Chapter 369 Exam Questions Beyond the Syllabus
"Dammit, Horikita!
Don't get too full of yourself!
I'll catch up to your 'count' in no time!"
Kushida Kikyo bared her teeth, issuing a solemn challenge.
"Catch up to me?
That's impossible.
Because I won't be standing still waiting for you."
Horikita Suzune's expression was calm—this was the confidence of being ahead in the "version history."
"Cough, cough— Today is an important exam day.
How about you two talk about something serious?"
Hikigaya's expression was awkward. He had already noticed the strange looks coming from people on the way. Fortunately, the content of their conversation was "encrypted"; an average person wouldn't be able to decipher the true information hidden within.
However, for those who had personally experienced it, they could translate it with a single click.
"Hikki... how could you do this?
Didn't you say last night you wanted to rest early?
As it turns out, you took the chance to hit a home run with Kushida!"
Hasabe Haruka joined the conversation, looking quite displeased.
"Hearing those words... does that mean Hasabe-san also—!"
Horikita Suzune and Kushida Kikyo were momentarily stunned, then immediately shot sharp glares at him.
"Ahem— This sort of thing is a matter of fate."
Hikigaya smiled sheepishly, forcing an explanation: "When the water flows, a channel is formed; it was simply a case of being unable to restrain one's feelings."
"Sophistry!
Hikki, by doing this, aren't you letting Airi down?"
Hasabe Haruka denounced him with righteous indignation.
"The person letting Sakura-san down should be you, shouldn't it?"
Horikita Suzune looked speechless.
"Exactly! Supposed to be best friends, yet you're secretly eating behind her back!"
Kushida Kikyo added with cold sarcasm.
"No! I, I was just..."
Hasabe Haruka stammered, looking very guilty: "I was just helping Airi test things out first!"
"Sinner!"
"Slut!"
Horikita Suzune and Kushida Kikyo criticized her in unison.
"Che! You only talk about me, but what about you guys?"
Hasabe Haruka retorted sharply: "Supposed to be arch-enemies, yet you've ended up 'sharing the same root.'
My, my~ could it be you two will become good sisters in the future?
Then the question is—who is the main wife and who is the mistress?"
The three girls engaged in a war of words, attacking one another. Hikigaya's head throbbed from the noise. Fortunately, it was exam time, so there wasn't much time to argue.
"Now, we will proceed with the first exam.
Your partners will be testing at the same time.
Instead of distracting yourselves wondering how others are doing, you'd better concentrate on doing your own exam well."
Chabashira Sae saw the concern among the Class D students and offered some patient guidance.
'These guys really have no self-awareness...'
In terms of comprehensive grades, the first-years were much better than them. If anyone should be worried, it was the first-years worrying about being dragged down by the second-years.
The exam officially began—
The first session was the Japanese Language written test. After receiving the paper, Hikigaya scanned the questions first.
The modern literature questions at the beginning were all based on classic articles from the textbook; anyone who listened in class could do them easily. The middle section on classical Japanese covered The Tale of Genji; it was a bit difficult but not overly deep.
However, the final section on Classical Chinese (Kanbun) was deep water indeed!
Material 1:
[The Earl of Zheng went to Jin; Zi Taishu acted as his assistant and met Fan Xianzi. Xianzi said: "What of the Royal House?" Taishu replied: "My humble self cannot even care for my own state; how would I dare mention the Royal House? Yet, people also have a saying: 'The widow does not worry about her loom, but worries about the fall of the Zhou Dynasty, for disaster will reach her too.' Now the Royal House is truly in turmoil, and we small states are afraid; yet that is a worry for the great states. What do people like us know? You, sir, should plan for it early."]
Question 1: Please translate the underlined sentence in the material.
Question 2: Analyze the words marked with dots in the material.
'What the hell is this!'
This had already exceeded the textbook and the exam syllabus. This passage was from the Zuo Zhuan: 24th Year of Duke Zhao. For 99% of Japanese people, this was an article they had never even heard of. Hikigaya seriously doubted that even if high school students from China were given this, they would necessarily be able to do it!
By sheer luck, Hikigaya happened to have read the translation of this specific chapter, so it wasn't a big problem for him. But questions that went so far beyond the syllabus meant even top students couldn't necessarily solve them. At most, they'd only score around 80.
The classroom was deathly silent, but the sound of many people gasping for air could be heard. Though everyone wanted to curse the examiners' mothers, exam discipline strictly forbade loud noises, so they had to endure.
Having finally struggled through the Japanese test, the second session was Mathematics.
After scanning the paper, Hikigaya directly gave up on the last two major problems.
Function y(x) satisfies the differential equation:
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} - 2\frac{dy}{dx} + y = xe^x
(1) Find the general solution of this differential equation.
(2) Under the initial conditions y(0)=0, y'(0)=0, find the extreme value of y(x).
