about anything, come and ask me!

We'll be handing out the official preference submission forms in two days!

Are there any questions?"

Hearing this, none of the students raised any objections. Seeing this, Xu Wenhua took the class monitor and headed back to the office.

Upon hearing the news, Yang Xingwu was instantly dumbfounded!

"Wait, what is going on here? We're starting to fill out applications and preferences right now? But we haven't even taken the college entrance exam yet!

Aren't you supposed to estimate your scores *after* taking the exam and only fill them out then?"

Yang Xingwu felt utterly bewildered, as none of this matched the original owner's memories.

This left him with a mountain of questions and no idea whom to ask.

Seeing several students in the front row discussing things with great enthusiasm, Yang Xingwu quickly turned to them for guidance.

After hearing Yang Xingwu's questions, the students in front enthusiastically explained the situation to him.

Only then did Yang Xingwu realize that this was yet another consequence of educational reform. The college entrance examination policies of this era changed so rapidly that it was no exaggeration to say they shifted day by day.

The most obvious example was that last year, the multiple-choice questions on the physics paper consisted of both single-correct and multiple-correct options combined, whereas this year, all of them were multiple-choice questions where picking a wrong option not only meant getting zero points, but also incurring point deductions!

Learning about this left Yang Xingwu completely flustered. He didn't even know what university majors existed in this era, yet he was being pushed into the frying pan prematurely?

At the thought of this, a massive headache began to throb behind his temples.

The class monitor, Zhao Dajun, carried a stack of books back from the teachers' office. They were called *Guide to Filling Out College Entrance Examination Preferences*, but calling them books was a stretch—they were more like thin pamphlets. Compared to the thick volumes of later eras, they fell far short in size, but their true weight and value were easily dozens of times higher!

After finishing the distribution of the pamphlets, Zhao Dajun walked over to Yang Xingwu.

"Xingwu, Teacher Xu is calling for you!"

"What does he want with me?"

"Probably about filling out your college preference form! You should go check it out. Your grades are good, so the teacher will definitely want to give you some guidance!"

Thanking the class monitor, Yang Xingwu headed straight for the office.

When he arrived, Xu Wenhua saw Yang Xingwu standing stealthily at the doorway.

"Come on in! What are you lingering out there for?"

"Nothing, just that Dajun said you were looking for me, so I came to see what it's about."

"What else could it be about besides filling out your college preferences? It's certainly not to collect a debt from you, haha!"

Xu Wenhua laughed heartily, leaving Yang Xingwu completely baffled.

"Teacher, what is this about?"

"It's nothing. I just heard Teacher Zhang say that your English has improved a lot, and you're on track to break eighty points on the real exam. I'm very happy for you, but don't slack off now!"

"Don't worry, Teacher, I'll definitely keep working hard!"

"Good to hear. By the way, do you have any ideas yet about filling out your preferences? What do you want to do in the future? Or is there any specific career path you're interested in? Tell me, and I can help you weigh your options."

"Teacher, I haven't quite decided yet. Do you have any recommendations?"

Xu Wenhua wasn't surprised by this answer and immediately shared his own thoughts.

"You scored 472 on the preliminary exam, which surpassed last year's undergraduate cutoff line. If you push a bit harder during the actual college entrance exam, there's a strong chance you could clear the cutoff for a key university. Why don't we give it a shot?"