(3) For the function y(x) found in (2), find the area of the region enclosed by the curve y=y(x) and the x-axis within the range x \ge 0.
If what you see is a bunch of gibberish... please don't doubt it; that was the actual feedback from Hikigaya's brain.
'Is this crazy?''
Testing differential equations in the second year of high school! Whatever happened to "relaxed education"?
The subsequent exams followed a similar pattern. The first 80 points were from knowledge points within the textbook. As long as one listened in class and completed homework, they were easy. The remaining 20 points were beyond the syllabus; for average students, they were effectively placed below the "execution line" along with the poor students! Only a tiny fraction of top scholars were even qualified to attempt them, and even then, getting a perfect score was difficult; they could only compete for a few points through partial credit in their steps.
The exams were declared over. Most of Class D remained emotionally stable—after all, these people weren't qualified to touch the hard problems from the start. The average students were complaining, feeling their hard work had been cut down. However, the ones who found it most unacceptable were the top scholars.
"Are you kidding me!
Those last two math problems—are those something a high schooler can solve?"
Yukimura Teruhiko was going frantic at his desk. As one of the top students in Class D, it was rare to see him pushed to this point.
"I only managed the first step; I was powerless for the subsequent calculation steps..."
Even Horikita Suzune was shaking her head. One could imagine the sheer difficulty of the math problems.
"There's no need to fight over those few points. The school set the paper this way clearly intending to make things difficult," Hikigaya saw through the examiners' twisted sense of humor.
In short, this exam was a reality show stage specifically arranged for "super-geniuses." Students from the White Room would likely shine brilliantly.
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Results were announced the next day.
1st Place: Ayanokouji Kiyotaka + Housen Kazuomi 2nd Place: Sakayanagi Arisu + Ishigami Kyo 3rd Place: Hikigaya Hachiman + Nanase Tsubasa 4th Place: Katsuragi Kohei + Yagami Takuya
5th Place: Shiina Hiyori + Mitsui Ayumi 6th Place: ...
"Ayanokouji got 100 in Math?"
"How is that possible!"
Yukimura Teruhiko's mental defense shattered instantly. Mathematics was the subject he took the most pride in; a "scholar" in name only could not compete with a true genius. Although the fact that Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was hiding his strength was already well-known, no one expected his true strength to be this terrifying!
'As expected of the masterpiece of the White Room...'
Hikigaya never doubted Ayanokouji's strength. What surprised him was that the man had actually revealed his power without reservation this time. Was he actively issuing a challenge to the other White Room students?
For individual scores, the top three could receive 1,000,000, 500,000, and 300,000 points respectively, while 4th through 10th received 100,000 points. These rewards were merely the icing on the cake for Hikigaya.
Class Total Score Ranking:
Class A: 1st (+200) Class B: 2nd (+100) Class C: 3rd (+50) Class D: 4th (+0)
There wasn't much to say. Although Class D took two of the top three individual spots, they were hindered by the fact that there were too many "pig teammates" in the class. Individual brilliance couldn't change the overall situation of the class total.
It was worth noting that Class B, with so many honor students, didn't have a single pair in the top ten. This meant that all of Class B's honor students were used to rescue the failing first-years. One could only say this was very much Ichinose Honami's style.
Class Point Statistics:
Class A: 1522 Class B: 1132 Class C: 590 Class D: 488
"What a boring exam."
"Are you talking to me?"
During the lunch break in the cafeteria, Sakayanagi Arisu deliberately sat down next to Hikigaya.
"Indeed~ Hachiman-kun gave me quite a surprise this time, taking first place in the Japanese Language subject."
"I just happened to have studied the right material for the questions."
Hikigaya knew his own limits. His math score was a mess, but fortunately, Nanase was capable and pulled up his score significantly. As for other subjects, his grades were merely above average. However, because of the questions beyond the syllabus, even the top scholars were stumped, so the score gap didn't widen much. His advantage in the single subject of Japanese became the breakthrough point that allowed him to surpass other scholars.
"Speaking of which, Miss Arisu, who calls herself a genius, lost to a mass-produced lab product."
Hikigaya deliberately provoked her.
"I cannot refute that."
Sakayanagi Arisu raised an eyebrow, her face still showing some defiance: "I admit, I was careless during this exam."
Of her five subjects, four were nearly identical to Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's. Only in Mathematics did she make an error in the calculation steps, leading to the loss of points on a major problem, which ultimately created the gap.
"However, I will absolutely never acknowledge a so-called 'artificially cultivated' genius!"
Sakayanagi Arisu clenched her small fist, as if swearing some sort of oath.
"Your competitive spirit is a bit too strong, isn't it?"
Hikigaya shrugged noncommittally. As an ordinary high school student, he never intended to compete with people from the White Room. If anything, beating Ayanokouji Kiyotaka in a single subject like Japanese was already an unexpected surprise.
In the end, everyone's grades are just a check on their own learning progress.
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